The French cinema star Gérard Depardieu was sentenced by a Paris court on Tuesday on charges of sexually attacked two women who worked on the set of a film in which she was the protagonist in 2021.
The prosecutor had requested a suspended 18 -month sentence and a fine of 20,000 euros, or about $ 22,200, after a four -day trial at the end of March.
The Women – a set decorator and a director's assistant – worked on “Les Voats Verts”, a 2021 French film with Mr. Depardieu.
The decorator of the set, now 54, who agreed to be publicly identified with his name, Amélie, said that Mr. Depardieu grabbed her for life and pulled her towards him while sitting. Then the locked lock between her legs and passed her hands on the buttocks, on the genitals and on the breasts while murmuring obscenity, he said.
The deputy director, now 34, said that the actor touched his breasts and buttocks on three occasions as he walked him from his dressing room to the set of Paris. He did not agree to be publicly identified.
Mr. Depardieu, 76, denied sexual aggressions in both cases, although his history regarding the decorator of the set has moved.
At the beginning, he said he had grabbed his life “to avoid slipping”, but later he said he was “attracting his attention” so that he could admonish it for doing what he believed was a bad job. He said he had never made his hands flow over his body.
As for the second assistant, Mr. Depardieu said that his story was impossible, since he never traveled alone without his bodyguard and was unable to walk so not assisted.
He said it was not the “vulgar person, rude, trash who make fun of people” who was portrayed as in the media. “I respect people. I like to help people,” he told the court in March.
But he also said that he came from a different generation and that his rough, bombastic and unpleasant personality was unsuitable for the current era.
From the beginning, it was clear that the process was about two sexual attacks by one of the most famous cinema stars in France. What happened in court, on the other hand, was part of a showdown for some time late on the obsession of the country for seduction, on the acritical education of its artists and the stall in France of the #Metoo movement.
Mr. Depardieu is considered among the greatest actors of his generation, with mutual in more than 230 films, including “Green Card” and “Cyrano de Bergerac”.
He was at the center of the debate in France for the #Metoo movement from his arrival in the country in 2017, with accusations of sexual abuse that accumulated against him. He vigorously denied the accusations and was publicly defended by important French, including prominent actors and even the president.
More than 20 women have accused him of sexual abuse, mainly talking to the French news, in particular the Mediapart survey website. Six of these women presented complaints with the police – two of whom were abandoned because they had passed the statute of limitations.
This was the first case against Mr. Depardieu to go to the trial.