PARS.- A symbol of sexual violence and machismo for some, French national pride for others, the actor Grard Depardieuwhich turns 75 this Wednesday, December 27, has lost its aura of an untouchable icon.
Despite his accusation of rape in 2020, after a complaint from actress Charlotte Arnould, the actor continued to multiply his filming (Lost illusions, The worst job of my life, Maigret…).
He also maintained his position as the sacred monster of French cinema and, except in feminist circles, there was a certain indulgence with him. His strong temperament, often excessive, earned him the sympathy of the public and the profession.
His statements about the rapes in which he participated in his youth cost him his career in the United States in the early 1990s, but had little impact in France.
An actress as popular as Sophie Marceau called him a predator in 2015 for his behavior on set, but those comments went completely unnoticed.
The film industry has turned a deaf ear and has preferred to praise this performer, with more than 200 films for the big screen and television and a presence that gave life to great heroes of French literature, such as Cyrano or Jean Valjean (in The Miserables), without forgetting Oblix or historical figures like Danton.
Parenthesis in the career of Grard Depardieu
But at the end of 2023, the antics of the comedian, who even urinated in an airplane cabin in 2011, are no longer funny. And Depardieu, who had become one of the most divisive artists in France, decided to take a break from his career.
Everything accelerated in less than a month, after the broadcast of a report by the France 2 television network in which he made obscene statements about women, and even about a girl.
The consequences are immediate. Depardieu is stripped of the National Order of Quebec (Canada), he loses his title of honorary citizen of a Belgian commune, the Grévin museum in Paris removes his wax statue… some prominent film figures publicly criticize him, such as the actress Anouk Grinberg.
A pro-Depardieu side is mobilizing: his family, especially his daughter and actress Julie Depardieu, denounces a plot against her father, his ex-partner Carole Bouquet defends the sometimes borderline humor of a man who would be incapable of harming a woman. .
Today, more than fifty cultural figures in France denounced in the newspaper Le Figaro a lynching against the interpreter. Among the signatories are the actresses Nathalie Baye and Charlotte Rampling, the actors Jacques Weber and Pierre Richard and singers such as Roberto Alagna and Carla Bruni.
“Depardieu is probably the greatest of all actors. The last sacred pillar of cinema,” reads the text, described by the feminist collective Nous Toutes as a spit in the face of the victims.
“I think it is a very brave act on the part of the signatories,” the actor reacted today on French radio RTL and added that he was not the manager of this initiative that seeks to defend him, but that he only authorized the author to publish it.
Macron support
The case entered another dimension after the French president, Emmanuel Macron, in the midst of a political crisis due to an immigration law supported by the extreme right, defended the actor.
The centrist president denounced a manhunt and contradicted his Minister of Culture, who had questioned the maintenance of the interpreter’s Legion of Honor. “He has made France, our great authors, our great characters known throughout the world… he fills France with pride,” declared Macron.
Depardieu has a more than peculiar history with his homeland, since he announced at the end of 2012 that he was handing over his passport in protest against taxes on the richest and choosing to go into exile in Belgium, with lower tax rates. An admirer of the most authoritarian leaders, he also has Russian nationality.
At the judicial level, in addition to the accusation of rape, Depardieu, who denies the accusations, was denounced for sexual assault by the actress Hélène Darras, in facts that a priori prescribed. He is also the subject of another complaint in Spain by journalist Ruth Baza, who accuses him of rape in 1995.
Depardieu’s followers defend their right to the presumption of innocence.
“You can accuse someone, there may be victims, but there is also a presumption of innocence that exists,” Macron insisted.
FUENTE: AFP
