Gérard Depardieu is because of attend court docket in Paris on Monday as his trial on sexual assault costs, associated to occasions alleged to have taken place in 2021 on the set of The Inexperienced Shutters, kicks off this afternoon.
The trial, scheduled to start at 1.30pm native time (5.30 a.m. PT), will look at two separate accusations by a set decorator and an assistant director who say they had been sexually assaulted by Depardieu on the set of Jean Becker’s The Inexperienced Shutters.
Based mostly on the eponymous 1950 novel by Georges Simenon, Depardieu stars within the movie as a tyrannical, celebrated actor on the top of his powers, within the grip of a private disaster.
Monday’s trial follows a rising variety of public allegations of sexually inappropriate habits in opposition to Depardieu, which he denies.
These accusations have destroyed his status as one in all France’s most celebrated actors, recognized internationally for his Oscar-nominated efficiency in Cyrano de Bergerac in addition to his position reverse Andie Macdowell in Peter Weir’s romantic comedy Inexperienced Card.
Monday’s trial will mark the primary time Depardieu is in court docket on official costs of sexual assault.
In line with a report by investigative information web site Mediapart in 2024, the set decorator, named merely as Amélie, recounted that Depardieu had “grabbed her brutally” and “locked her in by closing his legs round her” and “kneed her waist, abdomen, going up her breasts”.
Different crew members who prised the actor off, urged her to lodge an official criticism and the incident was additionally raised with the director Becker, who was additionally supportive of such a transfer, in accordance with her account to Mediapart.
The set decorator, who has since left the cinema business, additionally recounted how she had tried to keep away from contact with Depardieu for the remainder of the manufacturing, however each time their paths crossed, he would give her a darkish look and mutter insults beneath his breath.
In a separate official case, Depardieu additionally faces an official criticism of two acts of rape courting again to 2018 by actress Charlotte Arnould, which continues to be making its manner by the courts some seven years later.
Depardieu has denied the rape allegations and mounting sexual assault accusations in opposition to him, even publishing a letter within the Le Figaro newspaper in October 2023, suggesting his acts had been misinterpreted.
The letter adopted an in depth investigative report by French investigative information web site Médiapart in April 2023, by which 13 girls accused the actor of sexually inappropriate habits.
Two months after the open letter, Depardieu got here beneath additional public scrutiny following the printed of a bombshell version of investigative present Complément d’Enquête, which probed these historic accusations in addition to different acts of inappropriate habits.
Information of Depardieu’s anticipated look was lined by all of French media, which for a very long time didn’t tackle allegations effervescent within the movie business in opposition to him.
Libération newspaper, which has led reporting on the case with Mediapart, signaled the broader implications of the trial.
“Who will probably be tried on March 24 and 25… A person like some other…? A logo? Or a ‘monster’ so sacred for therefore lengthy that it went with out saying that he was far above the legal guidelines and guidelines and accountable to no-one?,” requested the newspaper in a two-page unfold in its Monday version.
