The French president condemns the manhunt for Gérard Depardieu

President Emmanuel Macron of France this week condemned what he called a “manhunt” for Gérard Depardieu, the controversial French actor whose global fame has been tarnished in recent years by allegations of sexual harassment and assault.

Macron’s comments, which sparked swift criticism, came after a documentary aired in France this month showed the actor making crude sexual and sexist comments during a 2018 trip to North Korea.

Depardieu, 74, has faced renewed scrutiny in the wake of the documentary, including new allegations of sexual assault, the stripping of several international awards and the removal of an image of him from the Musée Grévin, a wax museum in Paris. He has denied any wrongdoing.

Rima Abdul Malak, France’s culture minister, said she was “disgusted” by Depardieu’s comments in the documentary and that disciplinary procedures would determine whether he would also lose his Legion of Honor, France’s highest award.

But in a television interview on Wednesday evening, Macron fervently defended Depardieu, who was once one of France’s most prominent and prolific leaders. Macron said Depardieu “makes France proud” and denounced an “era of mistrust” against prominent artistic or cultural figures.

“One thing you will never see me in is a manhunt,” Macron said told France 5 televisionwho called himself an ‘admirer’ of Depardieu.

As president of France, Macron is the grand master of the Order of the Legion of Honor, an award created by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802 for “outstanding services” in a specific field and presented to Depardieu in 1996. Macron said his culture minister had “crossed a line”. a bit too much.”

“Am I going to rid the Legion of Honor of artists or officials if they say things that shock me?” said Macron. “The answer is no.”

“You can accuse someone – maybe there are victims, and I respect them, and I want them to be able to defend their rights,” he added. “But there is also a presumption of innocence,” he said.

Macron’s comments reflected the mixed response to the #MeToo movement in France, where the reckoning with sexism was welcomed by feminist groups, but also fueled concerns about the influence of puritanical sexual mores and culture imported from America.

The French film industry has faced several high-profile allegations of sexual abuse in recent years and has taken steps to address them. But the country has also given a warm welcome to artists accused of abuse — including Johnny Depp and Louis CK — exposing a cultural divide with the United States.

Feminists and left-wing politicians said on Thursday they were shocked by Macron’s comments.

“Manhunts remain prohibited. The hunt for women, on the other hand, remains open,” says Osez Le Féminisme, a feminist group. said on social mediawhile Sandrine Rousseau, a Green parliamentarian, mentioned Macron’s comments “Another insult to the movement to allow victims of sexual violence to speak out.”

François Hollande, Macron’s predecessor as president, criticized him for praising Depardieu’s actions instead of showing support for victims of sex crimes.

“No, we are not proud of Gérard Depardieu,” Hollande said France Inter radio, noting that Macron once called gender equality and the fight against sexism a top priority. “And this is how he handles the Gérard Depardieu issue?” said Hollande.

Depardieu remains an internationally recognized figure having appeared in more than 250 films over the past 50 years, including ‘Cyrano de Bergerac’ and ‘The Man in the Iron Mask’.

But he has faced a growing number of sexual abuse allegations in recent years.

During job interviews in April Using Mediapart, an investigative news site, 13 women – actresses, make-up artists and production staff – accused Depardieu of making inappropriate sexual comments or gestures during filming. Two other women made similar accusations in interviews this summer with France Inter.

Depardieu has been accused of rape and sexual assault one case involves Charlotte Arnould, a French actress who says he sexually assaulted her in Paris in 2018, when she was 22, during informal rehearsals for a theater production.

Depardieu has not been convicted of any of the charges and he has categorically denied any wrongdoing.

“I have never abused a woman,” he wrote a rare letter to the newspaper Le Figaro in October.

“All my life I have been provocative, outgoing and sometimes rude,” Depardieu wrote, apologizing for “behaving like a child who wants to amuse the gallery.” But, he added: “I am neither a rapist nor a predator.”

The documentary that started a new wave of research was broadcast this month on France 2 and contains previously unseen footage of Depardieu during a 2018 trip to North Korea, where he repeatedly makes extremely crude and uninhibited sexual and sexist comments about women.

The documentary suggests that Depardieu’s sexual jokes, comments and attitudes were commonplace and common knowledge on film sets, but that the French film industry rejected them.

Four women accuse Depardieu of inappropriate comments or sexual misconduct in the documentary, including Arnould and Hélène Darras, an actress who says he sexually assaulted her on a 2008 film set and who filed suit against him in September. Depardieu has not been charged in that case.

After the documentary aired, Quebec announced the actor’s attendance stripped of the Canadian province’s highest honor and a Belgian city where he once lived said it was withdrawn an honorary title.

This week, the additional misery for Depardieu quickly piled up. The Musée Grévin said its wax figure, which first entered the museum in 1981, had been removed. A spokeswoman said this was “following reactions from visitors who were very shocked by the actor’s comments” and who had subsequently verbally abused employees.

On Wednesday, Ruth Baza, a Spanish journalist, said this the newspaper La Vanguardia that Depardieu had kissed and groped her without her consent when she was in Paris to interview him for a magazine piece in 1995.

Like many government officials in France – Macron first and foremost – Culture Minister Abdul Malak said she was “against abolishing culture”.

“We won’t stop watching his films,” she says told France 5 television from Depardieu last week. But she said his comments in the documentary could constitute sexual harassment and were “intolerable”, which reflected poorly on France.

“He is such a monument of world cinema,” said Abdul Malak, adding that she had received messages from ministers and other cultural figures from around the world “who are shocked, who say: ‘For us he was such a symbol of France. .’”