The French parliamentarians have criticized the “endemic” abuse in the entertainment sector after an investigation of months on the sexual violence that saw the stars and other actors reveal cases of harassment and assault.
The investigation, directed by the deputy of the feminist green Sandrine Rousseau, was stimulated by accusations of Judith Godreche, who accused two French directors, Benoit Jacquot and Jacques Doillon, of abusing her when she was a teenager. Both deny the charges.
In a conviction final report, seen by AFP Before its launch on Wednesday, the investigation accused the entertainment sector of being a “talent grinding machine” and made 86 recommendations to better protect actors and children on the set.
“Moral, sexist and sexual violence in the cultural sector is systemic, endemic and persistent,” reads Rousseau’s conclusion, who has supervised six months of audiences that saw the testimony of 350 people in the film, theater and television sectors.
The report occurs after the sexual aggression trial last month of the Legend of the Gerard Depardieu screen, who is the highest profile figure to face criminal accusations after the #MeToo movement, which encouraged women to speak against violence.
#Metoo was publicly resisted by some in the French entertainment sector when it first emerged in 2017, including actress Catherine Deneuve, who saw it as an American puritan import that encouraged the accusations without foundation that were issued.
Depardieu, who faces accusations of about a dozen women, was supported by 60 film and art figures in a request of 2023, while President Emmanuel Macron called him an “imposing actor” who “makes France proud.”
The report questions the frequent vision in France that the behavior that breaks the law by the main cultural figures can be excused in the name of art.
“The ‘cultural exception’, but at what price?” The report asks.
“In our country, there is a cult of talent and creative genius,” said Erwan Balaanant, a centrist deputy of the commission AFP.
Saying ‘no’
Some of the largest stars in France agreed to testify parliamentary research, including Juliette Binoche, Jean Dujardin and Pierre Niney, but generally behind closed doors and, sometimes, on the condition that their comments were not made public.
Some of the strongest comments came from Godreche, 53, who criticized “impunity” in the film industry and the “inaction” of their main lights.
“There is not a single person from my past with a role established in the world of cinema and, therefore, in power positions … which has written to me since I spoke,” said the actress who appeared in “The Spanish Apartment”, “The Man in the Iron Mask”, or “Potiche”, which was Depardieu.
The companion actress Sara Forestier described in November how she had repeatedly said “not” the directors who wanted to sleep with her and threatened to remove the roles if she refused.
“Until the day I said ‘not’ too many times, and I paid the price,” he added, recounted how he had to leave a filming in 2017 after he was supposedly slapped by an actor, who was later identified as Nicolas Duvauchelle.
Jean Dujardin, a Oscar winner in 2012 for his turn in “The Artist”, admitted that some male actors could not have denounced abuse in the past, but that the attitudes were changing.
“We don’t see everything, and maybe we don’t want to see,” said Dujardin, 52, according to a transcription published last month.
He added that “we no longer say what we used to say 10 or 15 years ago, and we will not say the same in 10 years … I feel that sexist reactions and clumsy comments are gradually disappearing.”
