Sawt Falasteen - French actor Depardieu goes on trial on sexual assault charges

Depardieu, 76, who has made more than 200 films and television series, has been accused of improper behaviour by around 20 women but this is the first case to come to trial.

He is the highest-profile figure to face accusations in French cinema's sometimes laggardly response to the #MeToo movement.

The case before the Paris criminal court concerns charges of sexual assault during filming director Jean Becker's "Les Volets Verts" ("The Green Shutters") in 2021.

Anouk Grinberg, a prominent actor who appeared in the film, has backed the two plaintiffs -- a set dresser, 54, and a 34-year-old assistant director. Both women allege sexual violence.

Grinberg said Depardieu had constantly made "salacious remarks", telling AFP: "When film producers hire Depardieu for a film, they know they're hiring an abuser".

The trial, initially scheduled to take place in October, had been postponed due to the actor's ill health.

At the time Depardieu's lawyer Jeremie Assous said the actor had undergone a quadruple heart bypass and suffered from diabetes that was aggravated by the stress of the upcoming trial.

Depardieu has since been seen by a court-appointed medical expert, who has established he is fit to appear in court, Assous said.

"He has however expressed reservations," Assous told AFP.

According to the lawyer, Depardieu's court appearances are to be limited to six hours a day, and he will take breaks whenever he "needs them."

Assous has said that the actor "denies all of the accusations in their totality."

- 'Obscene remarks' -

One of Depardieu's two accusers, the set dresser, reported in February last year that she had suffered sexual assault, sexual harassment and sexist insults during filming.

She told French investigative website Mediapart that Depardieu had started loudly calling for a cooling fan during the shoot because he "couldn't even get it up" in the heat.

She claimed he boasted he could "give women an orgasm without touching them" and that an hour later Depardieu "brutally grabbed" her.

The actor pinned her by "closing his legs" around her before groping her waist and her stomach, continuing up to her breasts, she added.

Depardieu made "obscene remarks" including: "Come and touch my big parasol. I'll stick it in your pussy," she said.

She described the actor's bodyguards dragging him away as he shouted: "We'll see each other again, my dear."

"My client hopes that this time the trial will go ahead", lawyer Carine Durrieu-Diebolt told AFP.

The second plaintiff, an assistant director, also alleges sexual violence.

"What my client wants is for the trial to take place, but I am also worried about how Mr Depardieu's defence will treat the civil parties at the hearing," said lawyer Claude Vincent.

- 'Never, but never' -

Overall, around 20 women have accused Depardieu of improper behaviour, but several cases have been dropped due to the statute of limitations.

French actor Charlotte Arnould was the first woman to file a criminal complaint against Depardieu in 2018. Last August, the Paris prosecutor's office requested a trial for rape and sexual assault, accusations the actor has consistently denied over the years.

"Never, but never, have I abused a woman," Depardieu wrote in an open letter to conservative daily Le Figaro.

He is no stranger to scandal, having made headlines for brawling, drunk driving and urinating in the aisle of a plane.

A documentary on French television in 2023 titled "The Fall of the Ogre" shows the actor on a 2018 trip to North Korea repeatedly making explicit sexual comments in front of a female interpreter and sexualising a small girl riding a horse.

H.Nasr--SF-PST