PARIS (AP) — As French cinema basks in Oscars Academy Awards attention, actresses who allege they were teenage victims of sexual and physical abuse by directors decades older than them are shining the light on the repulsive underside of the country’s industry.
The latest step in the #MeToo movement could come at the French cinema awards on Friday.
French media are reporting that Judith Godrèche is to make a speech on sexual violence at the Cesar Awards ceremony, France’s version of the Oscars, which is broadcast live on television.
Godrèche already sent a powerful message to the public through recent interviews in which she denounced an “omerta” in the industry.
It comes as French cinema is expected to shine next month at the Oscars ceremony with Justine Triet ‘s courtroom drama “ Anatomy of a Fall.”
Godrèche, 51, is well-known to French cinemagoers. She recently accused two film directors of rape and sexual abuse when she was a teenager. She formally filed a complaint earlier this month, the Paris prosecutor said.
She is accusing film director Benoît Jacquot, with whom she had a six-year relationship which started when she was 14, of rape and physical abuse. Jacquot, a prominent director in France, is 25 years her senior.
She is also accusing another film director, Jacques Doillon, of sexual abuse while he was directing a film when she was 15. Doillon is 28 years older than her.
Both Jacquot and Doillon have denied the allegations.
Speaking on France Inter radio earlier this month, Godrèche said she was never attracted to Jacquot, “but I ended up with him, in his bed, and I was his child wife.” Godrèche and Jacquot met in 1986 on the set of his film “The Beggars.”
“I was indoctrinated, it was as if I’d joined a…