New explosion in the
Her lawyer, Me Laure Heinich, confirmed to AFP on Wednesday morning this information from Le Monde on the actress’ filing of a complaint for rape of a 15-year-old minor by a person in authority, Tuesday at the Minor Protection Brigade. According to Le Monde, Mr. Jacquot, 77 years old and a film expected soon, “firmly denies the allegations and accusations”. Asked by AFP, he said on Wednesday that he did not wish to react further, sticking to these statements.
The actress and the filmmaker, 25 years her senior, began their relationship in the spring of 1986, when she was just 14 years old and taking her first steps in the cinema. They lived together, without hiding their relationship, even buying an apartment in Paris, until their separation in 1992.
The actress, whose role as a high school student in La disenchantée by Benoît Jacquot earned her a nomination for the César for Most Promising Actress in 1991, then became one of the promising stars of French cinema, appearing in dozens of films including Ridicule , The Spanish Inn or Potiche. The one who played opposite DiCaprio (The Man in the Iron Mask) subsequently became rare, retiring to the United States.
At the end of 2023, she made her return to French screens, and shed harsh light on her relationship with Jacquot, which her parents did not in any way prevent at the time, in a series in the form of a testimony, Icon of French cinema, broadcast on Arte. She had never before brought the director to justice for these facts, which appear prescribed.
In around ten stories published overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday on Instagram, Ms. Godrèche repeatedly describes Mr. Jacquot as a “pervert” who “tirelessly puts her in the place of the non-existent object”. At the beginning of January, in another story, the 51-year-old actress said that “the little girl in (her) can no longer keep silent about this name” and spoke of “control” and, again, “perversion”. “His name is Benoît Jacquot,” she named.
“Who has respect for (their) practices? Known to everyone for 35 years? Who endorses and validates? The agent representing him? That he introduced me to when I was 14? His producer? Same thing. (…) Where does this feeling of impunity come from? Everything was known. And the same people are on the maneuvers,” she continued, saying she feared that people would “turn their backs” on her after these comments.
His speaking out was motivated by the viewing of a 2011 documentary where Benoît Jacquot recognized the illegal nature of his past relationship with the teenager: “Yes, it was a transgression. If only with regard to the law (…) we do not have the right in principle, I believe. A girl like her who was in fact 15 years old, and I was 40, I had no right,” he said. Before investigators, Judith Godrèche also denounced violence during this relationship, according to Me Heinich.
The director of Farewell to the Queen (2012), heir to the New Wave and known above all for acclaimed successes, has built his work around actresses, stars like Isabelle Huppert or debutantes, like Isild Le Besco and Virginie Ledoyen . “I can only film an actress if I am in love with her,” the person said in 2009 in Le Figaro.
This complaint comes in the wake of numerous accusations from