cannes – Before Judith Godreche started the #MeToo wave in the French industry, she was one of the first high-profile actors to take on Harvey Weinstein.
Godreche was 24 years old and attending the Cannes Film Festival for the premiere of the film “Mockery.” Weinstein, who had just acquired the film, invited her to his suite at the Hotel du Cap to discuss her possible Oscar campaign. Mr. Weinstein told the New York Times in 2017 that he forced himself on her and that she fled.
That was in 1996. Godreche is now at another critical juncture in the #MeToo movement in Cannes. Godreche premiered his poignant short story “Moi Aussi” (“Me Too”) on Wednesday, months after he claimed he was sexually abused by two prominent filmmakers when he was a teenager. did.
“It means a lot to me to be there because that's where Harvey tried to rape me,” Godreche said in an interview. “But to be honest, there are a lot of places in the world and a lot of movie sets and places and moments in my acting career that weren't OK. If I had ever experienced anything related to filmmaking… If I always looked at the world only through this perspective, I would just run away and stop.”
Instead, Mr. Godreche has emerged as a leading figure in France's #MeToo movement. In February, Mr. Godreche officially accused director Benoît Jacot of “rape in custody” and director Jacques Doillon of “rape with violence” during the production of 1989's “The 15 Year Old Girl.” did. Both men deny the charges.
The allegations were a new shock to the industry in France, which has resisted the #MeToo movement. France's Culture Minister Rashida Dati criticized the country's films for “decades of collective turning a blind eye” to sexual violence. At the César Awards, France's equivalent of the Oscars, director Godreche asked the audience: “Can we see the truth with our own eyes?”
Cannes organizers are bracing for further revelations during the festival, as more women have come forward in the wake of Godreche's strong statements.
“It's great that women are now speaking up,” actor Léa Seydoux told reporters in Cannes on Wednesday. “Things are clearly changing and the time has come.”
Godreche found himself hailed as a hero by many, while criticized as a “puritan” by others.
“This is a really strange time for me,” Godreche said. “So many hatreds and strange fantasies are projected onto me. People look at me like I'm radioactive.”
After Godreche came forward with the accusations against Jacot and Doillon, she created an email address as a repository for survivors of sexual abuse. Within 15 days, she received about 5,000 testimonies. On March 23, about 1,000 posters gathered on a Parisian boulevard.
Godreche, 52, dedicated the gathering to “Moi Aussi,” which is dedicated to “all those who could one day tell their stories” and “all those who still live in silence.” changed. The film was scheduled to premiere Wednesday night at the opening ceremony of Cannes' Un Certain Regard sidebar.
Director Godreche walked the festival's red carpet earlier in the day with the film's collaborators ahead of the premiere of Furiosa: The Mad Max Saga. They stood together on the steps of the Palais des Festivals, their hands covering their mouths.
Cannes has seen some dramatic demonstrations of women in film in recent years. At the 2018 Time's Up event, 82 women, including Cate Blanchett and Kristen Stewart, stood on the steps of the Palais in protest. The following year, Cannes artistic director Thierry Frémaux signed the Gender Equality Pledge at a rally.
But such moments are an outlier in France. In 2018, Catherine Deneuve signed an open letter published in Le Monde newspaper arguing that the #MeToo movement has gone too far. In 2020, when Roman Polanski won the Best Director award at the César Film Festival, actor Adele Haenel (who announced in the same year that she had been sexually harassed by French director Christophe Lejat from the age of 12 to 15) attended the award ceremony. I left the room. Mr. Ruggia denies the charges. Last year, Haenel said she was quitting the French film industry completely, citing “complacency with sexual predators.”
Polanski was charged with raping a 13-year-old girl in 1977 and pleaded guilty to a lesser charge, but he remains wanted in the United States decades after fleeing before sentencing. .
“We have a way of idealizing writers, protecting them and putting them on an untouchable pedestal,” Godreche says of France's attitude to cinema. “Defining the filmmaker as a writer allows him to be recognized as a genius and to be above laws and norms.”
The French film industry is also reeling from multiple sexual misconduct accusations against internationally known Gerard Depardieu. The 75-year-old actor is scheduled to go on trial in October for allegedly sexually assaulting two women on the set of a movie in 2021. Depardieu denied it.
Asked what needs to change, Godreche struggles to define the scope of the problems, which he believes are sewn into the fabric of French filmmaking.
“A lot of things need to happen in France. I'm not the first and I hope I'm not the last,” she says.
While making “Moi Aussi,” Godreche wanted to change some of the dynamics he was accustomed to on film sets.
“I didn't want to be part of the film hierarchy,” she says. “It's like Cannes. When you're on set, it becomes very clear what the hierarchy is. It's a kind of aristocracy.”
“Moi Aussi” is a choral expression of the multi-step process of coming forward with a sexual abuse experience. And in many ways, it represents Godreche's own experience.
“I've been trying to understand what happened to me. It's a strange journey. As an actress, I believe that I have been a muse in many ways throughout my life. I have been silent in many ways. “I’ve been forced into it,” she says. “I never allowed myself to fully accept that I was allowed to create my own world and write my own films.”
When asked if he was glad he came forward, Godreche said with a sigh, “Oh, I'm really happy.”
“I don't feel safe. It doesn't mean I'm happy, and some days I feel completely terrified and extremely overwhelmed by the force of the backlash,” Godreche said. added. “But I'm really happy about this decision because I believe there are millions of people out there who want some type of justice for their children and young women.”
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Associated Press writer Thomas Adamson in Paris contributed to this report.
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