When the actor Gérard Depardieu took the stand at his sexual assault trial in Paris this week, it was seen as a turning point for the #MeToo movement in France.
As a parliamentary commission examines why the French film industry has been slow – even resistant – to take women’s claims of abuse seriously, Depardieu, the nation’s biggest film star, faced accusations that he trapped a set decorator between his legs and sexually assaulted her while shooting the film Les Volets verts (The Green Shutters) in 2021. He is also accused of touching the breasts and buttocks of an assistant director on the same film on three separate occasions. Depardieu, 76, has denied all the charges, telling the court he had been “dragged through the mud by calumny and lies”.
