Symbol of sexual violence and blatant machismo for some, French national pride for others: Gérard Depardieu, who celebrates his 75th birthday on Wednesday, has lost his aura as an untouchable icon.
Although he was accused of rape in 2020 after an actress in her twenties, Charlotte Arnould, filed a complaint, the actor increased the number of his filmings with the eclecticism that characterizes him (Lost Illusions, Maison Retirement, Green Shutters, Maigret) .
And he retained his status as the holy monster of French cinema, since there aren't many of them left.
Alain Delon, who divides with his reactionary positions, left the sets, as did Brigitte Bardot, who stands out for her confessions against Islam.
Only Catherine Deneuve, 80, the 2018 co-signer of a much-discussed column about the freedom to harass women, continues to tour and be celebrated. The star has not spoken in recent days about Depardieu, with whom she has shared the stage ten times.
Depardieu has so far enjoyed a certain level of leniency beyond feminist circles. His loudmouth, willingly outrageous temperament has long attracted the sympathy of the public and the industry.
His comments about rape, in which he was allegedly involved in his youth, cost him his American career in the early 1990s, but met with little response in France.
When an actress as popular as Sophie Marceau described him as a predator in 2015 because of his behavior on set, her words rang hollow.
The seventh art prefers to praise the actor with more than 200 films in cinema and television, with instinctive acting and work bulimia, who will have interpreted the great heroes of national literature, from Cyrano to Jean Valjean, from Les Misérables to Obelix.
Downhill slope
But at the end of 2023, the clown Depardieu, who urinated in an airplane cabin in 2011, will no longer make people laugh. He put his career on hold and is now the most controversial artist in the country.
Everything accelerated in less than a month after pictures were published in the magazine Complément d'investigation in which he made numerous obscene statements to women and a little girl.
The sequence is disgusting. Depardieu is removed from the National Order of Quebec, he loses his title of honorary citizen of a Belgian municipality, his wax statue is removed from the Grévin Museum… Some cinema personalities publicly turn their backs on him, such as the actress Anouk Grinberg.
A pro-Depardieu camp is mobilizing: his family, including his daughter, the actress Julie Depardieu, denounces an intrigue, his ex-partner Carole Bouquet defends the sometimes borderline humor of a man who would be incapable of harming a woman .
And on Tuesday, around sixty cultural figures denounced a lynching in a column in Figaro, including the director Bertrand Blier, the actresses Nathalie Baye and Charlotte Rampling, the actors Jacques Weber, Pierre Richard and Gérard Darmon, the singers Roberto Alagna, Carla Bruni, Arielle Dombasle or Jacques Dutronc.
The Depardieu affair in particular took on a new dimension when French head of state Emmanuel Macron, in the midst of one of the deepest political crises of his presidency, took up the immigration law with the support of the extreme right.
The president denounces a manhunt and disavows his culture minister, who has questioned his Legion of Honor. He made France, our great authors, our great characters known throughout the world. […] Emmanuel Macron said he was making France proud.
The Châteauroux native has a controversial history with his home country, having announced in late 2012 that he would give up his passport and opt for tax exile in Belgium in protest against taxation of the richest. An admirer of the most authoritarian leaders, he also acquired Russian citizenship.
At the judicial level, Depardieu, who denies the allegations, is, in addition to his accusation of rape, the target of a sexual assault lawsuit filed by the actress Hélène Darras on facts prescribed a priori, as well as another in Spain by a journalist, Ruth Baza, accused him of rape in 1995.
Depardieu's supporters make his defense a symbol of the fight for the presumption of innocence.
You can accuse someone, there may be victims, but there is also the presumption of innocence, emphasized Emmanuel Macron. “I just want Gérard Depardieu to be able to defend his rights like everyone else and continue to work and create,” he added.