Were the images of Depardieu in “Complement of investigation” manipulated? Justice orders an expertise

The broadcast of the show sparked enormous controversy. Justice ordered this Friday an expertise to determine whether the images of the program “Complément d’investigation” on France 2, where Gérard Depardieu made comments of a sexual nature towards a little girl, had been manipulated as the actor claims.

In a decision consulted by AFP and revealed by Télérama, the Paris Court of Appeal ordered this expertise of the raw images filmed in a stud farm during a trip to North Korea in 2018, “at the advanced expense of Gérard Depardieu who has an interest in seeing this measure carried out.”

“A misleading montage” according to Depardieu

It partially overturns a civil judgment rendered in May, at first instance, which ordered the production company Hiraki to hand over the images directly to the actor. This decision aroused the fears of Reporters Without Borders, which denounced “a risk of breaching the confidentiality of sources” and Hiraki appealed.

Filmed during a trip with Yann Moix in 2018, the images were made public by this episode of “Complément d’investigation”, at the end of 2023. We could see Depardieu multiplying misogynistic and insulting comments in the stud farm, while on the screen a little girl was riding a horse.

Depardieu claims that the editing is misleading and that his words were not intended for the young girl, which the expert will have to determine, and also claims that it was a fictional scene. The France Télévisions group had already had the incriminating passage authenticated by a bailiff and assured that there was “no doubt and no ambiguity” about the fact that the young girl was targeted by Gérard Depardieu’s comments.

Questioned by several women

This show sparked enormous controversy and precipitated the fall of the actor, accused by several women of rape and sexual violence.

The latter must be tried on October 28 before the Paris criminal court for sexual assaults committed on two women during the filming of Jean Becker’s film “The Green Shutters” in 2021. A trial was also requested against him in August before the departmental criminal court for rape and sexual assault on the actress Charlotte Arnould.