César 2024 – Judith Godrèche: “For some time now, I have been talking, but I can’t hear you”

The actress gave a very touching speech during the 49th César ceremony. We deliver it to you here in full.

Everyone was waiting for her, she was there. Judith Godrèche spoke during the 2024 César ceremony with a long and moving six-minute speech where she called on the industry to react. The actress recently filed a complaint against director Benoît Jacquot for rape of a minor. She also accuses the filmmaker Jacques Doillon of having taken advantage of her on the set of The Fifteen-Year-Old Girlin 1989.

Discover his speech in full, in text and video, below:

“It’s complicated to find myself in front of all of you this evening, there are so many of you. But deep down, I guess it had to happen. Our faces, face to face, eye to eye. Many of you have seen me grow, it’s impressive. It marks. Basically, I knew nothing other than cinema. So, to reassure myself along the way, I invented a little lullaby. My tight arms are you, all the little girls in silence. My neck, my bent neck, is you, all the children in silence. My wobbly legs are you, the young men who couldn’t defend themselves. My mouth, trembling but also smiling, is you, my unknown sisters. After all, I too am a crowd. A crowd, in front of you. A crowd looking you in the eye tonight. It’s a funny time for us, isn’t it? A ghost from the Americas who comes to kick in the armored door. Who would’ve believed that ? For some time now, words have been loosening. The image of our idealized fathers is being damaged. The power almost seems to sway. Could it be possible that we could face the truth? Take our responsibilities? To be the actors, the actresses of a universe that questions itself? For some time now, I have been talking, I have been talking, but I cannot hear you. Or barely.

Where are you ? What do you say ? A whisper, half a word. That would already be it, said Little Red Riding Hood. I know it’s scary: losing grants, losing roles, losing your job. I too, I too, am afraid. I left school at 15, I don’t have the Baccalaureate, nothing. It would be complicated to be blacklisted from everything. It wouldn’t be funny. Wandering the streets of Paris in my hamster costume, dreaming of myself icon of french cinema. In my rebellion, I thought of these terms that we use on a set: “silence, engine requested”. Silence has been my driving force for 30 years now. Yet I imagine the incredible melody that we could compose together… It wouldn’t hurt, I promise. Just a scratch on the carcass of our curious family. It’s so nothing compared to a punch in the nose. To a child taken by storm like a city besieged by an all-powerful adult under the silent gaze of a team. To a director, who while whispering, drags me to his bed under the pretext of having to understand who I really am. It’s so nothing, compared to 45 takes with two disgusting hands on my 15 year old breasts. Cinema is made of our desire for truth. Films watch us as much as we watch them. It is also made of our need for humanity, right? So why ? Why accept that this art that we love so much, this art that binds us, is used as a cover for illicit trafficking in young girls? Because you know, this loneliness is mine, but it is also that of thousands in our society. And it is in your hands.

We are at the forefront, at the dawn of a new day. We can decide that men accused of rape do not make all the noise in the cinema. That sets the tone, as they say. We cannot ignore the truth because it is not our child, our son, our daughter. We cannot be at such a level of impunity, denial and privilege that morality goes over our heads. We must set an example too. Don’t think I’m talking to you about my past, my past which doesn’t pass. My past is also the present of the 2,000 people who sent me their testimonies in four days. It is also the future of all those who have not had to become their own witness. You know, to believe yourself, you still have to be believed. The world watches us, we travel with our films, we are lucky to be in a country where it seems that freedom exists. So, with the same moral strength that we have to create, let us say out loud what we know quietly. Let’s not play heroines on screen only to find ourselves hidden in real life. Let us not embody revolutionary or humanist heroes only to get up in the morning knowing that a director has abused a young actress and say nothing. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to put on my cape tonight and invade you a little. You have to be wary of little girls: they touch the bottom of the pool, they bump into each other, they hurt themselves, but they bounce back. The little girls are punks who come back dressed as hamsters. And to dream of a possible revolution, they like to replay this dialogue from Céline and Julie go by boat:

Céline: ”Once upon a time.”

Julie: ”Twice upon a time, three times upon a time.”

Céline: ”It was that this time, it won’t happen like that. Not like the other times.”

THANKS. »