A sidelining to “conduct the necessary investigations”. Hopscotch, the organizer of the Deauville Festival, announced Thursday that Bruno Barde, general director of Public Système Cinéma, was “officially exempt from activity” while the accusations of harassment and sexual assault were clarified. updated by Mediapart Wednesday June 12.
The anonymous testimonies published by the investigative media range from sexist remarks, to a hand under a t-shirt, or even a proposal for a bath with massage and concern seven employees between 2014 and 2023.
“The too easy compliment”
“If it is true that I have a Latin temperament, that I am an aesthete, who perhaps is too easy to compliment, I have never made a remark with a sexual connotation, nor had the slightest gesture or incitement to sexual or sexist nature towards my colleagues,” Bruno Barde defended himself to Mediapart.
The Hopscotch communications group, which oversees the activities of the Public Système Cinéma agency, indicated that it took these testimonies “very seriously”, affirming that “no report” had “been reported to the human resources teams of the group nor with harassment referents”.
This new case comes as French cinema is in the midst of a new #MeToo wave since the actress and director Judith Godrèche filed a complaint against Benoît Jacquot, and another director, Jacques Doillon, for sexual and physical violence which dates back to his adolescence.
