In France, ‘defending the culture,’ but not all of its icons
The caricature of the libertine French male, practicing a form of predation masked as seduction, is one with deep roots and some social support. Our Paris-based writer looked at where trust in those pushing back has begun to stir. She joins our podcast to talk about her reporting.
It’s not about l’amour. It’s about “no more.”
French culture sometimes blurs the line between flirtation and harassment. Does that open a path, for some, to sexual abuse and rape?
Consider the auteur. Some Gallic cinema icons have pushed boundaries in ways that seem very familiar to those who watched the #MeToo movement simmer from the mid-2000s until its 2017 boil-over. This week’s U.S.-based lawsuit aimed at nonagenarian director Roman Polanski, based on new sexual assault allegations over actions from the 1970s, is the latest wrinkle in a long-running story.
“In France you have actors who of course have this celebrity status, but that has extended in the last century or so to directors as well,” says Colette Davidson. These men were lifted to a kind of demigod status, Colette says on the “Why We Wrote This” podcast, “able to … get away with things in the name of culture, of creativity in the way that maybe others wouldn’t be able to.”
Increasingly, the defense of these transgressors has people up in arms, Colette says. The story she reported became more than a justice story. As women who’ve been subjected to abuse speak out, some now gain a society’s trust.
“I think France is experiencing a second wave of the #MeToo movement,” Colette says, “and [French people] are starting to listen.”
Episode transcript
Clay Collins: The initial fury of the #MeToo movement in the United States may have flagged considerably since its 2017 boiling point, but the social umbrage that it initially unleashed arguably felt deep and supported.
In France, the handling of sexual misconduct and abuse by cinema stars has been on a different trajectory, and so have public attitudes. The approach toward alleged transgressors has long been more apologist. Trust seems more likely to be extended toward them than toward accusers.
Paris-based writer Colette Davidson recently explored that phenomenon in a story for the Monitor.
This is “Why We Wrote This.” I’m Clay Collins. Colette joins us today. Hey, Colette.
Colette Davidson: Hello.
Collins: So, France and the U.S., of course, have many, many cultural differences, including attitudes about gender interactions and what qualifies as permissible behavior. There’s a male libertine streak [in France] that’s practically a caricature. You write about the cult of the auteur, of the artist. In your story, that’s captured in the words of Gerard Depardieu’s former agent who called him, quote, “a monster, yes, but a sacred monster.” So how much of France’s handling of #MeToo type issues is anchored in that way in French culture?
Davidson: Well, I think it does sort of stem from the basic interactions between men and women in France. Something I noticed really early on when I arrived in France about 15 years ago is interactions between men and women don’t necessarily feel as neutral as they do in the U.S. There’s always some kind of sexual tension, uh, banter, it just ... it feels different, so I think it starts there.
And there is something that I think even in France, people attach to that, that men are sort of in charge of these relationships between men and women. And there is an “art of seduction.” So when it comes to cinema, this was something that Catherine Deneuve, the French actress, referenced when the first #MeToo wave really hit. She said, you know, France prides itself on seduction, and we don’t want to have anything to do with this American Puritanism.
So it was really pitting these two cultures, these two attitudes against one another. And then when you look at cinema, you mentioned the film d’auteur. So in France you have actors who of course have this celebrity status, but that has extended in the last century or so to directors as well. So, you have someone like, if you think of Woody Allen, where their film really personifies themselves as a person, their personality, that’s the kind of film that we’re talking about. And so, these directors were lifted to that same status, kind of like demigods, and able to exist outside societal norms and get away with things in the name of, of culture, of creativity in the way that maybe others wouldn’t be able to.
So I think that’s where Depardieu, when his agent calls him “a monster, but a sacred monster…” Well, he did these things. But it’s Gerard Depardieu.
Collins: You think of Roman Polanski, too, and the legal issues there around extradition. And I want to ask about the French legal system because I’ve read elsewhere that it was quicker to make marital rape a crime than even the U.S. system was. And very recently, the right to an abortion was enshrined in the French constitution. But you described the system as being exceedingly slow. So can you say more about that, and about whether there’s something about the system that lessens its effectiveness as a deterrent?
Davidson: Yes, definitely. France’s legal system is notoriously slow. The French love paperwork in general. So if you can imagine how that applies to its judicial system, it’s extremely slow. There was a report that came out from 2023 that showed that an average case from the subpoena to the verdict took an average of 600 days. So it’s excessively long for any type of case, and then when you have a case that involves sexual assault, which often involves, you know, cases of “he said, she said,” where the details of the case are harder to prove, it makes it even more difficult. Around 80 percent of rape cases are dismissed in France, and fewer than 1 percent end in a conviction.
So, when people hear those statistics – when women hear those statistics – it’s already a deterrent to come forward, because they feel that they’re going to lose anyway, so what’s the point in taking all this time? So you have so many cases that are also thrown out just to sort of declog the system, and just anecdotally, women don’t feel that they’re believed when they report cases. Although, President Emmanuel Macron has talked about how police officers are being better trained to handle sexual assault complaints. That is true for the new crop of police officers, but there are still many that are kind of Old School, let’s say, and women’s complaints are not being taken seriously. And I think it is definitely a deterrent for women coming forward. So that’s the first problem in the legal system.
President Emmanuel Macron has also refused to define rape as nonconsensual sex, which would have been in line with 11 other European countries. So when you don’t have the president, the government behind you, that’s another deterrent to coming forward.
Collins: Your story could have easily just been one about justice, but it carries a “trust” tag. And I’m just wondering how you decided to look at the pattern of extension of public trust toward aggressors versus accusers. It sounds like what you were just describing was kind of a motivating force there.
Davidson: Yes, well, initially I was really most curious about this cultural aspect and what makes France different from the rest. In France, you often hear this concept of the French exception – the French cultural exception. The French have fought really hard to keep French films on screens here, French songs on radio stations, and so that’s where they really see their cultural products as something that need to be protected.
And so I was looking at it from that perspective. Why are the French so protective of their culture? What makes them different? Does that also extend to instances of sexual violence that they can also get away with these things in the name of culture, in the name of the creative process? And my editor, Arthur Bright, helped me to define a value. Because for me, the value didn’t actually pop out immediately when I had those questions. So he helped me kind of define things a bit more.
Collins: Hmm. You just talked about international comparisons. I mentioned in the setup to the show, the slowing of momentum around #MeToo in the U.S. where some Hollywood figures who’ve been accused or even confirmed as having gone way out of bounds behaviorally are making their way back into the entertainment industry. You wrote and you just spoke about “the myth of seduction,” and life imitating art. You also talk about the prosecution of a filmmaker in France. Does your reporting say to you that victims and survivors in France might increasingly be heard? And could that affect social change, even nurture some new societal norms?
I wonder if there’s a generational aspect to that.
Davidson: Yes, I definitely think so. As I mentioned before, when the first #MeToo wave happened in the U.S. and it arrived in France, of course, as well, the French didn’t seem to necessarily attach to it right away. I think there is an immediate reaction oftentimes here to rebuff anything that is too American – an American import – but that’s not necessarily the case anymore.
I think the Depardieu case really hit a nerve with people. It wasn’t necessarily what he had done, because that was something that we had unfortunately seen from celebrities in France before. But what was so shocking to people was the way that President Macron defended him on national television, saying that he had been a victim of a manhunt.
And, you know, that made victims feel like, well, what about my story? What about my side? And that really got people up in arms. And what sort of moved things forward was when French actress Judith Godrèche, came forward a few weeks ago to speak about her own experiences with sexual assault and sexual violence. And that created a huge wave. It came just before the César Awards, which are like the French equivalent of the Academy Awards, and everyone expected her to make a speech at these awards about it, and she did, and her speech got a standing ovation, and it has really pushed the dialogue forward, and I think France is experiencing a second wave of the #MeToo movement, and they’re starting to listen.
The people that she accused are big names, one of whom is Jacques Doillon. Some people might know Jane Birkin, so Jane Birkin’s former partner. So these are big names in the film industry here. So the Cinémathèque Française in Paris has just announced that it will remove one of the films on its list for an upcoming film festival of Benoît Jacquot, who is another director that Godrèche accused of sexual assault.
So there are these little things that are starting to happen. And of course, as you mentioned, France just decided to enshrine the right to abortion in their constitution, making it the first country in the world to do so. Women’s rights in France are really starting to matter, and I think it’s causing people to wake up and pay attention.
Collins: That sounds like progress right there. Thanks so much for coming back on the show, Colette, and for all of your Monitor reporting.
Davidson: Thank you for having me.
Collins: Thanks for listening. You can find our show notes with links to the story discussed here, to more stories by Colette and to her previous appearance on this show at CSMonitor.com/WhyWeWroteThis. This episode was hosted by me, Clay Collins, and produced by Mackenzie Farkus. Our sound engineers were Tim Malone and Alyssa Britton, with original music by Noel Flatt. Produced by The Christian Science Monitor. Copyright 2024.
