Film legend to face trial in Paris for alleged sexual assault of two women during a 2021 film shoot.
French film legend Gerard Depardieu is set to go on trial in Paris on Monday for accusations of sexually assaulting two women during a film shoot in 2021.
Depardieu, 76, who has made more than 200 films and television series, has been accused of improper behaviour by about 20 women but this is the first case to come to trial which will begin Monday. He has consistently denied any wrongdoing.
Depardieu’s lawyer, Jeremie Assous, said on Friday that the case was based on “false accusations” against his client, adding that the movie star was expected to attend the two-day trial after an initial hearing was postponed due to his ill health.
Prosecutors say the assaults took place during the filming in 2021 of Les Volets Verts (The Green Shutters).
They accuse Depardieu of groping one of the women on the film set, pulling her towards him and trapping her with his legs before touching her waist, hips and breasts while saying obscene words. Three people witnessed the scene, prosecutors say.
They say the second woman was groped by Depardieu on set and in the street. The women’s identities have not been revealed.
The alleged assaults occurred while Depardieu was under formal investigation over accusations of raping a young actress in 2018. A trial has been requested by prosecutors in the case.
Depardieu’s trial could be the highest profile #MeToo case to come before the courts in France, where the protest movement over sexual violence has struggled to gain the same traction as in the United States.
In February, a French court found film director Christophe Ruggia guilty of sexually abusing actress Adele Haenel when she was underage.
French director and actress Judith Godreche, who like Haenel has become a major voice in France’s #MeToo movement, said these trials showed some progress.
“One of the great things that is happening is that women who are talking against very powerful men are mostly not considered crazy any more,” she told the Reuters news agency over the phone.
However, Godreche said it is still uncommon for men to speak up in the French cinema industry.