French film star Gerard Despardou was convicted in a Paris court on Tuesday on charges of sexually assaulting two women working on the set of the film he starred in in 2021.
The ruling coincided with what prosecutors requested after Depardou's four-day trial in March. The actor was ordered to be on the list of sex offenders.
The judge also determined that Depardieu must pay 15,000 euros, about $17,000 in damages and other 14,040 euros of the two casualties.
Depardieu's lawyer, Jérémie Assous, said his client would appeal the decision.
The woman, a set decorator and assistant director, is working on the 2021 French film “Lesvelets Weltz,” starring DePaldio.
The set decorator, now 54 years old, agrees to be publicly identified only by her name, testified that Mr. Depardieu grabbed her with her waist and pulled her towards him while he sat. He then locked her between his legs and ran his hands over her ass, genitals and breasts, she said, muttering indecently.
The now 34-year-old assistant director testified that the actor touched his chest and butt club three times while walking him from his dressing room to the set in Paris. She has not agreed to be publicly identified.
The judge called the version of the event consistent and was supported by other evidence.
Depardieu, 76, denied sexual assault in both cases.
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He said he can't say he's “vulgar, rude, teasing people” that he's portrayed like the media. “I respect people. I like to help people,” he told the court in March.
However, he also said that he came from another generation and that his gorgeous, overstated, and unappreciative nature is inappropriate for the present era.
From the beginning, it was clear that the trial was about two or more sexual assaults by one of France's most famous film stars. Instead, what happened in the courts was part of a long and overdue consideration of the country's obsession with seduction, the artist's uncritical admiration, and the #MeToo movement's deadlock in France.
Depardieu is considered one of the greatest actors of his generation, appearing in over 230 films, including “Green Card” and “Silano De Bergerac.”
He shot to fame after appearing in the 1974 film “Les Barceus.” There, he played one of two small town thugs who ran wild around France, steal cars, sexually harassing and attacking them. He said the film reflects his hard breeding in central France as a member of a gangster who stole cars and smuggled whiskey and cigarettes.
In 1978 and 1991, Depardieu told two different American film journalists that he was involved in his first gang rape at the age of nine, “There were a lot since then.” He then stated that it was a translation error and was part of the American smear campaign against him. He said he had never raped anyone but had spoken about his sexual experiences.
In France, he was famous for his greater character than he was. He recklessly drove his car and arrived on a drunken movie set. He then hobnobbed alongside dictators like Fidel Castro and Belarus' Alexander G. Lukashenko, abandoning France for Belgium and Russia, avoiding new taxes on the ultra-rich people.
Since his arrival in the country in 2017, he has been at the heart of French debate over the #MeToo movement, with sexual abuse accusations piling up against him. He has vehemently denied the accusations and is publicly defended by many prominent and powerful people in the country.
Depardou has vehemently denied the charges and is publicly defended by many prominent and powerful people across the country.
More than 20 women have accused him of sexual abuse, primarily by speaking to French news outlets, particularly the investigation website Mediapart. Six of those women filed complaints with police. Two of them were removed because they had passed the restriction law.
Among the prominent people who have rushed to defend Depardou over the years are French President Emmanuel Macron.
This was the first lawsuit against Depardou to go to trial.
Three other women in the film and television testified as witnesses during the lawsuit, describing scenes of sexual abuse that they had suffered while working with Depardou in the past.
One of them, Lucille Rider, said the actor attacked multiple times in 2014 when he worked as an assistant to the costume. She said she tugged her behind the curtains and stroked her breasts and genitals whispering.
“I remember saying I had a low voice, but Gerard Depardou doesn't know the words,” she told the court. “This guy is dangerous,” she said. “Everyone around him knows that and they don't do anything.”
Sitting on a cube-like stool during the trial, Depardou published a study on confusion and distraction. He muttered, confused the semi-response, mashing scattered ideas into run-on sentences. Asked about his health, he spoke about Pope John II and St. Augustine. Asked about the woman, he raised French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan and his beloved hospital, Victor Hugo.
At one point, he admitted that he had no idea what the sexual assault was and said he had to be “serious” than putting his hands on a woman's butt club.
He told the court that he came from another generation — he found his indecent banter funny — and he would use vulgar language on set to irritate people and trigger a response.
He announced, as Amélie stated, “probably” it was too hot to get an erection on the set, he said, “but the indecency was not addressed to her.”
That era and his era said his time was over.
“Of course I came from the Old World. I don't know if this new world is interested in me,” he said.
He blamed the #MeToo movement for taking him out of work for three years, saying it was likely to “become terrifying.” However, he also said he believes that releasing a woman's voice is a good thing he “fully accepted.”
Depardieu's lawyer, Assous, became the subject of public debate almost as much as his client during the trial. Assous's court tactics and defence strategies have been accused of “gender discrimination and misogyny” in a newspaper Le Monde opinion article.
At a hearing before the trial, Asas said the two victims were being driven by greed. He also suspended the court dozens of times, screaming that the plaintiff's two female lawyers were “absolute,” “silly” and “hysterical,” and that they were accusing the trial of “Stalinist.”
He both called out the liars of Depardou victims, saying they were not “real victims.” “We don't believe in you,” he said as he finished one cross-examination.
The court admitted that the woman suffered “secondary damage” from Asath's actions during the trial, noting that her right to defense did not justify “outrageous language and humiliation.” The court included in the damages was 1,000 euros for secondary damage.
