Anny Dupeyrey stands in opposition to the #MeToo wave which has engulfed French cinema since Judith Godrèche spoke out against the directors Jacques Doillon and Benoît Jacquot against whom she filed a complaint for rape.
At the microphone of RTL on Saturday, the 76-year-old actress worries about “
a late witch hunt”.
“I'm going to get hit, but I think that all of this is extremely exaggerated,
” she explains, referring to the comments of Judith Godrèche against her ex-partner Benoit Jacquot with whom she formed a relationship at 14 years old.
“
Even six years with a director... Under the influence, I'm willing, but still consenting, right?
I don’t really know what to think of this thing, but I don’t really like these witch hunts,” pleads Anny Dupeyrey,
who admits to having never been brusque.
“
I have a hard time reacting to that.
Maybe I was lucky because I was, because of my personal history with the death of my parents, a kind of survivor, no one was likely to attack me.
That’s how it is, I didn’t have the profile of a victim
.”
Anny Dupeyrey also regrets the temptation to censor the works of artists implicated in cases of aggression.
“
Let’s admit that some men were, indeed, predators.
But they have sometimes produced beautiful works, and I would not at all like us to condemn their works at the same time as men
,” she argues, citing the case of Polanski and his film
The Pianist
Who Returns. on the Shoah and the torture of the Warsaw ghetto.
“It
would be stupid, because he slept with a 15-year-old girl fifty or sixty years ago, to condemn his works
,” she argues.
“
There is a kind of confusion in all this which bothers me a little.
Let’s qualify, all the same
.”
French cinema has opened its Pandora's box
Six years after the birth of the #MeToo movement in Hollywood, French cinema has unlocked its Pandora's box.
The time to listen seems to have arrived.
In recent weeks, several major figures in the French 7th art have been the subject of accusations.
Gérard Depardieu, indicted for rape since the end of 2020, was pilloried for old sequences filmed in North Korea, broadcast by the France 2 magazine Complément
d'investigation
in December, where he multiplies misogynistic and insulting remarks in addressed to women.
The other big shock came from Judith Godrèche.
The 51-year-old actress, who left to live in California, made her return to the screens with her autofiction comedy for Arte
Icon Of French Cinema
, in which she evoked her own beginnings at the hands of a predatory pygmalion director.
In the series, as during its promotion, she did not yet mention the name of Benoit Jacquot, whose name for those who know the filmography and life of the actress was an open secret.
Everything changed when the series was broadcast: Judith Godrèche received countless testimonies and signs of support.
Internet users are bringing out excerpts from interviews where Benoît Jacquot shamelessly displays his relationships with his young muses.
Notably in the documentary
Les Ruses du Désir: L'interdit
by Gérard Miller.
This “impunity” breaks the deadlock.
On January 6, Judith Godrèche mentioned Benoit Jacquot in her publications on Instagram.
Before filing a complaint in February against him and his colleague Jacques Doillon for rape.
Both directors rejected his accusations.
Jacques Doillon was also implicated by the actresses Isild Le Besco and Anna Mouglalis.
The first, revealed by Benoit Jacquot's Sade, claims to have been kicked out of a shoot after having "refused to sleep with him" and the second says she was "kissed by force" before pushing him away.
The pioneering role of Adèle Haenel
Director Nicolas Bedos is to be tried for an alleged sexual assault in a nightclub - an act he says was unintentional.
He is the target of an investigation for rape and sexual assault after several complaints.
In 2019, actress Adèle Haenel, a pioneer, denounced the “control” of director Christophe Ruggia when she was a teenager.
The actress from
Portrait of a Girl on Fire
has since left this “complacent” environment.
The case which catalyzed #MeToo in French cinema is, however, heading towards a trial: the Paris prosecutor's office has requested the criminal referral of director Christophe Ruggia for sexual assault on a minor.