A clear acceleration in a flagship investigation of the French #MeToo movement: filmmakers Benoît Jacquot, 77, and Jacques Doillon, 80, accused for several months by Judith Godrèche and other women of sexual violence, are in police custody in Paris on Monday at the Brigade for the Protection of Minors (BPM).
The two men deny these accusations. They arrived at around 9:30 a.m. at the Regional Directorate of the Judicial Police (DRPJ) in Paris accompanied by their lawyers, an AFP journalist noted.
Benoît Jacquot “will finally be able to speak before the courts”, reacted his counsel Julia Minkowski, denouncing a “criticizable” police custody when “a free hearing should have been decided”. “I deplore all of these dysfunctions of justice, thanks to an ultra-mediatization that leads to unacceptable excesses”, she added.
For Me Marie Dosé, Jacques Doillon’s lawyer, “none of the legal criteria can justify this measure” of police custody, “36 years” after the facts denounced by Judith Godrèche.
Her client “should have been heard in a voluntary hearing given the age of the facts, their statute of limitations acquired for more than two decades, and the inevitable dismissal without further action which will close this investigation”, she added in a press release.
“His presumption of innocence is flouted all day long” in this “procedure largely contaminated by extra-judicial considerations”, in particular “communication”.
The Paris prosecutor’s office confirmed these police custody by “recalling that the secrecy of the procedure aims to respect the privacy of people who have entrusted their story to the courts alone, that of the presumption of innocence, and the serenity of investigations, necessary for their smooth progress.”
According to sources close to the case, these police custody periods, which could last until Tuesday evening, should provide an opportunity for confrontations between each of the directors and some of their respective accusers, including Ms Godrèche.
“I’m crying (…). I don’t know if I have the strength but I will have it. I will have it, I will have it”, reacted the actress on Instagram Monday morning, in a message accompanied of a photo in which she appears with Benoît Jacquot.
Ms. Godrèche’s lawyer, Me Laure Heinich, did not wish to comment, recalling the secrecy of the investigation.
– “Hold” –
In early February, his 52-year-old client sparked a new storm in the French #MeToo movement by filing a complaint against Benoît Jacquot for rape and Jacques Doillon for sexual assault.
The investigation is open for rape of a minor under 15 years old by a person in authority, rape, violence by a partner, and sexual assault on a minor over 15 years old by a person in authority.
Mr. Jacquot and Ms. Godrèche, born in March 1972, began their relationship in the spring of 1986. They lived openly together until their separation in 1992. For the actress, it was a relationship of “control” and “perversion.”
Two other actresses have filed complaints against Mr. Jacquot.
Julia Roy, 42 years younger and who starred in four of her films released between 2016 and 2021, filed a complaint for sexual assault in “a context of violence and moral constraint which lasted several years”, according to a source close to the file.
Actress Isild le Besco filed a complaint at the end of May for rape of a minor over the age of 15 and rape dating back to the years 1998-2007.
Their respective lawyers, Me Margot Pugliese and Benjamin Chouai, did not wish to comment on Monday.
Regarding Mr. Doillon, Ms. Godrèche accuses him of having “groped” her during an unplanned sex scene on a film set, when she was 15 years old and in a relationship with Benoît Jacquot, for a film released in 1989.
Isild Le Besco also indicated that she had to endure Mr. Doillon’s advances during work sessions, while actress Anna Mouglalis accused the filmmaker of having forcibly kissed her at his home in 2011.
This new wave of denunciations in the French #MeToo set French cinema in turmoil at the start of 2024 and shook the César ceremony and the Cannes Festival.
A commission of inquiry into sexual violence in cinema, audiovisual, live performance, fashion and advertising began in May but was brought to a halt following the dissolution of the National Assembly in early June.
On Friday, Dominique Boutonnat, one of the most powerful men in the profession, left the head of the National Cinema Center (CNC) after his conviction for sexual assault.
Gérard Depardieu is due to stand trial in Paris in October for sexual assault on two women, and risks trial for rape of a third.
