The French actor Gérard Depardieu has gone on trial at a Paris court charged with sexually assaulting two women during a 2021 film shoot as his lawyer vowed to show all the accusations are "false".
Depardieu, 76, who has acted in more than 200 films and television series, is facing allegations by around 20 women, but this is the first case to come to trial.
He is the highest-profile figure to face accusations in French cinema's response to the #MeToo movement.
Depardieu, dressed in a dark suit with no tie, walked into the Paris criminal court with a hand on his lawyer's shoulder. The two plaintiffs were also present in the courtroom as the trial got under way in the early afternoon.
The trial relates to allegations of sexual assault during the filming in 2021 of Les Volets Verts (The Green Shutters).
Anouk Grinberg, a prominent actor who appeared in the film, has backed the two plaintiffs - a set dresser, 54, and a 34-year-old assistant director. Both women allege sexual violence.
"This trial is going to allow us to confront all accusations with reality, witnesses, and the layout of the premises. We will thus be able to show in an impartial, objective, and undeniable manner that all the accusations are false," Depardieu's lawyer, Jérémie Assous, told AFP just before the trial started.
Feminist activists protested outside the courtroom.
The defendant's younger daughter, Roxane Depardieu, and her mother, Depardieu's ex-partner Karine Silla, as well as the actor Fanny Ardant were among the film star's supporters inside the courtroom.
Ardant then left the room after the defence team cited her as a witness.
The trial, initially scheduled to take place in October 2024, had been postponed due to the actor's ill health.
Assous said last year that Depardieu had undergone a heart bypass operation and suffered from diabetes that was aggravated by the stress of the forthcoming trial.
According to Assous, Depardieu's court appearances are to be limited to six hours a day and he will take breaks whenever he "needs them".
One of Depardieu's two accusers, the set dresser, alleged in February last year that she had suffered sexual assault, sexual harassment, and sexist insults during filming.
The second plaintiff, an assistant director, also alleges sexual violence.
"What my client wants is for the trial to take place. But I am also worried about how Mr Depardieu's defence will treat the civil parties at the hearing," said lawyer Claude Vincent.
Overall, around 20 women have made allegations against Depardieu, but several cases have been dropped due to the statute of limitations.
French actor Charlotte Arnould was the first woman to file a criminal complaint against Depardieu, in 2018.
Last August, the Paris prosecutor's office requested a trial for rape and sexual assault, accusations the famous actor has consistently denied over the years.
"Never, but never, have I abused a woman," Depardieu wrote in an open letter to the conservative daily Le Figaro.
Source: AFP
