When Gérard Depardieu walks into a courtroom in Paris on Monday, he won’t just be facing two women accusing him of sexual assault.
The French actor will also face a nation which has long been criticised for its response to sexual violence, particularly when committed by its most powerful figures.
Mr Depardieu is charged with assaulting a set dresser and an assistant director during the filming of Les Volets Verts (The Green Shutters) in 2021.
More than 20 women have publicly accused the 76-year-old of sexual misconduct in the past, but this is the first time a case has gone to trial against him.
It is also the most prominent case in the post-#MeToo era in France. It will test whether a country famed for its culture of seduction is prepared to hold its cultural giants to account.
Prosecutors say Mr Depardieu trapped one of the women with his legs before groping her in front of witnesses.
In an interview with Mediapart, the 54-year-old set dresser said Mr Depardieu made lewd comments, grabbed her forcefully, and had to be pulled away by bodyguards.
A second woman, a 34-year-old assistant director, alleged she was groped both on set and in the street.
Mr Depardieu has denied all the allegations.
In an open letter published in Le Figaro in October 2023, he wrote: “Never, but never, have I abused a woman. To think that I have hurt someone or made them feel uncomfortable is intolerable to me.”
He added, “I have only ever been guilty of being too loving, too generous, or of having a temperament that is too strong.”
His lawyer, Jérémie Assous, called the case baseless. He said Mr Depardieu, who recently underwent a quadruple bypass and has diabetes, will attend the two-day trial, reportedly with breaks scheduled to accommodate his health condition.
A culture slow to confront abuse
France has often been ambivalent, even resistant, toward the #MeToo movement. While Hollywood saw powerful men fall swiftly and publicly, the French film industry was slower to respond.
Some dismissed #MeToo as an American export incompatible with French values, citing concerns over free expression and what they viewed as an erosion of flirtation culture.
Roman Polanski, convicted in the United States of unlawful sex with a minor and accused by several other women, continues to live and work in France with near-total impunity. Despite international outcry, he remains a decorated figure in French cinema.
His 2020 César Award for Best Director – for An Officer and a Spy – prompted several women, including actress Adèle Haenel, to walk out of the ceremony in protest.
Yet the industry offered little institutional pushback, highlighting a deep-rooted reluctance to confront abuse when it involves revered cultural figures.
In February, director Christophe Ruggia was convicted of sexually abusing Haenel when she was a child. The actress, who had already quit the film industry in protest, has become one of the country’s most prominent voices on abuse.
Judith Godrèche, an actor and filmmaker, has also emerged as a leading figure. In February 2024, in a televised testimony, she addressed a French parliamentary commission, accusing directors Benoît Jacquot and Jacques Doillon of sexually exploiting her as a teenager.
Both men deny the allegations.
“This is not about desire or love,” she told lawmakers. “It is about power. It is about a system that enables silence.”
That same commission has called major actors and producers – including Jean Dujardin – to testify. Several reportedly requested that their appearances be held behind closed doors.
Witnesses and whispers
Anouk Grinberg, a respected actor who appeared in Les Volets Verts, has publicly supported the plaintiffs. She described Mr Depardieu’s behavior as vulgar and disturbing, saying she felt “a sense of shame” on set.
At the time of the alleged 2021 assaults, Mr Depardieu was already under formal investigation for rape. In 2018, actor Charlotte Arnould accused him of raping her at his home. That case is still active, and in August 2024, prosecutors requested it go to trial.
Over a career spanning five decades, Mr Depardieu starred in more than 200 films, including Cyrano de Bergerac, Jean de Florette, Green Card and The Man in the Iron Mask. But his off-screen controversies have long made headlines, from drunk driving to urinating in the aisle of a plane.
A 2023 France Télévisions documentary, La Chute de l’Ogre (The Fall of the Ogre), reignited debate about his impunity. It showed footage of the actor during a 2018 trip to North Korea, making sexually inappropriate remarks to a female interpreter and appearing to sexualise a young girl riding a horse.
For decades, behaviour like this was dismissed as part of his larger-than-life persona. Today, that legacy is under direct challenge.
Resistance in a country famed for seduction
Ms Godrèche, who told lawmakers she was 14 when Mr Jacquot first exploited her, has called for reforms to France’s statute of limitations on child sex crimes and new protections for minors in the arts.
Her testimony, alongside those of other survivors, has brought rare political attention to a culture of silence that many say pervades French cinema.
Still, resistance remains.
In 2018, actor Catherine Deneuve and more than 100 prominent French women signed an open letter in Le Monde newspaper defending what they called a “freedom to bother”.
The letter argued that flirtation should not be conflated with harassment and warned against American-style puritanism.
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