“Bringing down a sacred monster”: Gérard Depardieu’s electrical trial
From March 24 to 27, 2025, at the Paris Criminal Court, Gérard Depardieu was held, tried for acts of sexual assault on two women during the shooting of the film Les Péttes Verts in 2021.
“Gérard Depardieu, born December 27, 1948 in Châteauroux.” Dressed in a dark costume, the actor advances at the helm. The Paris Criminal Court room is packed. Between its walls, and for several days, held heated debates between the defense and the civil party.
A desire to “Bringing down a sacred monster”
Five months after returning his trial to order medical expertise to account for the state of health of Gérard Depardieuthe septuagenarian is able to appear for a limited period of six hours with fifteen -minute breaks every three hours. Six hours of great value therefore. However, this Monday, March 24, is Jérémie Assous who monopolizes the word. Almost a third of the time allocated and the defense lawyer has combed the smallest details of the case which calls into question the actor in an interminable monologue. He lists “Moorly errors” and “Huge deficiencies” who should he say “Lead to cancel the entire procedure”. His main reproaches concern the lack of taking into account certain discharge witnesses and the contradictions in the speech of the complainants.
The annoyance of his consumers of the civil party is gently felt. They are getting impatient: “It’s dilatory maneuver on dilatory maneuver: all that to waste audience time!” Listigation Claude Vincent, lawyer for one of the complainants. “I do not see what is criticizable to plead for an hour, two hours, even three hours: I compensate for the deficiencies of the investigation” defends Jérémie Assous before continuing an hour more to solicit, among other things, a reconstruction on the scene of the shooting, which would once again brake the advance of the case. “They took two years to file a complaint, they are not two months old!” he launches before denouncing a desire to “Bringing down a sacred monster”. After several suspensions, it is Anouk Grinbergactress who came in support to the two complainants, who loses patience and indignant before being summoned to leave the courtroom. The atmosphere is electric and the tension, at its paroxysm.
Gérard Depardieu defends herself from being “a rapist”, his accuser answers him
“Of course these are things from the old world”
Second day of hearing, in the same black suit of the day before, after the president of the court, Thierry Donard, recalled the facts, Gérard Depardieu advances at the helm, speaking for the first time since the start of the trial. The septuagenarian denies the accusations of sexual assault. According to the decorator of Jean Becker’s film, Amélie, the actor would have attacked her by enclosing her between her thighs and then touching the pubis and going up to the breasts.
“It’s Friday, it’s hot, it’s moist (…) I weigh 150 kilos, I’m in a bad mood. A woman looks at me strangely, she is a bit beautiful but closed, her phone in hand” recalls Gérard Depardieu.
Conversely of his statements in police custody, the actor admits having had physical contact with the young woman: “I take the hip so as not to slip, I was so annoyed with her behavior”. He evokes his Russian origins and the warmth of this Friday of filming as proof of his vulgarity:
“I sometimes say “Pussy, pussy let’s go because I get wet” To annoy and to have fun “.
Whoever played Cyrano de Bergerac continues:
“I am not a cheat in the metro, there are lots of vices that I do not know. From there to put my hand on the buttocks, what is it? I’m not Emile Louis.”
The actor also presented himself as a victim of the #MeToo movement: “This movement will become a terror”. “I tell these women that they would do a lot to meditate on Madame de Staël: “Glory is the bright mourning of happiness.” concludes the accused.
Amélie, now 45 years old, succeeds her at the helm and delivers a very different version of the facts. Dressed in an elegant outfit, her wavy hair rests delicately on her shoulders while she shares the obscene words that the actor would have made: “Fan, fan, I can not even bandage with this warmth” or “I know how to make women enjoy without touching them”. To occupy him, the young woman details her research of parasols for the decor of the film with him. By mimicking a few gestures, she continues:
“He gets stuck with his legs, he has a lot of strength, and he kneads in front, behind, around”.
The decorator tells of remembering her face: “His red eyes, very edgy and excited” and this sentence: “Come and touch my big parasol, I’m going to kiss you in the pussy.” At the request of the president of the court, the complainant justifies the past years before filed a complaint by not knowing how to qualify a sexual assault:
“Before, we called it ball. I thought it had to be the intervention of the sex of Monsieur.”
She also entrusts the court “fear” and the “Deni” who lived it for a long time. The septuagenarian denies accusations of sexual assault, admits some “Jokes” and point the finger “The things of the old world” in a resounding sigh before solemnly concluding “I think my time is over.”
“I don’t know what sexual assault is”
It is the turn of the second complainant, the assistant director of the film set to speak on this third day of audience. Aged 34, she claims to have been touched several times by the actor, on the breasts and on the buttocks. “Touching the buttocks or even having breasts …” protests the defendant before adding:
“Maybe in a corridor, I missed it and my back stuck …”
Once again, he admits his tendency to express rudeness but denies being “A toucher”. “I don’t know what sexual assault is” he assures. The young woman with long brown hair says that after confiding in the production, the actor would have apologized and then would have changed his behavior: “He no longer wanted me to give him information on the set. I felt guilty, I was ashamed, it was a reversal of guilt at that time.” Back at the helm, Gérard Depardieu admits having treated it “balance”because “Let’s stop with the shocked people, now nothing shocked”. But he does not bother:
“I have not practiced sexual assault. Sexual assault is more serious than what she says.”
The president threatens to suspend the hearing (once again) while the tension has been at its height since the first day. Witnesses are called to the bar. Recognizable among all, the voice of Fanny Ardant sounded in the courtroom for ten minutes. Coming in support of her dear friend, the actress embarks on a great speech. Her stamp so special keeps the whole room in suspense while she quotes the “genius” of the actor before continuing: “Yes, he takes up space on a shoot. Yes, he has a big mouth. Yes, he says rudeness. But Gérard has always given everything, like an actor’s job can only be done at the risk of his own life. Without this risk, we are no longer an artist, we are just a servant.” An exceptional scene in which a border with the artists of “The Old World”, The actress also evokes the subject: “I know that society has changed, that there are things that were tolerated that are no longer tolerable”. She continues ::
“I know we can say no to Gérard”.
The president tries to refocus the debate: “We are not here to make morality, we are here to do the right.” To the question “Have you been able to see gestures towards the complainants?” The actress responds in the negative. After a tender sensational kiss to his friend, three women will parade at the helm to testify in turn, with a very different vision of the actor. Three stories like the previous ones. Journalist, costume designer and actress portray the obscene jokes of the actor, hands on the body, in panties and witnesses, often male, who laugh with deployed throat.
“I said” Gégé there who puts his hand in my shorts! “, He replied” Well what, I thought you wanted to succeed in cinema “. Everyone laughed.” tells one of them.
Over the declarations, the image of the cinema monument tarnished. Little by little, the actor’s celebrity fades before his vulgarity and his multiple sexual allusions. Depardieu joins forces with “The old world”an era in which we allowed ourselves more. But “The new world” hardly enchant him and it would be reciprocal in the words of the assistant director of Green shutters During the investigation: “The company is moving, and Gérard Depardieu is the symbol of what we no longer want to see”.
“Raised feminists”
The last day of audience – Thursday March 27 – opens on the pleadings of the civil party which denounce hostile and masculine maneuvers orchestrated by Jérémie Assessus throughout the trial. Man protests. “Landy, hysterical, cry!” he scout for the complainants.
“You will judge Gérard Depardieu as any other justiciable. You are not there to trial French cinema, the media court or the impact of social networks” declares the prosecutor.
18 months in prison with a probationary stay of 3 years with obligation of psychological care, obligation to compensate for civil parties and the payment of a fine of 20,000 euros. In his indictment, he emphasizes that the complainants are “Women in a situation of social inferiority and out of step in relation to the celebrity of the attacker on the set, which moreover enjoys notoriety, a aura and a monumental status in French cinema”.
It is the turn of the defense lawyer who pleads the release for the actor. A bubbling argument towards complainants: “Your trauma, how much even the assault would have taken place, it is relative! It is not Guy Georges!”he launches after having denounced the influence of the media in this case, pointing to a file “made”.
According to him, the two women are dedicated to a “organization” of “Raised feminists”,, “Bacal agitated”. Jérémie Assous questions their sincerity in a sarcastic tone provoking stormy reactions. For the attention of Amélie, absent from the room, he launches:
“I want her to read the world because it’s too complicated, but closer?” In response to the fact that the complainant would have ignored the actor’s indictment in 2020.
According to him, Charlotte Arnould is a “Mythomaniac”words that make the public and the second complainant start which leaves the room. The actor’s words sign the last moments of a tumultuous trial:
“It’s been three years that I was dragged in the mud with lies”.
“It’s as if we were in a science fiction film, except that it is real life” adds the septuagenarian who draws “Lessons” of this trial. The president closes this hearing to say the least electric and puts the judgment under deliberation on Tuesday May 13, 2025 at 10 am, the opening date of the Cannes Festival.
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