仏映画界にようやく「＃ＭｅＴｏｏ」？　女優のセクハラ告発に多数の支持

【パリＡＦＰ＝時事】仏版アカデミー賞として知られるセザール賞を2度受賞した女優が、12歳のときに初出演した映画の監督からセクシュアルハラスメント（性的嫌がらせ）を受けていたと告発し、これまでセクハラ告発運動「#MeToo（私も）」に消極的だった仏映画界に一石を投じている。（写真は仏女優のアデル・エネルさん。第70回カンヌ国際映画祭の記者会見で）
　女優のアデル・エネルさん（３０）は４日、ニュースサイト「メディアパルト」がライブ配信したロングインタビューの中で、自身に執着していた監督に「無理やり首にキスをされ」「何度も体を触られた」と告発。社会で起きている虐待に目を向けるように人々に訴え、「モンスターは存在しない」「私たちが問題にしているのは、この社会。私たちの父親や友人、きょうだいたちのことだ。私たちがこのことに目を向けない限り、先には進めない」と語った。
　クリストフ・ルッジア監督（５４）は当初、エネルさんの告発内容を強く否定していたが、仏映画監督協会の除名処分を受け、「間違い」を犯したと６日に認めた。
　ルッジア監督は、「私が送った称賛や、彼女に寄せていた期待は、彼女の若さを考えれば（エネルさんを）悩ませていたのかもしれない」「そうだとしたら、許しを請いたい」とコメントしている。
　米ハリウッドの大物プロデューサー、ハーヴェイ・ワインスタイン被告に対するセクハラ告発を契機にした「＃ＭｅＴｏｏ」運動で米映画界には２年前に激震が走ったが、仏映画界ではこの運動は盛り上がらず、カンヌ国際映画祭で同被告からセクハラを受けたとの告発があったにもかかわらず、反応は薄かった。
　しかし今、エネルさんを支持する声が前例のない勢いで広がり、放任主義をよしとしてきたフランスの姿勢に変化が生まれる可能性が出てきている。
　■リュック・ベッソン監督に対する捜査も再開
　多数の映画人にも今回の件は転機をもたらしている。監督協会の中心人物であるマルク・ミソニエ氏は、これ以上「何もなかったことにはできない」とＡＦＰに語った。仏映画の振興団体ユニフランスも、エネルさんを公式に支持するという異例の動きに出ており、俳優たちを保護するための規約を作成している。
　先月、同国で最も影響力のある監督、リュック・ベッソン氏に関する捜査も再開された。ベッソン監督は、レイプを受けたとして若手女優から告訴されていた。
　エネルさんは、性的暴行が裁判沙汰になることはほとんどないとして刑事手続きを取ることを拒否しているが、パリ検察当局はエネルさんのセクハラ被害に関して予備捜査を開始している。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2019/11/11-09:13）

The heartbreaking testimony of one of France's most acclaimed actresses who said she was sexually harassed as a 12-year-old by the director of her first film has shaken France's film industry.
Adele Haenel, who has won two French Oscars, has garnered unprecedented support since she spoke out on Monday claiming that she was subjected to forced kisses on the neck and repeated touching from a film-maker who became obsessed with her.
In a long and moving interview livestreamed by the investigative website Medipart, Haenel, now 30, appealed for French society to open its eyes to abuse in its midst.
Monsters don't exist, she said.
This is... our fathers, our friends, our brothers we are talking about. As long as we don't see this, we'll never move forward.
Director Christophe Ruggia at first strongly denied he had done anything wrong, but after being expelled from the French directors' guild he once led, he admitted Wednesday to having made errors.
I did not see that my adulation and the hopes I placed in her, might -- given her young age -- be distressing (for her), he said.
If that is the case, I ask her to forgive me, 54-year-old Ruggia added.
- French exception -
While the #MeToo movement rocked Hollywood after the accusations about the disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein broke two years ago, the reaction in France was less than dramatic, even though some of Weinstein's alleged assaults took place at the Cannes film festival.
Indeed, France's biggest female star, Catherine Deneuve, attacked the movement as a puritanical witch-hunt last year after signing an open letter with 100 other prominent French women defending men's right to hit on women.
French film industry figures -- including Deneuve, who suffered a minor stroke Wednesday -- have also long defended the controversial director Roman Polanski.
A pariah in Hollywood after his conviction for raping a 13-year-old girl in the 1970s, the maker of Rosemary's Baby has lived in France since as a fugitive from US justice.
But the big outpouring of support for Haenel may be turning France's more laissez-faire attitude on its head.
Oscar-winning French actress Marion Cotillard was one of the first to back Haenel, hailing her for breaking a silence that was so heavy.
You have left a mark in history... Your courage is a gift of unparallelled generosity for women and men, she added.
Julie Gayet, the actress and producer partner of former French president Francois Hollande, also took to Instagram to support her, saying Haenel was speaking for all those other (victims) who are still in the shadows.
- Headache for Polanski -
For many in the industry, the case is a turning point, with Marc Missonnier, of the main producers' union telling AFP that we cannot pretend that nothing has happened anymore.
UniFrance, the official body that promotes French film abroad, also took the unusual step of publicly backing Haenel and said it is now drawing up a charter to protect actors.
Veronique Le Bris, the founder of the Cine-Woman website, said this could be the tipping point.
It is the first time in France that an internationally known actress has spoken out. It is going to lead to something, she said.
Haenel's testimony comes as police re-opened an inquiry into the country's most powerful director Luc Besson last month, who had been accused of rape by a young actress.
Eight other women have previously told Mediapart that they had also been assaulted or harassed by Besson, who strongly denies the accusations.
While Haenel refused to go to the police because she said so few sexual assault cases come to court, Paris prosecutors have themselves opened a preliminary investigation into her case.
While Ruggia denies molesting her, he admitted playing the pygmalion.
Pygmalion is a sculptor who falls in love with the statue he created in the Roman poet Ovid's Metamorphoses.
The emotion stirred by the Haenel case comes at the worst possible time for the producers of Polanski's new movie about the Dreyfus affair, An Officer and a Spy, which is released in France next week.
Polanski sparked controversy at the Venice film festival in August, where the movie won the Grand Prix second prize, after drawing parallels between himself and the innocent Jewish officer persecuted by the French army in the last years of the 19th century.