Gérard Depardieu is due to attend court in Paris on Monday as his trial on sexual assault charges, related to events alleged to have taken place in 2021 on the set of The Green Shutters, kicks off this afternoon.
The trial, scheduled to begin at 1.30pm local time (5.30 a.m. PT), will examine two separate accusations by a set decorator and an assistant director who say they were sexually assaulted by Depardieu on the set of Jean Becker’s The Green Shutters.
Based on the eponymous 1950 novel by Georges Simenon, Depardieu stars in the film as a tyrannical, celebrated actor at the height of his powers, in the grip of a personal crisis.
Monday’s trial follows a growing number of public allegations of sexually inappropriate behavior against Depardieu, which he denies.
These accusations have destroyed his reputation as one of France’s most celebrated actors, known internationally for his Oscar-nominated performance in Cyrano de Bergerac as well as his role opposite Andie Macdowell in Peter Weir’s romantic comedy Green Card.
Monday’s trial will mark the first time Depardieu is in court on official charges of sexual assault.
According to a report by investigative news site Mediapart in 2024, the set decorator, named simply as Amélie, recounted that Depardieu had “grabbed her brutally” and “locked her in by closing his legs around her” and “kneed her waist, stomach, going up her breasts”.
Other crew members who prised the actor off, urged her to lodge an official complaint and the incident was also raised with the director Becker, who was also supportive of such a move, according to her account to Mediapart.
The set decorator, who has since left the cinema industry, also recounted how she had tried to avoid contact with Depardieu for the rest of the production, but whenever their paths crossed, he would give her a dark look and mutter insults under his breath.
In a separate official case, Depardieu also faces an official complaint of two acts of rape dating back to 2018 by actress Charlotte Arnould, which is still making its way through the courts some seven years later.
Depardieu has denied the rape allegations and mounting sexual assault accusations against him, even publishing a letter in the Le Figaro newspaper in October 2023, suggesting his acts had been misinterpreted.
The letter followed a detailed investigative report by French investigative news website Médiapart in April 2023, in which 13 women accused the actor of sexually inappropriate behavior.
Two months after the open letter, Depardieu came under further public scrutiny following the broadcast of a bombshell edition of investigative show Complément d’Enquête, which probed these historic accusations as well as other acts of inappropriate behavior.
News of Depardieu’s expected appearance was covered by all of French media, which for a long time did not address allegations bubbling in the film industry against him.
Libération newspaper, which has led reporting on the case with Mediapart, signaled the wider implications of the trial.
“Who will be tried on March 24 and 25… A man like any other…? A symbol? Or a ‘monster’ so sacred for so long that it went without saying that he was far above the laws and rules and accountable to no-one?,” asked the newspaper in a two-page spread in its Monday edition.
