Judith Godrèche accuses directors Benoît Jacquot and Jacques Doillon of having abused her when she was only a teenager.
An investigation targeting the two filmmakers was opened by the Paris prosecutor's office, we learned on Wednesday February 7.
The actress thus filed a complaint against Benoît Jacquot for acts of “violent rape of a minor under 15 years old by a person in authority” and for “rape of a minor under 15 years old” against Jacques Doillon.
At the microphone of Sonia Devillers on France Inter on Thursday February 8, the 51-year-old actress and director detailed the controlling relationship she experienced with Benoît Jacquot, twenty-five years her senior: “I was so docile, I was indoctrinated, it’s like I joined a cult.”
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Also read “I found myself in his bed, being his child wife”: the chilling revelations of Judith Godrèche about Benoît Jacquot, then about Jacques Doillon
How can influence be built between a director recognized by an entire profession and a young actress?
Can the issues of power, very present in the world of cinema, facilitate such relationships?
And how can we explain that a victim of control testifies so long after the fact?
We interviewed Anaïs Vois, clinical psychologist, psychotraumatologist and specialist in violence against women.
Interview.
Madame Figaro.-
What common traits are found in people who exercise control over someone else?
Anaïs Vois.-
Most of the time, these individuals have lacked narcissistic self-esteem during their lives or have experienced trauma.
Their psychological space is insufficient to understand what they have suffered, they will then “colonize” that of another to fill their discomfort.
This is when the influence is born.
This other is no longer a subject but becomes an object, a sort of medicine, a crutch which allows them to survive, to “stand up”.
How is the right of way built?
The domination of others occurs gradually and begins with manipulation.
This can involve paradoxical injunctions, warnings to the victim such as “don’t be too close to my friends, I’m jealous”, counterbalanced by “it makes me happy that you get along so well with them”.
All of this creates mental confusion which makes the victim vulnerable and therefore easier to dominate.
Once manipulated, it no longer has the psychic space to exist in a singular way.
Even when absent, the dominator is present and influences his way of thinking and acting.
Judith Godrèche was 14 years old at the start of her relationship with Benoît Jacquot, 25 years her senior.
Can young age favor the construction of the right-of-way?
During adolescence, we are in the process of constructing our identity, in “psychological rearrangement”;
our psyche is fragile.
So it is actually “easier” to control a young girl than an older woman.
Are these mechanisms of control more present in the world of cinema which promotes seduction, desire and beauty?
Without falling into generalities, we can assume that image professions attract people weakened by flaws in their identity construction.
And when these people promise a career to a young actress full of hope, mechanisms of power are put in place and allow the influence to be born.
Showing one's power is also one of the strategies of perpetrators of rape or domestic violence.
The sexuality that can result from seduction is also a means of subjugating others, psychologically and physically.
The vulnerability of the intimate favors control.
And gender inequalities too?
Yes, the sexist stereotypes that everyone adopts as they grow up establish a relationship of domination from the start.
The feminine is associated with gentleness and care, the masculine is associated with strength, might and power.
For some men who have been socialized in this way, it is easier to dominate a young girl since the environment tacitly authorizes them to do so.
Also read “The little girl in me can no longer keep silent about this name”: Judith Godrèche denounces the “control” of director Benoît Jacquot during her adolescence
Why is it so difficult to get out of an controlling relationship?
It must be understood that such a relationship does not begin with violence but with seduction and manipulation.
Domination is built gradually.
A victim under the influence also loses all notion of identity, and is therefore psychologically diminished.
Furthermore, when the perpetrator perceives that his victim will escape his control, he generally increases this level of control.
This is often when violence appears.
And the more it is present, the more stunned the victim feels, the less able they are to understand the process in which they are trapped.
In summary, the weapon of mass destruction that is control no longer allows the victim to escape from the relationship, either because they no longer have the strength, or because they no longer know how to who she is apart from the other.
How do we explain that a victim's words are sometimes released several years later?
The influence may not have been identified as such before and recognizing it and admitting to oneself as a victim can be so internally destructive that one represses to protect oneself.
Furthermore, we each have our own psychological temporality, and we may be ready to speak only years later.
Finally, our society is moving, we are communicating more about these control mechanisms.
The MeToo movement, for example, freed the speech of certain victims and allowed others to identify themselves and become aware of what they experienced, a posteriori.