An open letter signed by dozens of actors and other artists in defense of Gerard Depardieu, who faces losing his freedom after being accused of sexual assault, shows how divided France remains over the #Metoo movement.
Actress Nathalie Baye and her colleague Carole Bouquet, ex-partner Depardieu, as well as former first lady Carla Bruni and more than 50 other celebrities presented the actor as a victim of public “lynching”.
Flurry of hatred
In an open letter published this week in the conservative newspaper Le Figaro entitled “Don’t cancel Gerard Depardieu” condemns the uncontrollable “stream of hatred” in which the former Zen Prime Minister drowned.
“We can no longer remain silent in the face of lynching,” the artists wrote. Gerard Depardieu is perhaps the greatest actor. When you attack Gerard Depardieu in this way, you are attacking art.”
Depardieu, 75, who has been in the spotlight since 1974 thanks to the film “Dance of the Corrupt”has been at the center of a scandal for several years due to allegations of harassment and rape.
French cinema refuses to recognize the actions of artists as acts of violence
In March 2022, a rape investigation was officially launched after 28-year-old actress Charlotte Arnoul pleaded guilty to libel. Since then, more than 10 more women have accused the actor of sexual assault.
Depardieu has repeatedly denied the accusations, and so far no convictions have been brought against him. “I have never, ever abused a woman” – he asserted in a letter dated October 2, also published in Le Figaro.
President Emmanuel Macron sided with him in an interview before Christmas. Answering a question about whether the actor should be deprived of France’s highest award, the Legion of Honor medal, Macron condemned “man hunt” against “great actor”
Generation gap
The president’s comments and open letter published Monday outraged feminists and young actresses, who condemned the attempt to silence victims and downplay the #Metoo movement against sexual harassment.
“There is a generation that still does not understand this social evolution,” – Mirielle Roux, vice president of #MeTooMedia, an organization fighting sexism in the media, said in an interview. In the opposite camp, critics of #MeTooMedia speak of a puritanical war motivated by a sense of contempt for men and courtship.
Catherine Deneuve, one of France’s most famous actresses, was one of 100 French women who signed an open letter in 2018 accusing #Metoo of going too far. “We defend the right to molest, it is vital to sexual freedom.” – they wrote.
Earlier in December, state-run France 2 aired a documentary in which Depardieu made vulgar comments about women during a trip to North Korea.
For Berenice Hamidi-Kim, a lecturer at Lumière University Lyon 2, it should come as no surprise that #Metoo originated in the American film industry, where life is uncertain and the lines between reality and fiction are blurred. “There is a real cultural exception in French cinema that refuses to recognize or condemn the actions of artists as acts of violence,” – commented a researcher from Franceinfo radio station.
Depardieu himself told RTL that those who supported him by signing the last open letter were “very brave.”
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