FRENCH PROSECUTORS HAVE requested a trial as part of a probe into allegations of rape made against actor Gerard Depardieu.
Depardieu, 75, has been under investigation since 2020, after he was accused by actor Charlotte Arnould of raping and assaulting her at his Paris home on two occasions in 2018.
The probe was initially dropped in 2019, but Arnould sucessfully push for it to be reopened, and Depardieu was charged in December 2020.
Following the in-depth investigation into the rape and sexual assault claims, it will now be up to an investigating magistrate to decide whether he will face trial. The hearing will take place in October.
Arnould’s lawyer Carine Durrieu-Diebolt said the move was “the result of a long investigation which was able to gather evidence corroborating the words of my client”.
Durrieu-Diebolt added that it was “a huge step forward filled with hope” for Arnould, now aged 28.
Depardieu has denied a string of allegations of rape and sexual assault in recent years.
He faces a separate trial in October of this year for allegedly sexually assaulting two different women during a film shoot in 2021.
In January, a former production assistant filed a criminal complaint against him for alleged sexual assaults during a shoot in 2014.
That investigation was closed as the statue of limitations had expired. The same is true of a compaint made by actor Helene Darras that he sexually assaulted her in 2007.
A broader reckoning with sexual assault allegations in French cinema has only slowly been making its way through the justice system since the late 2010s.
Last month, film director Benoit Jacquot, 77, was charged with raping actors Julia Roy, 34, and Isild Le Besco, 41.
The allegations emerged after 52-year-old actor Judith Godreche accused Jacquot of raping her during a years-long relationship in the 1980s, which began when she was 14.
Prosecutors did not charge Jacquot in Godreche’s case because the statute of limitations had expired
Another director, 80-year-old Jacques Doillon, was released from questioning for medical reasons after himself being accused by Godreche of assaulting her when she was underage.
In June, Dominique Boutonnat, the head of France’s National Centre of Cinema (CNC), was given a three-year jail term for sexually assaulting his godson in 2020.
Boutonnat immediately stepped down from leading the country’s top film institution, part of whose role is overseeing measures to curb sexual violence in the industry.
Anti-abuse training has become obligatory for films seeking public funding via the CNC.
With reporting from © AFP 2024.
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