Gérard Depardieu once seemed larger than France itself. With his hulking frame, crooked nose, and volcanic charisma, he reigned over cinema for half a century — a national icon as familiar as the baguette.
But this week, the actor who starred in more than 230 films — and who inspired writer John Updike to lament, “I think that I shall never view / a French film without Depardieu” — sat slumped on a special orthopedic stool in a Paris courtroom.
