Jerome Prebois
Benjamin Lavernhe, here in the biopic on Abbé Pierre, released in theaters at the end of 2023.
CINEMA – The production and artistic team of the film Abbé Pierre: A life of strugglea biopic released at the end of 2023 with Benjamin Lavernhe in the title role, condemned, this Tuesday, September 17, the “crimes” committed by the cleric, accused by around twenty women of sexual violence.
“These crimes, which shed a completely new light on the fate of Abbé Pierre, were obviously unknown to us at the time we made this film, just as they were unknown to the French.the film’s team said in a statement, which had remained silent until now. We condemn these crimes and wish to strongly express our full support for the many victims of Abbé Pierre.”
Abbé Pierre, who died in 2007, has been accused by around twenty women, some of whom were minors at the time, of sexual violence that could amount to rape for some. Since their revelation this summer by the Egae firm, the question of the silence of institutions has been central. The hagiographic dimension of Frédéric Tellier’s film, which attracted more than 800,000 spectators in theaters after its presentation at the Cannes Film Festival in spring 2023, has also been questioned.
” Let us be wary of biopics, golden legends, hagiographies, titles of favorite personalities of the “Journal du Dimanche” “, for example, François Morel whispered in a post on France Inter, this September. Before adding: ” A man can be both a herald of the war against poverty and a sexual obsessive, a pacifist and a rapist, a resistance fighter and incapable of resisting his own impulses. »
Benjamin Lavernhe « lover » of the character
On leaving, Benjamin Lavernhe had said that he was “fell in love” of the character, ” a revolutionary, a man on the move who leads crowds.” He told AFP: ” There is the beret, the cane, the silhouette, but the truth is not necessarily there. (…) It was necessary to succeed in desacralizing him, to discover his doubts and his neuroses.
Without going into details, the ” contradictions and paradoxes ” of the character even made its director want to ” to tell the story of this man who nevertheless changed the world “, as he told franceinfo in November 2023.
” There is a shock, a great astonishment, a great excitement when I discover his life, when I discover Lucie Coutaz too. I then approach people who knew him, who describe his character to me, his paradoxes”he also confided to Haute Provence Infoadding that he had discovered ” many unknown elements “.
What details is he talking about? Even though the Vatican acknowledged, this Wednesday, September 18, that it had been aware of Abbé Pierre’s actions. Not a word, today, on the subject. However, he is not the first to have granted Abbé Pierre the honors of a biopic. In 1989, Winter 54, Abbé Pierre with Lambert Wilson in the lead role had already taken care of it.
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