Paris – Paris (AP) – Gérard Depardieu Once it seemed bigger than France itself. With its huge frame, crooked nose and volcanic charism, it reigned over the cinema for half a century, a national icon as familiar as the baguette.
But this week, the actor starred in more than 230 films, and inspired the writer John Updike to regret: “I think I will never watch a French film without Depardieu,” he sat in a special orthopedic stool in a Paris room.
It faces two positions of sexual assault. If it is guilty, it could face up to five years in prison and a fine of 75,000 euros ($ 81,000).
But more than Depardieu is in trial.
For many in FranceThis case marks the Ultimate Latmus test – A question not only for guilt or innocence, but of preparation. Can a nation famous for its culture of seduction, and for a long time criticized for protecting its male artists, finally holding one of them?
Depardieu, 76, is accused of two women, a dresser and an assistant, during the 2021 filming of “Les Volets Verts” (“Green blinds”). According to complaints and witness statements, he caught a woman with her legs, grabbed her breasts and waist, and shouted: “I can’t even get it for this heat!” Before inviting her crudely to touch her “great umbrella.”
Denies all accusations. “Never, but never, I have abused a woman,” he wrote in Le Figaro. “I have only been guilty of being too loving, too generous or having a very strong temperament.”
But this is the first time that one of the more than 20 accusations against him has reached the Court.
Once a symbol of the creative power of France, Depardieu’s career now shades the delay of the nation with the delayed calculation with #Me too. The Court Chamber has become the scenario of something deeper: a country finally faces the myths that has long been told about art, power and male genius.
Born in 1948 in a working class family in Châteauroux, Depardieu’s rise was a legend. A stuttering teenager without formal education, went to the performance and exploded on the French stage with “Les Valseuses” (“Visits”), a 1974 film so provocative that it remains prohibited in some countries.
From there came a blur of successes: “Jean de Florette”, “Cyrano de Bergerac”, “Green Card”, “The Last Metro” and “Danton”. He won a Golden Globe, an Oscar nomination and the worship of millions. He played Columbus, Jean Valjean and even Obelix in “Asterix” films. It was prolific, omnipresent: messy, magnetic and untouchable.
But the excess was also real off the screen. He shut up his motorcycle while he was drunk, He accepted a Russian passport by Vladimir Putin During a fiscal dispute, and once urinated in a plane hall. He boasted his appetite. France seemed to encourage them.
That myth, of the adorable gross, is now falling apart.
In Hollywood, #MeToo Tappled Titans. In France, the movement found a cautious eye. When #BALANCONPORC (“Expose to your pig”) it emerged in 2017, it shook the country’s self -image, particularly in the arts, where seduction and transgression had been held for a long time.
Some warned that #Metoo was killing romance. In 2018, the screen legend Catherine Deneuve and another 99 prominent French women published an open letter In Le Monde, scolding the movement to go, in his words, “too far.” They defended the Liberté d’os Musterer, “the freedom to bother”, as a pillar of French life, defending the right of men to persecute women without fear of consequences. For many, it sounded less like a flirting defense than A permit for harassmentwrapped in perfume and nostalgia.
Even President Emmanuel Macron echoed the feeling. In December 2023, shortly after a documentary transmitted by images of Depardieu making sexually suggestive comments about a girl in North Korea – Macron defended the actor on national televisioncondemning reaction as a “human hunt.” “Gérard Depardieu is proud of France,” he said.
The comment caused national outrage, not only for the time, but for what it revealed: the instinct of protecting cultural giants, regardless of cost.
The reluctance of France to face inappropriate sexual behavior among its stars has distinguished it for a long time.
Roman Polanski, convicted of legal violation in the United States and accused by several other women, continues to work and live freely in France. In 2020, its The victory of the César award caused strikes – But also a standing ovation. There was little institutional rejection.
In 2022, Johnny Depp was removed from the Disney franchise “Pirates of the Caribbean” after the accusations of domestic abuse of ex -wife Amber (Heart (Heart (Heart (Heart ( It was largely claimed ).
However, in France, he was embraced.
In 2023, he played Louis XV in “Jeanne du Barry”, the opening film at the Cannes French Film Festival. The French fashion house Dior not only kept him as the face of his Sauge fragrance, but signed it with an agreement of several figures for several years in 2022.
The Depardieu test is not the only case that shakes French cinema. In recent months, a series of high profile convictions have suggested that the fame shield can finally be cracking.
In February, director Christophe Ruggia He was convicted of sexually abusing actress Adele Haenel when he was a child.
Director actor Nicolas Bedos was sentenced in 2024 For sexual assault.
The same year, the actor and director Judith Godrèche testified before a parliamentary commission, accusing two recognized directors of exploiting her when she was a teenager. “It’s not about desire,” he told legislators. “It’s about power. About silence. About a system that protects itself.”
That same commission has since convened the main actors, including Jean Dujardin of the fame of “The Artist”. According to the reports, some asked to testify behind closed doors.
Anouk Grinberg, who appeared in “Les Volets Verts”, has publicly supported the two women accusing Depardieu. “What I saw on the set was not seduction,” he said. “It was shameful.”
The case has become a national mirror, which reflects everything that France has tolerated, denied and excused.
On Parisian sidewalks, opinions still diverge. “We are losing our flirting culture,” said Alain Morel, 62, drinking an espresso in a coffee near the Arch of Triumph. “Flirting is not a crime, it is part of who we are.”
But on the other side of the street, the 28 -year -old student Yasmine Bensalem shook her head. “We call it charm,” he said. “But it was always power.”
The trial continues. Depardieu, which has diabetes and heart disease, attends with medical accommodation. His lawyer affirms that the case is a political revenge, a plot to “make Depardieu fall.”
But if it is convicted or not, the deepest trial is already underway.
For decades, France’s artists were seen as untouchable, their genius is a shield. That shield is cracking. The myth is dying. And instead, a question is raised:
Can France finally have your most powerful men to account?
This is not just Depardieu’s trial. This is the judgment of a country, and if its unfinished revolution will finally end.
