Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic G\u00e9rard Depardieu, the one-time lion of French cinema, cut a diminished figure at his recent trial for sexual assault as judges allowed him to testify sitting down and munch on snacks because of health problems.\u00a0Yet the 76-year-old retained enough of his actor\u2019s presence to turn the courtroom into a stage on which he vehemently denied allegations that he abused two women on a movie set in 2021. The effect was amplified by Depardieu\u2019s male lawyer, whose aggressive tactics were criticised by opposing counsel for allegedly seeking to discredit the women with derogatory language.The trial has fascinated France, given Depardieu\u2019s stature as one of the most successful French actors of his generation, whose name on a movie poster in the 1990s and 2000s practically ensured a blockbuster. In films such as Cyrano de Bergerac and Green Card, a youthful Depardieu played roles in which he embodied clich\u00e9s of seductive French men.Carine Durrieu Diebolt, the lawyer for Amelie K. \u2014 who said Depardieu groped her on the set of the movie Les Volets Verts \u2014 said the case would test the progress of the MeToo movement in the arts.\u201cI have been working on cases involving G\u00e9rard Depardieu for almost five years and roughly a dozen women have come to me,\u201d Durrieu Diebolt said in the court. \u201cHe was and still is influential in the cinema world. Women didn\u2019t speak out or file complaints out of fear of losing their jobs.\u201dJ\u00e9r\u00e9mie Assous, Depardieu\u2019s lawyer, said later in his closing argument that the plaintiffs\u2019 testimony was unreliable and their lawyers were on a witch-hunt. \u201cThe trial, however, has served precisely to establish the baseless and unfounded nature of the accusations.\u201dThree judges at the Paris criminal court will issue their verdict on May 13. Depardieu faces an 18-month suspended prison sentence if convicted, along with a \u20ac200,000 fine and the payment of damages.During the trial, Depardieu contested accusations that he had groped the set designer Amelie K. and an assistant director named as Sarah. He warned that the MeToo movement risked becoming \u201ca terror\u201d, in reference to a violent period of the French Revolution.\u00a0\u201cI defend free speech, I love femininity, but not women who are hysterical,\u201d he told the court.\u00a0Allegations of sexual abuse by Depardieu began to trickle out in 2018 when a 22-year old aspiring actress, Charlotte Arnould, accused him of raping her when she went to his apartment for career advice \u2014 something Depardieu denies. Since then, more than a dozen women have come forward to media outlet Mediapart about other allegations of sexual misconduct.\u00a0Depardieu has repeatedly denied such allegations. In a 2023 op-ed in Le Figaro newspaper he admitted to being \u201cprovocative, excessive and crude\u201d, but said he was \u201cneither a rapist nor a predator\u201d.Preliminary charges have also been filed against Depardieu over the alleged rape of Arnould, and prosecutors have asked for a trial. A judge will decide on if and when that trial occurs.In France, as elsewhere, MeToo has prompted people to reveal sexual harassment and abuse they have faced across society and within powerful institutions such as the Catholic Church and top universities. Gis\u00e8le Pelicot, a 71-year-old grandmother, became a feminist icon last year when she publicly testified at the trial of her former husband, who admitted to drugging and raping her for decades.\u00a0But critics say the artistic industries, especially cinema, have resisted change, with older generations the most reticent. There is still a tendency to excuse artists\u2019 bad behaviour in the name of creative genius, and oft-repeated calls for the work to stand on its own, even if the artists were flawed or committed wrongdoing.In 2023, some 50 directors, actors and singers including Charlotte Rampling and Carla Bruni wrote an open letter to call for a stop to the \u201clynching\u201d of Depardieu. President Emmanuel Macron also came to his defence, saying that he should be presumed innocent and that the actor still \u201cmakes France proud\u201d.A recent parliamentary commission that interviewed 140 people working in theatre, arts schools, and film and television found that sexual violence and harassment were still \u201csystemic, endemic and persistent\u201d.\u00a0\u201cThe system is a meat grinder that consumes people,\u201d said Erwan Balanant, a centrist member of parliament who co-led the commission.\u00a0\u201cThere are aspects of the cultural sphere that aggravate the phenomenon \u2014 the temporary nature of the jobs, the fear of being blacklisted in what remain small circles, and the cult of the auteur that can protect offenders.\u201dThe commission began after 53-year-old actress Judith Godr\u00e8che issued a blistering critique at the national C\u00e9sar awards for film, accusing the industry of complicity in a toxic culture that victimised people. She accused directors Jacques Doillon and Beno\u00eet Jacquot, who were well-known from the 1970s to 1990s, of abusing her when she was starting out as a teenager. The directors have strongly denied the allegations.At the time France\u2019s laws around consent were more permissive, and such alleged relationships between artists and young muses were romanticised.Well-known French actors and directors appeared before the commission. The 36-year-old Ad\u00e8le Haenel, the star of Portrait of a Lady on Fire, related how she quit cinema after revealing that she was abused as a minor by a film director. Jean Dujardin, an Oscar winner for The Artist, said sexism was still a problem, while actor and director Gilles Lellouche admitted he had at times \u201cbehaved inappropriately\u201d on sets, although he said there was no sexual assault.The cult of the auteur has weakened, as symbolised by the reconsideration of rock star Bertrand Cantat, frontman of the band Noir D\u00e9sir, who was convicted in 2004 of beating his girlfriend to death.A new Netflix documentary issued a harsh critique of how the case was handled by the courts \u2014 he only served four years in prison \u2014 and also by the media and fans, who enabled his return to performing.\u00a0Balanant said the commission had observed improvements, but called for greater progress, such as more on-set coordinators for sex scenes and punishments for bad behaviour.\u00a0Of the Depardieu case, he said: \u201cThe case is very revelatory to the system that is still in place and how hard it is for victims to come forward. There can be no more excuses for bad behaviour in the arts world, just like there cannot be in wider society.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic G\u00e9rard Depardieu, the one-time lion of French cinema, cut a diminished figure at his recent trial for sexual assault as judges allowed him to testify sitting down and munch on snacks because of health problems.\u00a0Yet the 76-year-old retained enough of his actor\u2019s presence to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":308138,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-308137","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-culture"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=308137"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308137\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":308139,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308137\/revisions\/308139"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/308138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}