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, lawyer for Jacques Doillon, her client “should have been heard in the context of a free hearing in view of 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 indicated in a press release.
“His presumption of innocence is flouted all day long” in this “proceeding largely contaminated by extra-judicial considerations”, notably of “communication”.
Asked by several media outlets, the Paris prosecutor’s office confirmed these police custody cases, insisting on the “secrecy of the procedure”.
According to sources close to the case, these police custody periods, which could last until Tuesday evening, should be the occasion 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,” the actress reacted on Instagram Monday morning, in a message accompanied by a photo of her and Benoît Jacquot.
Ms Godrèche’s lawyer, Laure Heinich, declined to comment, citing the confidentiality of the investigation.
– “Hold” –
In early February, her 52-year-old client sparked a new storm in the French #MeToo movement by filing a complaint against Benoît Jacquot and Jacques Doillon.
The investigation is open for rape of a minor under 15 by a person in authority, rape, violence by a cohabitant, and sexual assault of a minor over 15 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, these were rapes in 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 his films released between 2016 and 2021, filed a complaint for sexual assault in “a context of violence and moral constraint that lasted several years”, according to a source close to the case.
Some of the facts may not be time-barred, according to this source.
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, Margot Pugliese and Benjamin Chouai, did not wish to comment on Monday.
Regarding Mr. Doillon, Ms. Godrèche also denounced acts of rape, indicated a source close to the case confirming information from Le Monde. The actress accuses the filmmaker of “putting his fingers in her panties” during tests for a film released in 1989. She was 15 at the time and was with Benoît Jacquot.
Isild Le Besco also said she had to endure Mr. Doillon’s advances during work sessions, while actress Anna Mouglalis accused the filmmaker of forcibly kissing her at his home in 2011.
This new wave of denunciations in the French #MeToo has set French cinema in turmoil at the start of 2024 and shaken the César ceremony and the Cannes Film 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, it was Dominique Boutonnat, one of the most powerful men in the profession, who left the head of the National Center for Cinema (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.
