French prosecutors said Wednesday they had requested prominent arthouse film director Benoit Jacquot be charged with raping actors Isild Le Besco and Julia Roy in a prominent #MeToo case that has rocked French cinema.
The plea comes after a flurry of allegations against several men in the French filmmaking industry, which critics say has too long provided cover for abuse.
Jacquot and another filmmaker, Jacques Doillon, were summoned for two days of questioning in custody on Monday morning over alleged sexual abuse of much younger actresses who starred in their films, charges both have denied.
Investigators opened a probe after Judith Godreche, 52, earlier this year filed a complaint against Jacquot for allegedly raping her during a relationship of several years that started in the 1980s when she was 14 and he was 25 years her senior.
Prosecutors did not request charges linked to Godreche’s accusations because they were past the statute of limitations, she and her lawyer said.
But they did in the case of two other actors.
Le Besco, 41, had filed a complaint over alleged rape during her own relationship with Jacquot that also started when she was underage.
And Roy, 34, had accused the director 42 years her senior of sexual assault in “a context of violence and moral constraint which lasted several years”, according to a source close to the case. She acted in four of his films that came out between 2016 and 2021.
– ‘I feel heard’ –
Prosecutors asked an examining magistrate to charge Jacquot with “rape, sexual assault and violence” allegedly committed against Roy, likely between 2013 and 2018, the Paris prosecutor’s office said.
They additionally sought charges over “rape of a minor by a person with authority” and “rape by a partner” allegedly committed against Le Besco, likely between 1998 and 2000, and then in 2007.
They asked that Jacquot, who spent two nights in custody, be freed but kept under judicial supervision.
Jacquot’s lawyer Julia Minkowski did not wish to comment, but on Monday had stressed her client was innocent until proven guilty.
Godreche said on Instragram that she felt “heard”, even though her own case did not yield charges.
Her attorney Laure Heinich, said she had noted the request to charge Jacquot “over acts of the same nature as those committed against Judith Godreche, which in her case are past the statute of limitations”.
Roy and Le Besco’s lawyers did not immediately comment.
The other director, 80-year-old Doillon, was released on Tuesday evening “for medical reasons”, the prosecutor’s office said, adding it still had to decide on follow-up measures.
His attorney declined to comment.
Godreche had accused Doillon of sexually assaulting her during a film shoot when she was 15.
Le Besco claimed he made advances during work sessions and another actor, Anna Mouglalis, 46, alleged the filmmaker forcefully kissed her in 2011.
– ‘Part of a system’ –
Le Besco in May said she did not expect her complaint to lead anywhere, but it showed Jacquot acted with her “as he did with other young women” and that the abuse was “part of a system”.
Godreche has become a leading voice in France’s #MeToo movement since she accused Jacquot of grooming and abusing her as a teenager.
After she appealed for a cinema oversight body, French lawmakers in May voted to create a commission to investigate sexual and gender-based violence in the cultural sectors.
Rare cases have advanced through the judicial system.
The head of France’s top cinema institution, Dominique Boutonnat, stepped down on Friday after he was convicted of sexually assaulting his godson in 2020. He will be serving a one-year jail term at home.
Screen icon Gerard Depardieu, 75, is to stand trial in October, accused of sexually assaulting two women.
The actor, whose prolific career includes 1990 rom-com “Green Card”, was also charged in 2020 with raping a much younger actress in 2018.
He denies all charges.
According to one recent study, 94 percent of legal complaints over alleged rape were dismissed in France between 2012 and 2021, mostly for being “insufficiently specified”.
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