The two filmmakers have been questioned since Monday morning by investigators from the Brigade for the Protection of Minors.
This police custody follows a complaint for rape of minors, filed last February by Judith Godrèche.
The next few hours could give rise to a confrontation between the different protagonists.
Follow the full coverage
Sexual violence: new wave of accusations in the film industry
This is a new stage in the case that has been shaking French cinema for several months. The custody of directors Benoît Jacquot, 77, and Jacques Doillon, 80, summoned Monday at 9:30 a.m. by the Brigade for the Protection of Minors, continued this Tuesday morning, AFP learned from sources close to the case. It could last up to 48 hours.
These two figures of French cinema are being questioned as part of an investigation opened in early February by the Paris prosecutor’s office 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. It followed a complaint filed by actress Judith Godrèche.
Both deny the facts.
Both men deny the charges against them, which date back to the 1980s. Benoît Jacquot directed Judith Godrèche in several films, including The Disenchanted. He also lived with her from 1986, when she was 14, until their separation in 1992. The actress, who is now 52, denounces in hindsight a relationship “of influence” and of “perversion“. Concerning Jacques Doillon, she accuses him of having sexually assaulted her during the tests of the film The 15 year old girlwhen she was in a relationship with Benoît Jacquot.
According to sources close to the case, this police custody should be the occasion for a confrontation between the two filmmakers and the actress, whose various media statements such as at the Césars have triggered a #MeToo in French cinema. Since then, actresses Isild le Besco and Julia Roy have also filed a complaint against Benoît Jacquot. The first for rape of a minor over 15 years old and rape between 1988 and 2007. The second for sexual assault in the 2010s.
On Monday, Benoît Jacquot’s lawyer, Julia Minkowski, denounced a “criticizable“custody, considering that a”“Free hearing should have been decided”her client having been denied access to the file so far. She also deplored “all of these dysfunctions of justice, thanks to an ultra-mediatization which leads to unacceptable excesses.”
For her part, Jacques Doillon’s lawyer, Marie Dosé, also considered that her client “should have been heard in a free hearing“. She highlights “the age of the facts“, “their prescription acquired for more than two decades“, et “the inevitable classification without follow-up which will close this investigation“.
-
Read also
INTERVIEW – Judith Godrèche in Cannes: “Nobody wants to play a victim”
The media coverage of this affair has already had professional consequences for both men. Jacques Doillon was due to be released last March CE2a film about bullying whose release has been postponed to an undetermined date by its distributor. Benoît Jacquot has finished Bellean adaptation of a novel by George Simenon with Guillaume Canet and Charlotte Gainsbourg which remains in the boxes of its producer for the moment.
