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Adéle Haenel and #MeToo in France: "I owe it to everyone who has already spoken"

2019-11-08T05:34:49.868Z


"A testimony like a punch": The actress Adèle Haenel accuses the director Christophe Ruggia to have sexually harassed her as a child.



Adèle Haenel is often in front of the camera. But the French actress's latest appearance is so different from anything she's ever heard or heard of her: Haenel wears a white, simple pullover with a high collar. She does not smile. She does not cry. And she speaks as if every word stuck in her throat.

In Filmland France, the # MeToo debate has so far drifted by without any consequences. But that is changing. Thank Adèle Haenel.

"The personal suffering released for autopsy"

"For the first time in French cinema, a well-known and acclaimed actress has decided to testify, indict and release her personal suffering for autopsy - for the common good," writes the influential Parisian film and TV magazine Télérama.

The magazine's praise is one of the currently most striking French actresses. In Germany, the 30-year-old is currently in the movie "Portrait of a young woman in flames" in theaters. Haenel plays one of the two main roles that earned her another nomination for the French Film Prize. She has already won the César twice, first as a minor, then as a leading actress.

Most Haenel plays the role of outsiders. Masterful. In real life, she is in the limelight.

Her words get under your skin

"I lead a comfortable life," she says in an introductory video interview with the French investigative portal Mediapart on Monday of this week. So it's her responsibility to talk. "I owe it to everyone who's talked," says Haenel. And what she has to say goes deep under the skin.

She tells how she was sexually molested at the age of 12 to 14 by Christophe Ruggia, the director of her first film "Little Devil" in 2002, for more than three years. Ruggia was 36 years old at the time. He patted her thighs. He kissed her neck. He just kept touching her. No one else would have needed it - neither on set nor later, when they were promoting "Little Devils" together at festivals and conferences. Ruggia shielded Haenel from everyone else and was the only one to visit her hotel rooms. Other employees have disturbed and outraged this. But nobody raised the obvious problem.

"The world has changed"

Francois Guillot / AFP

Director Christophe Ruggia denies the allegations

Why is she telling this story just now? "The world has changed," says Haenel.

Haenel's statement is supported by numerous witnesses. Médiapart researched for seven months before the first publication of the allegations on Sunday and evaluated, inter alia, letters from Ruggia to Haenel. In addition, the journalists spoke to 36 people who testify to Ruggia's inappropriateness with Haenel. Of them, 23 will be cited by name in a large report. All the statements agree on one point: The adult man was too close to the then child Haenel, often embarrassing for those involved.

imago stock & people

Adèle Haenel in the movie "The Devils" (2002)

The director denies the allegations. After he initially did not respond to the investigations of Médiapart, he now gave a detailed opinion on his lawyers. He had behaved as "Pygmalion". Ruggia wanted to promote the young actress in particular, let the lawyers align. He sees himself facing the media pillory. And yet he writes that he apparently did not notice then that his "admiration" for Haenel could have arrived quite differently with her even because of her young age and "was painful in some moments". "If that's the case, and if she can accept that, then I ask her to forgive me."

"Your courage is a gift"

Haenel does not want to sue Ruggia. But the facts seem so clear that the Paris prosecutor already on Wednesday, on its own initiative began investigation against the director. The French company of filmmakers launched an exclusion case on Monday against Ruggia. He was until recently several times elected vice-president of the prestigious company.

Renowned French women praise Haenel for their openness. First of all, Justice Minister Nicole Belloubet, who proves Haelen's courage - and asks the actress to trust justice and lead a lawsuit. Others, such as colleague Julie Gayet, who is in contact with ex-President Francois Hollande, express their understanding that Haenel does not want to argue in court. She has "great admiration for Adèle Haenel, who speaks for all those who are in the shadow". Marion Cotillard, known in this country for her embodiment of Édith Piaf, has thanked Haenel on Instagram for her testimony: "Your courage is a gift of unparalleled generosity." Haenel wrote history.

Check out this post on Instagram

Adèle Ton courage est un cadeau d'une générosité sans pareil pour les femmes et les hommes, pour les jeunes actrices et acteurs, pour tous les être abimés qui savent maintenant grâce à toi qu'ils n'ont pas a subir cette violence. Et pour ceux qui l'ont subie, qu'ils peuvent parler, ils seront écoutés et entendus. Tu brises un silence si lourd. Ton témoignage est d'une puissance inouïe. Il résonne profondément. Chère Adèle, Tu marques l'histoire. L'histoire de cette révolution libératrice. Notre histoire et celle de nos enfants. J'ai une gratitude infinie envers toi.

A post shared by @ marioncotillard on Nov 5, 2019 at 9:26 PST

In fact, the many prominent voices are an important step for Haenel.

After the #Metoo movement in the fall of 2017, the number of reported rapes in France also increased by 30 percent over the previous year. But the French film world shone on the subject mainly by silence.

Prod.DB / imago images

"Potrát of a young woman in flames": Adèle Haenel (right) with film partner Noémie Merlant

When celebrities talked - they usually kept to the men. For example, film diva Catherine Deneuve, with 99 other women more than a year ago, had written an appeal against the "media lynch law" that men face today. Later, Deneuve apologized to victims of sexual harassment and rape.

Adèle Haenel has opened a new chapter. It was not for revenge or a punishment Ruggias, assures the 30-year-old. "I understand, my story is not private, but public."

Her compelling interview is a wake-up call for the French public that has so far centered the seriousness of #MeToo in the US, but not at home. In the main news in the popular French broadcaster BFM it was said about Haenels words: "A testimony like a punch." Already on Tuesday, the Paris newspaper "Libération" wrote about the actress' one-hour video interview: "Haenel has changed the face of French cinema and French feminism in just one hour."

Source: spiegel

All life articles on 2019-11-08

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