Depardieu behaviour ‘shames France’: culture minister

Depardieu has been charged with rape and faces a slew of other allegations – Copyright AFP/File Patrick T. FALLON

The behaviour of French cinema superstar Gerard Depardieu, charged with rape and facing new scrutiny after sexist comments were broadcast in a television documentary, shames France, the culture minister said on Friday.

Culture Minister Rima Abdul-Malak also said that the Grand Chancery of the Legion of Honour would initiate a “disciplinary procedure” to decide whether to strip Depardieu of the country’s top honour.

Depardieu, 74, was charged with rape in 2020 and has also faced 13 accusations of sexual harassment or assault.

A documentary titled “The Fall of the Ogre” shows the actor on a 2018 trip to North Korea repeatedly making explicit sexual comments in the presence of a female interpreter and sexualising a small girl riding a horse. It was aired last week on France 2 television.

“Directors will decide if he has roles in films in the future or not,” Abdul-Malak told reporters in the southern town of Moissac.

“I don’t think he has many offers arriving now on his desk.”

She said the comments broadcast in the France 2 report were “absolutely shocking” and she was “disgusted” by his behaviour.

She denounced “an attitude which is intended to be joking and provocative, but is in fact disrespectful and undignified and shames France, because he is a monument of cinema throughout the world.”

– ‘Disciplinary procedure’ –

Speaking on France 5, the culture minister indicated the actor might be stripped of the Legion of Honour he received from then-president Jacques Chirac in 1996.

“A Legion of Honour distinguishes a man, an artist, an attitude, values,” she said. 

“It so happens that I spoke with the Grand Chancellor of the Legion of Honour, General (Francois) Lecointre,” she said, adding that a “disciplinary procedure” would be initiated to decide whether the award should be revoked. 

“It will be up to them to decide,” she said. “It’s important to raise this issue.”

At the same time she said the French would not stop watching films featuring Depardieu.

The actor — who has more than 200 titles to his name, including 1990 comedy “Green Card” and Netflix series “Marseille” — has denied any wrongdoing.

“Never ever have I abused a woman,” he wrote in Le Figaro newspaper in October.

The Canadian province of Quebec on Wednesday stripped Depardieu of its top honour over his “scandalous” comments against women in the France 2 report.

French investigators are also looking into the death of an actress who was one of the first to accuse Depardieu of sexual assault, prosecutors said this week.

Several media outlets have reported that Emmanuelle Debever died by suicide aged 60 on December 7, the day the France 2 documentary was aired.