Judith Godrèche at the Césars: a photo resurfaces and arouses more and more reactions

The Césars could not, for their 49th edition, turn a deaf ear to the resounding declarations that Judith Godrèche has made in recent weeks and the French #MeToo. Beginning, as part of the promotion of his series Icon of French Cinema, to look back on her relationship from 15 years ago with the director Benoît Jacquot – her series is inspired by her own experience, the actress and director freed her words to then allow those of other members of the world of cinema. She thus filed a complaint against the filmmaker who directed her as a teenager and with whom she lived, putting into words what she suffered: rape and sexual assault. She also targeted another director, Jacques Doillon, against whom she also decided to file a complaint. Shortlisted for the Césars, the 51-year-old artist delivered a very powerful speech, receiving a standing ovation from the audience. Since then, another photo has been circulating on social networks and concerns another actress: Adèle Haenel.

Several personalities recall that exactly four years ago at the Césars, another actress made a powerful splash: Adèle Haenel. The actress abruptly left the Salle Pleyel when Roman Polanski was crowned best director for I accuse. In the room, the Canal + camera was then able to see that the actress Adèle Haenel got up to leave the Salle Pleyel, not waiting for the end of the ceremony. Some applause was heard as he passed and a few boos were addressed to Polanski. “Shame“, she would have declared.

Adèle Haenel at the Césars in 2020: a powerful memory that returns

The director who brilliantly directed it on several occasions, notably Portrait of the girl on fire, Céline Sciamma therefore published a photo of herself backstage at the Césars in 2020, pensive. A way of reminding us that a short time ago, the actress had already issued a major warning signal, only heard now.

A memory which is still vivid in other memories, like that of Marie Gillain – who exploded in the cinema at 16 in My father, this hero. She reposted this image in an Instagram story, while journalist Daphné Roulier was pleased that the world was finally moving, while saluting the courage of the two French actresses.

What happens to Adèle Haenel?

Adèle Haenel, actress with 2 Césars, decided in 2023 to stop acting for political reasons. In a column published by Telerama, she spoke and announced that she was retiring from the world of cinema for good. “I decided to politicize my cessation of cinema to denounce the general complacency of the profession towards sexual attackers and more generally, the way in which this environment collaborates with the deadly racist ecocidal order of the world as it is.“, she explained.

She was once part of the cast of The Empire by Bruno Dumont, before slamming the door judging the content of the film “sexist and racist“. For his part, Bruno Dumont had criticized the hasty departure of the actress from his film. A not very respectful attitude according to the director: “In 2022, I find Adèle Haenel, very angry with me, although until then, we got along very well” he confided. “She wanted to change the scenario that she had until then found completely crazy and delightful, accusing me in particular of being racist, because I only filmed with white people. She has the right to think so, but she took more than a year to do it. In 2020, she said she no longer wanted to do cinema but politics, but that she could not refuse my film. This totally unpredictable and incomprehensible about-face deeply saddened me , and gave everyone a blow.”

Questioned by our colleagues atAllocinated, Adèle Haenel returned in more detail to this quarrel with Bruno Dumont. She thus confided having discussed the script with the director and asked for changes, which ultimately never happened : “After a year, I received the new script where not a single line had been changed, which is why I left the project. There are several people who can attest to this” she revealed.

Referral for correction of director Christophe Ruggia whom Adèle Haenel accused of sexual assault

Alongside her career, Adèle Haenel also saw another affair resurface. The Paris prosecutor’s office has requested the criminal referral of director Christophe Ruggia for sexual assault on a minor on Adèle Haenel in the early 2000s, as revealed by RMC and AFP in February.

According to sources close to the case, two aggravating circumstances were retained by the public prosecutor: the minority of Adèle Haenel at the time of the alleged facts, from the age of 12, and the position of authority of Mr. Ruggia, who is the first director to have it in the film Devils (2002).

“It results from the detailed, constant, precise and dated declarations of Adène Haenel (…) and the elements collected at the end of the investigation that Christophe Ruggia imposed sexual assault on her, notwithstanding his denials“, wrote the prosecution in its requisitions dated Tuesday of which AFP was informed.

Christophe Ruggia, Jacques Doillon and Benoît Jacquot are presumed innocent of the alleged acts until the final end of their trial.