Sex, lies and Harvey Weinstein

• All about the Weinstein case: the beginning of #metoo

At this point, with about 80 complaints of sexual harassment and rape involved, a social phenomenon such as the #MeToo underway and dozens of reports and news in the press and television on the trajectory of Harvey Weinstein, it might seem that everything is already said, seen, spoken and read. Documentaries such as Untouchable , which opens in theaters this Friday, show that no: we still need to hear what the victims of this one-person pack have to say, capable of abusing their power with absolute impunity for almost four decades until they believe, as the Own title, untouchable.

"Harvey got into bed naked. I said: 'Harvey!' and I pushed him so that he didn't get on me. At first he tried to coax me: Do you really want me to be your enemy for not giving me five minutes of your time? "says Hope D'Amour, the first assistant he hired in 1978 when he founded Miramax, the production company with which the American independent cinema revolutionized. With the excuse of a business trip and a supposed error in the hotel reservation, Weinstein allegedly made the first of his long list of abuses. "He just kept trying . I just thought that if I shut up, it would all be over soon," D'Amour continues, his eyes lost, to the very edge of tears. "For many victims the process is very difficult. They feel a lot of shame and humiliation. They feel that, in some way, what happened was their fault: they got into the situation, they should have left before everything got out of control ...", affirms by email Ursula Macfarlane, director of the documentary.

The veteran British filmmaker defines the process of filming the interviews as something " exhausting and traumatic ", but also beneficial for the victims themselves and for some of the men on the film crew. "A sound technician, after filming a particularly heartbreaking testimony, told me: 'Men never heard this kind of thing, so I feel very grateful to have been here today.' His words have accompanied me and demonstrate the importance of including men in this conversation . " Other men lend themselves to reveal in front of the camera some of Weinstein's usual behaviors, which included, among other things, the launching of two kilos marble ashtrays against his collaborators when he had not managed to get his way. Mark Gill, who became president of Miramax, radiographs it in three sentences: "I always wanted more: more press, more movies, more stars, more parties. More, more and more. That tells you about the hole I wanted to fill, but never seemed to be enough. "

Weinstein's story, and that of his brother Bob - more discreet, just as sinister - is that of Buffalo concert promoters with an excessive ambition that forever changed the way of doing things in Hollywood. For good thanks to his good smell for the movies, giving a chance to a generation of new filmmakers such as Steven Soderbergh or Quentin Tarantino and as marketing geniuses; and, for worse, normalizing the abuses in his own company , using tactics of the mafia and buying the silence of those who were affected by their excesses. Nothing seemed capable of knocking down the monster that some journalists hunted by saying "I am the fucking sheriff of this fucking town," until two reports in The New York Times and The New Yorker and an explicit recording of one of his abuses came into the public domain. .

Among the actresses who participate in the documentary, only Rosanna Arquette and Paz de la Huerta managed to cross the threshold of fame. "He grabbed my hand and I realized that he had an erection. I backed away and said: 'Rosanna, you are making a serious mistake,'" says Arquette, who managed to get rid of very little. From the Garden he was not so lucky: "I He lifted the dress and I was terrified. I didn't shout, nor hit him, I was paralyzed. The way he submitted me left me no way out. "Other actresses didn't go far in their careers, probably because they fled before the producer's advances.

Some Miramax workers reveal similar cases, a modus operandi that is portrayed in all its rawness thanks to the testimony of Zelda Perkins, his assistant in England. "I had to wake him up in the morning, which used to involve a struggle by the bed . He showered and hoped that you were present when he was naked. He tried to normalize the situation quickly and told me not to be so stretched, that I didn't have time to worry about my feelings. It was an ongoing struggle , like trying to keep my head out of the water. "

Waiting for the trial against Weinstein, delayed until January by a new complaint, that of actress Annabella Sciorra, and although something seems to have changed in the film industry, there is still a long way to go. "The abuse of the vulnerable by the powerful is part of our culture and is one of the oldest stories in the world, so it is not something that will change overnight. I also know that there are many in Hollywood they fear new revelations ... This is not over, "concludes Macfarlane.

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• movie theater
• Harvey weinstein
• culture

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