Paris (AFP)
The situation of Roman Polanski, targeted by a new accusation of rape that he denies, embarrassed the French cinema, regularly suspected of over-protecting the multi-award-winning director, still pursued by American justice for facts dating back to 1977.
Since the publication Friday of the testimony of the photographer Valentine Monnier, who says he was "beaten" and raped by Roman Polanski in Switzerland in 1975 at the age of eighteen, the film industry remained rather silent.
This lack of reactions contrasts with the many messages of support addressed last week to the actress Adèle Haenel, who accused the director Christophe Ruggia of "touching" and "sexual harassment" when she was a teenager.
Adele Haenel is also one of the only figures of the 7th Art to have given her "support" to Valentine Monnier, whose accusation, the first worn by a French woman, adds to those of other women in recent years , all denied by the director.
Two days before the release of "J'accuse", Polanski's film about the Dreyfus affair - Grand Prix of the jury at the Venice Film Festival - the embarrassment is palpable.
Jean Dujardin, who plays the main role of "J'accuse", canceled his arrival at the 20H TF1 Sunday. France Inter announced that Emmanuelle Seigner, wife of Polanski who plays in the film, would not come on Tuesday on the show "Boomerang".
- "Unconditional Cenacle" -
The filmmakers of the ARP (Civil Society of Authors, Directors and Producers), including the 86-year-old filmmaker, said that if they "decide on the status of Roman Polanski, they will do so with the agreement of filmmakers "members.
But, they added, "there is no board of directors yet."
Roman Polanski is also a member of the Association for the Promotion of Cinema (APC), which oversees the Académie des César. Asked by AFP, the president of the Academy, Alain Terzian, did not answer.
The French-Polish director, Oscar winner for "The Pianist" - and also rewarded by several César and a Palme d'Or - has always found support in France since he fled the United States in 1978, under the influence prosecution in minor diversion proceedings. But he faces a growing indignation of feminists.
In 2017, they had demonstrated in France against a retrospective devoted to him at the Cinémathèque. The same year, he had had to give up presiding over Caesar.
The filmmaker had however been supported by these institutions - Alain Terzian justifying his choice as "indisputable" - while in the United States, the Academy of Oscars decided to exclude it.
In his column in Le Parisien, Valentine Monnier denounces the attitude of a "unconditional cenacle of intellectuals and artists who persist in (...) supporting" Roman Polanski despite "many other accusations of rape" and despite the movement #MeToo.
- "Distinguish the man and the artist" -
The star of French cinema Catherine Deneuve, who had shot with him in "Repulsion", never stopped supporting him, as she did again before the Mostra, where the selection of "J'accuse" had indignant feminists.
"Most people do not know the reality" of the case, according to her.
The general delegate of the Cannes Film Festival, Thierry Frémaux, also estimated in 2017 that "this is a business that you need to know to be able to talk about it".
"It's been 40 years since then, he lives a normal life (...) Forgiveness is necessary in society", also argued recently the director Costa-Gavras, president of the Cinémathèque française.
This summer, the director of the Mostra, Alberto Barbera, felt "that it is necessary to make a very clear distinction between the man and the artist". But jury president Lucrecia Martel claimed to be "very embarrassed" by the selection of the film.
For the academic Iris Brey, specialist of the representation of the genre in the cinema, "to separate the artist from the work, it is a question which one reserves only to the men".
Valentine Monnier also wonders about the fact that the director continues to benefit from public funds for his films.
The Ministry of Culture confirmed to AFP to have received a letter from the photographer on this subject, sent by the office of Brigitte Macron, a letter that the services of Franck Riester forwarded to the National Film Center (CNC) and to France Télévisions, the film being co-produced by France 2 and France 3.
© 2019 AFP