This Monday, France looked askance, due to a certain modest restraint by the media, at the police custody to which Gérard Depardieu was subjected to be interrogated, for about ten hours, about the latest cases of alleged sexual assaults.
But after the interrogation, the Paris Prosecutor’s Office indicated in a statement that the actor will be tried next October for an alleged sexual assault committed in September 2021 against two victims during the filming of the film Les volets verts. However, the public ministry did not request Depardieu’s appearance due to the accusations made by another alleged victim for whom he was also questioned yesterday, events that in this case dated back to 2014 during the filming of The Magician and the Siamese Twins.
It has not been easy for French self-esteem to witness the ignominious fall of one of its national icons. Public opinion has already condemned him and there is little desire to delve into the wound until there is a firm conviction after a trial that has been set for October.
Depardieu, 75, was taken into police custody at 8 a.m. after voluntarily appearing to testify. He was technically detained, although only for the purpose of interrogation. Depardieu’s statement concluded after about ten hours, according to his lawyer. The artist left the police station because his preventive detention was not ordered. According to some sources, there would have been a confrontation at the police station with his last two accusers. It was also said that Depardieu showed up with a medical report to avoid sleeping in the police station.
The complaint for which he will be tried was filed by a scene decorator who maintains that, during the filming of Les volets verts, by Jean Becker, in 2021, Depardieu brutally grabbed her and immobilized her between his legs and touched her belly and the breasts. Actress Anouk Grinberg, who participated in the filming, confirmed to Agence France Presse that while the film was being made, from morning to night, the actor indulged in rude behavior. “When producers hire Depardieu in a film, they know they are hiring an attacker,” Grinberg said.
But at the moment there is no progress in the complaint of the alleged victim of the short film The Magician and the Siamese Sisters who claims that Depardieu touched her butt and made obscene comments during filming, in 2014.
The man who embodied Cyrano de Bergerac, Christopher Columbus, Obelix and so many other heroes of history or fiction, is of very humble origins. He lived in poverty. His childhood and youth were turbulent. That foundation influenced his character and the way he behaved, despite his enormous professional success and accumulated wealth. However, he has always categorically denied having abused any women. His family, who defended him publicly in a press forum, thinks the same. They all admit that his manners are inappropriate, the result of an excessive personality in many areas, and his crude comments, although they do not give credibility to the accusations. However, these have accumulated over the years and have led to formal charges of rape.
