Paris – Paris (AP) – Gérard Depardieu Once it seemed bigger than France itself. With its huge frame, crooked nose and volcanic charism, it reigned over the cinema for half a century, a national icon as familiar as the baguette.
But this week, the actor starred in more than 230 films, and that he inspired the writer John Updike A regret: “I think I will never watch / a French film without Depardieu,” sat on a special orthopedic stool in a Paris room.
It faces two positions of sexual assault. If it is convicted, it could face up to five years in prison and a fine of € 75,000 ($ 81,000).
But more than Depardieu is in trial.
For many in FranceThis case marks the Ultimate Latmus test – A question not only for guilt or innocence, but of preparation. Can a nation famous for its culture of seduction, and for a long time criticized for protecting its male artists, finally holding one of them?
Depardieu, 76, is accused of two women, a dresser and an assistant, during the 2021 filming of “Les Volets Verts” (“Green blinds”). According to complaints and witness statements, he caught a woman with her legs, grabbed her breasts and waist, and shouted: “I can’t even get it for this heat!” Before inviting her crudely to touch her “great umbrella.”
Denies all accusations. “Never, but never, I have abused a woman,” he wrote in Le Figaro. “I have only been guilty of being too loving, too generous or having a very strong temperament.”
But this is the first time that one of the more than 20 accusations against him has reached the Court.
Once a symbol of the creative power of France, Depardieu’s career now shades the delay of the nation with the delayed calculation with #Me too. The Court Chamber has become the scenario of something deeper: a country finally faces the myths that has long been told about art, power and male genius.
Born in 1948 in a working class family in Châteauroux, Depardieu’s rise was a legend. A stuttering teenager without formal education, went to the performance and exploded on the French stage with Les Valseuses (Going Places), a 1974 film so provocative that it remains prohibited in some countries.
From there came a blur of successes: “Jean de Florette”, “Cyrano de Bergerac”, “Green Card”, “The Last Metro”, “Danton”. He won a Golden Globe, an Oscar nomination and the worship of millions. He played Columbus, Jean Valjean and even Obelix in “Asterix” films. It was prolific, omnipresent: messy, magnetic and untouchable.
But the excess was also real off the screen. He crashed his motorcycle while he was drunk, he accepted a Russian passport by Vladimir Putin during a fiscal dispute, and once urinated in a plane hall. He boasted his appetite. France seemed to encourage them.
That myth, of the adorable gross, is now falling apart.
In Hollywood, #MeToo Tappled Titans. In France, the movement found a cautious eye. When #Balancetonporc (“Exposé Your Pig”) emerged in 2017, shook the country’s self -image, particularly in the arts, where seduction and transgression had been held for a long time.
Some warned that #Metoo was killing romance. In 2018, the legend of the Catherine Deneuve screen and another 99 prominent French women published an open letter in Le Monde, scolding the movement to go, in their words, “too far.” They defended the Liberté d’os Musterer, “the freedom to bother”, as a pillar of French life, defending the right of men to persecute women without fear of consequences. For many, it sounded less like a flirting defense than a slip of permission for harassment, wrapped in perfume and nostalgia.
Even President Emmanuel Macron echoed the feeling. In December 2023, shortly after a documentary transmitted by images of Depardieu making sexually suggestive comments about a girl in North Korea, Macron defended the actor on national television, condemning the reaction as a “human hunt.” “Gérard Depardieu is proud of France,” he said.
The comment caused national outrage, not only for the time, but for what it revealed: the instinct of protecting cultural giants, regardless of cost.
The reluctance of France to face inappropriate sexual behavior among its stars has distinguished it for a long time.
Roman Polanski, convicted of legal violation in the United States and accused by several other women, continues to work and live freely in France. In 2020, his victory of the César award caused strikes, but also a standing ovation. There was little institutional rejection.
Johnny Depp, abandoned from American production “Pirates of the Caribbean” after the accusations of domestic abuse by ex -wife Amber Heard (was exonerated), was accepted in France. In 2023, he played Louis XV in “Jeanne du Barry”, the opening film at the Cannes French Film Festival. In the midst of the trial, Dior, the luxurious French fashion house, not only kept him as the face of his Sauge fragrance, signed it with a seven -year -old seven -year -old agreement in 2022.
The Depardieu test is not the only case that shakes French cinema. In recent months, a series of high profile convictions have suggested that the fame shield can finally be cracking.
The director Christophe Ruggia was sentenced in 2024 for sexually abusing actress Adèle Haenel when she was a child. Nicolas Bedos received house arrest in 2023 after several women.
The actor and director Judith Godrèche soon followed it. Tyling before Parliament, he accused two directors of the renowned of exploiting it when he was a teenager. “It’s not about desire,” he told legislators. “It’s about power. About silence. About a system that protects itself.”
That same commission has since convened the main actors, including Jean Dujardin. According to the reports, some asked to testify behind closed doors.
Anouk Grinberg, who appeared in Les Volets Varts, has publicly supported the two women accusing Depardieu. “What I saw on the set was not seduction,” he said. “It was shameful.”
The case has become a national mirror, which reflects everything that France has tolerated, denied and excused.
On Parisian sidewalks, opinions still diverge. “We are losing our flirting culture,” said Alain Morel, 62, drinking an espresso in a coffee near the Arch of Triumph. “Flirting is not a crime, it is part of who we are.”
But on the other side of the street, the 28 -year -old student Yasmine Bensalem shook her head. “We call it charm,” he said. “But it was always power.”
The trial continues. Depardieu, which has diabetes and heart disease, attends with medical accommodation. His lawyer affirms that the case is a political revenge, a plot to “make Depardieu fall.”
But if it is convicted or not, the deepest trial is already underway.
For decades, France’s artists were seen as untouchable, their genius is a shield. That shield is cracking. The myth is dying. And instead, a question is raised:
Can France finally have your most powerful men to account?
This is not just Gérard Depardieu’s trial. This is the judgment of a country, and if its unfinished revolution will finally end.
