Movie legend to face trial in Paris for alleged sexual assault of two ladies throughout a 2021 movie shoot.
French movie legend Gerard Depardieu is ready to go on trial in Paris on Monday for accusations of sexually assaulting two ladies throughout a movie shoot in 2021.
Depardieu, 76, who has made greater than 200 movies and tv sequence, has been accused of improper behaviour by about 20 ladies however that is the primary case to come back to trial which is able to start Monday. He has persistently denied any wrongdoing.
Depardieu’s lawyer, Jeremie Assous, stated on Friday that the case was based mostly on “false accusations” in opposition to his shopper, including that the film star was anticipated to attend the two-day trial after an preliminary listening to was postponed as a result of his in poor health well being.
Prosecutors say the assaults came about in the course of the filming in 2021 of Les Volets Verts (The Inexperienced Shutters).
They accuse Depardieu of groping one of many ladies on the movie set, pulling her in direction of him and trapping her together with his legs earlier than touching her waist, hips and breasts whereas saying obscene phrases. Three folks witnessed the scene, prosecutors say.
They are saying the second lady was groped by Depardieu on set and on the street. The ladies’s identities haven’t been revealed.
The alleged assaults occurred whereas Depardieu was below formal investigation over accusations of raping a younger actress in 2018. A trial has been requested by prosecutors within the case.
Depardieu’s trial might be the very best profile #MeToo case to come back earlier than the courts in France, the place the protest motion over sexual violence has struggled to realize the identical traction as in america.
In February, a French courtroom discovered movie director Christophe Ruggia responsible of sexually abusing actress Adele Haenel when she was underage.
French director and actress Judith Godreche, who like Haenel has turn into a significant voice in France’s #MeToo motion, stated these trials confirmed some progress.
“One of many nice issues that’s occurring is that ladies who’re speaking in opposition to very highly effective males are largely not thought-about loopy any extra,” she advised the Reuters information company over the cellphone.
Nonetheless, Godreche stated it’s nonetheless unusual for males to talk up within the French cinema business.
