Adèle Haenel glares at the man sitting in front of her. Seven scenes from the film “Les Diables” by Christophe Ruggia have just been broadcast to the audience, causing deep unease in the room. The child, then aged 12, appears naked each time, caressing herself lasciviously, licking the fingers, neck and ears of a young man supposed to be her brother.
The president read the investigation report, evoking three years of Saturday afternoons systematically spent with the director, then almost forty years old, whom she accused of having sexually assaulted her. Christophe Ruggia is called to the stand, and invited to give his thoughts on his relationship with Adèle Haenel. “I realized that she might have been shocked by the filming, that she might have found it heavy to see me so often afterwards,” says the 59-year-old director. The court tries to follow the convolutions of his speech, the numerous digressions, the unnecessary details, always missing the point.
The defendant evades the testimonies collected during the investigation, his collaborators embarrassed by this “guru director” who isolated the children from the rest of the team, who was too tactile, especially with his young actress, to the point that the mother of 'Adèle was worried to see this 37-year-old man treating her daughter like “a girlfriend”. “On the set, Adèle follows me everywhere,” says Christophe Ruggia in court. She is captivated, she comes to sit on my lap, so yes… I could have taken her by the shoulders, kissed her on the head, on the hair… I should have framed her more” . An assessor raises her voice a little, puts her foot down: “You, Sir, a man of almost 40 years old, what were your expectations, spending all your Saturday afternoons with Adèle? »
In a stream of stringy sentences, the filmmaker talks about his cinephile, his library with 300 DVDs, his reading advice given to this child eager to learn, he says that he wanted to “create a cinema family, like François Truffaut. » It was Adèle who wanted to come to his house, she found that boys her age had nothing on their minds, and that girls only thought of boys.
Besides, during these meetings, she was the one hanging around, he ended up telling her “Come on, go home”. On the civil parties' bench, Adèle Haenel seethes, taps the table with her fingers, changes places. During these years, between 2001 and 2004, the director did not have a partner. Mona A, who shared his life for a time a few years later, in 2010, and who came to testify at the hearing, spoke of an immature man, both psychologically and sexually. He would have confided to her at the time that he was “madly in love” with Adèle Haenel. Above all, he would have reported to him a scene, which would have occurred during one of these famous Saturday afternoons. As the child lay on her couch, Ruggia allegedly moved his hand up her body, touching her chest, before removing his hand. “He spoke about it with pride, as if it had been very virtuous to withdraw his hand,” Mona A said.
Analysis of his computer showed internet searches for “Adèle Haenel Hot”. In a text found at his home, the director writes that the child was “overwhelmingly sensual,” and that one day, at his home, “she rolled her tongue with an eroticism worthy of a porn film.” . On the stand, he denies it outright. The touching, the kisses on the neck, the declarations of love, “that never happened, clearly! he proclaims. As much as I can imagine gestures of affection that she would have reinterpreted afterwards, putting your hand in her pants or on her chest is a pure lie. I've never done that, ever! I'm trying to understand what I've been accused of for 5 years. »
The assessor points out that the complainant, considered more intelligent than average, never varied in her statements. ” For what ? Why would she hurt you so much? » asks the magistrate. “I think she was radicalized with #Metoo,” replies Christophe Ruggia. Look at his journey over the past 5 years! It starts with the accusations against me, it continues with her exit during the César, then she supports Assa Traoré, Révolution Permanente, and then she leaves the cinema, she only has hatred in her head! The Stalinist trial took place, this is the Mediapart article! We had to launch a #Metoo in France, it fell on me. I was never in love with Adèle Haenel! »
The director says he is the victim of revenge from his ex-muse, who would have been disappointed and bruised at not having made a second film with him. The court asked Adèle Haenel why she returned to Ruggia's house every Saturday for three years. She says people her age didn't understand her. “They said to me, but you actually acted in a porn film?! And who told me then that there was nothing abnormal about all of this, if not him? This violence that he subjected me to, it was also he who protected me from it, with his words! » Christophe Ruggia retorts that he tried to protect her from the gaze of people her age: “I suggested she take a stage name, to preserve her anonymity. It was me who told him to take his grandfather’s name, Haenel…”
“BUT SHUT YOUR MOUTH!!! » shouts Adèle Haenel, banging on the table, before leaving the room. In her indictment, the prosecutor speaks of the massive psychological repercussions on the actress, of her discomfort. Psychological experts have pointed out a disruption of identity markers, a desire to die, nervous tics on his face when the facts are mentioned. The prosecution requested 2 years in prison, an adjustable sentence, possibly served at home, as well as the defendant's registration in the FIJAIS (Judicial File of Perpetrators of Sexual Offenses). Christophe Ruggia's lawyer, Me Fanny Colin, affirms that he has neither the profile nor the personality of a pedophile. For her, after Adèle Haenel's shocking statements to Mediapart, justice felt attacked, and was zealous in opening an investigation. The case is under advisement until February 3, 2025.
