Prominent director targeted in French cinema’s #MeToo wave charged with rape, assault of actors

PARIS — A prominent French film director has been preliminarily charged with rape, sexual assault and violence by a French judge investigating a case involving actresses, the Paris prosecutor’s office said Thursday.

Benoît Jacquot, who has more than 50 credits as a film and television director since the 1970s, has become one of the most prominent figures in cinema. A late reckoning in the French film industry and beyond sexual violence and physical abuse.

French actress Judith Godrèche, who alleges that Jacquot raped and physically abused her in a six-year relationship that began when she was 14, has assumed a leading role when starting the #MeToo wave. The movement struggled to gain momentum before she spoke publicly earlier this year and encouraged other actors to do so.

Paris prosecutors said the judge investigating allegations against Jacquot made by actor Isild Le Besco and another actor The Associated Press is not naming handed him a series of preliminary charges on Wednesday after he was detained earlier this week for a police interrogation. In France, these charges are brought when a magistrate has determined that there is serious and accumulating evidence indicating that crimes may have been committed, allowing for further investigation before making a decision on whether to prosecute.

The AP typically does not identify victims of sexual assault. Le Besco, 41, has already spoken publicly on French television and other media and in a book about her relationship with the director that began when she was a teenager and who is 35 years her senior.

A statement from the prosecutor’s office said Jacquot was charged with the alleged rape of Le Besco when she was a minor, over a two-year period beginning in 1998. Jacquot was also named an assisted witness, a special status under French law, for the alleged rape. of Le Besco by a partner over a period of 10 months in 2007.

The AP could not confirm that the other actor named by the Paris prosecutor’s office as another alleged Jacquot rape victim consented to be publicly identified. The actor’s lawyer, Margot Pugliese, did not immediately respond to written and telephone requests for comment.

Prosecutors said Jacquot was accused of allegedly raping the actor over a year in 2013, when they were in a relationship. They also filed charges for alleged sexual assault against the actor when they were still together in 2018 and for alleged violence against her in 2018 and 2019.

Jacquot was also named as an assisted witness in the alleged rape of that actor by a couple from 2014 to 2018, prosecutors said.

Jacquot will remain free pending further investigation, but was ordered to undergo psychological treatment, prosecutors said. She is also prohibited from contacting her alleged victims and witnesses. He also cannot work as a director or in any position with minors. He was also ordered to pay bail of 25,000 euros ($27,000).

Jacquot, 77, has previously denied the allegations against him. In a statement that did not directly address the charges filed, Jacquot’s lawyer, Julia Minkowski, said the case has suffered from media overexposure and that the director did not have access to evidence when he was questioned by police. although French law allows that to happen “in cases of flagrant violations of the presumption of innocence.”

“The investigation is in an embryonic phase and it was especially premature to present it before an investigating judge,” the lawyer’s statement states.

He condemned the ban preventing Jacquot from working as a director, which also includes restrictions on his public appearances.

“More than a professional ban, this is a true judicial cancellation measure, based on an embryonic investigation prior to any sentence. Obviously we are going to appeal,” he stated.

Another French director, Jacques Doillon, 80, was also questioned by police but was later released for medical reasons, the Paris prosecutor’s office said.

Godrèche accused Doillon of sexual abuse while directing a film when she was 15 years old. Doillon has previously denied the allegation.