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The accusations fall one after the other. The latest concerns the director Nils Tavernier, 59 years old, targeted by two rape complaints filed by Jennifer, 45 years old, minor at the time of the facts and Laura, 32 years old, aged 19 when she dealt with Nils Tavernier. The two women spoke with journalists from New Obs who were able to view the complaints.
The trigger for the two complainants is Judith Godrèche. When the actress and director reveals for the first time the abuse she allegedly suffered from Benoît Jacquot (she also filed a complaint against Jacques Doillon), Jennifer and Laura can only identify with her speech: “When I heard Judith explain that we cannot understand what happens when we are under the power of someone more powerful, I cried for three days. For the first time, I spoke about it to my psychoanalyst. Everything came back together, I was upset, I cut off all communication for several days” Laura said before turning her phone back on and seeing that a certain Jennifer wanted to get in touch with her.
A minor complainant at the time of the facts
Jennifer was only 12 years old when she met Nils Tavernier for the first time. Both star in the TV movie Sabine, I imagine: “He made me climb onto his lap and held my hand. All the time he said he was in love with me, it didn’t shock anyone“, she indicates. The latter would have ended up kissing her”suddenly, with the tongue” : “I had never kissed a boy, I put this incomprehensible act in the back of my mind, like a mistake, I didn’t tell anyone..”
A few months later, for “discuss a scenario”, Nils Tavernier invites Jennifer to his home. The apartment visit turns into an ordeal for the then 13-year-old teenager: “I had high-top Dr. Martens, a long black dress, a red sweater on top, he scolded me for having such impractical clothes to take off. I was barely 13, I was small, untrained, I didn’t wear a bra yet, just small boat bras. […] He got on his knees, took out his erect penis. I had never seen one. I said no, twice. He insisted ‘You can’t leave me like this’, took my hand to masturbate him. His mouth was near my ear, I could hear his groans.“
Twenty years later, he’s on the set of his own film, With all our strength, that Nils Tavernier crossed paths with Laura Lardeux, then a 19-year-old film student hired to play the role of Anne in the film. The latter claims that she was also invited to the director’s room for a photo test: “He asked me to take off my bra, so that I could ‘breathe more freely’, then he opened my shirt, revealing my breasts. I was very uncomfortable, but I told myself that it must be okay to ask that.“
This time, still according to the young woman, the way of acting is different: “I wasn’t allowed to talk to the team, I had to have dinner with him every night. He asked me about my faults and the problems with my mother, the absence of my father, he praised my intelligence, my talent. […] He voluntarily isolated me, to ensure his influence.” An isolation confirmed by a scriptwriter from the filming who nevertheless claims to have “never seen the slightest inappropriate gesture” from the director.
Still according to Laura’s testimony, if he tried to kiss her and she pushed him away, Nils Tavernier would ultimately have gone much further another time: “He approached me, I didn’t dare leave. I had seen him shout loudly on set, I was afraid of being fired, of finding myself blacklisted from the cinema, given his notoriety. He told me that I should trust him. […] I finally let him do it, I closed my eyes. After the penetration, he told me to leave, so as not to be seen. For months afterward, he wrote and called me. He offered me an editing internship, which I refused.”
Nils tavernier reacts
Contacted by New Obs, Nils Tavernier says to himself “stunned“ and denies the facts with which he is accused : “You mention two complaints of rape, that’s unheard of.“He who claims not to have”nothing to [se] to reproach” refused to answer questions. Nils Tavernier’s lawyers also spoke on the evening of Friday April 6 through a press release sent to AFP: “Our client formally contests the accusations of rape reported by Nouvel Obs. He will only respond to the judicial authority, if he were to be invited to do so.” they indicate. Le Nouvel Obs was also interested in the filmmaker’s entourage, who describes a man “human”, “sensitive”, “benevolent” but sometimes “irritable“. The script having confirmed the isolation of the complainant Laura mentions “an angry and misogynistic daddy’s boy“without however evoking the words of”sexual predator.”
For the two complainants, these acts were not without consequences: “gynecological problems, perforating stomach ulcers, anorexia, suicide attempts“for Jennifer when Laura mentions”a blocked woman’s life, stuck in molasses.“The complaints were filed on February 13 in Normandy for Jennifer, and on March 20 in Rhône-Alpes for Laura. It is now up to the prosecution to decide whether to follow up on these complaints or not.
Nils Tavernier is presumed innocent of the charges against him until the end of the legal proceedings.
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