Robert Zaretsky teaches at the University of Houston and Women’s Institute of Houston. His latest book is “Victories Never Last: Reading and Caregiving in a Time of Plague.”
From the l’affaire Calas, after Protestant merchant Jean Calas was wrongfully sentenced to death, through l’affaire Dreyfus, when French-Jewish army officer Alfred Dreyfus was unjustly accused of treason, France now finds itself in the throes of a new scandal — l’affaire Depardieu.
But while hardly as epochal as these earlier cases, this rippling controversy over one of the country’s most successful cultural exports nevertheless points to something dank and dire in French politics and culture.
Gérard Depardieu is, beyond doubt, France’s best-known living actor, with many of his roles leaving a lasting mark on cinematic history — starting with his 1990 performance in “Cyrano de Bergerac” for many Americans. Not only is Depardieu France’s second highest grossing actor of all time, but he has also garnered dozens of awards and honors — including two Césars (the French Oscars) and two of France’s highest decorations, Chevalier of the Legion of Honor and Chevalier of the Order of Merit.
However, both honor and merit have since gone belly-up for Depardieu, as the number of awards he has collected over the decades now pale in comparison to the number of accusations of sexual harassment and violence he faces.
Since actress Charlotte Arnould accused Depardieu of rape in 2021 — a case still under investigation by the court — 16 other women have come forward as victims of the actor’s sexual aggression. Then, in early December, the credibility of these claims was reinforced by an episode of the investigative program “Complément d’enquête,” which aired several clips from a visit Depardieu made to North Korea five years ago.
Capturing several exchanges in which Depardieu showers women — as well as one young girl — with sordid and sexual remarks, the clips were simply stupefying. And the painful testimonies by over a dozen women, followed by the televised clips, finally shattered the embarrassing silence that reigned over Depardieu’s long history of sexual harassment and violence.
But that same month, France’s film empire struck back when conservative newspaper Le Figaro published an open letter titled “Don’t cancel Depardieu,” lambasting the “manhunt” against the actor.
Signed by 50 film and stage personalities — including the director Bertrand Blier, actors Charlotte Rampling, Carole Bouquet, Pierre Richard, and the singers Carla Bruni and Jacques Dutronc — the letter decried the media’s “lynching” of the actor, warned that “an attack on Depardieu is an attack on art itself,” and praised the actor as “the last monstre sacré [sacred monster] in French film.”
Indeed. The phrase monstre sacré is hard to define. While “monstre” can denote an ogre or beast, it can also describe someone of sublime talent, someone above criticism. It’s a compliment given to film stars like Jean Gabin and Jean-Paul Belmondo, literary figures like Victor Hugo and Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin (aka George Sand) and political leaders like Georges Clemenceau and François Mitterrand — all monstres sacrés in their own way, but none of them monstrous.
Not so for the current affair.
However, this issue touches not just on the crimes alleged against Depardieu — which he steadfastly denies — but also on the convergence of interests between those behind the letter and the president of the Republic.
As it turns out, it was obscure actor Yannis Ezziadi who penned the letter. Apart from his small roles on even smaller stages, Ezziadi also writes for the hard-right “Causeur” magazine and is close to extreme-right politician Éric Zemmour’s advisor and partner Sarah Knafo.
The founder of the extreme-right wing political party Reconquest!, Zemmour has been repeatedly convicted of racist hate speech. Moreover, he has defended wartime leader Philippe Pétain with the bewildering claim that he saved Jewish lives during the war — an assertion that landed Zemmour, whose parents were French Algerian Jews, in court for the crime of disputing the Holocaust.
Yet, rather than remaining above this mêlée, President Emmanuel Macron joined it.
In a televised interview meant to address the harsh immigration law that was recently passed, Macron took the time to rap the knuckles of Minister of Culture Rima Abdul Malak. A vocal defender of women’s rights, Malak had suggested Depardieu surrender his Legion of Honor. And in response, the French president echoed Ezziadi’s letter, denouncing the “manhunt” aimed at “this immense actor [who] makes France proud.”
Besides, Macron added, the Legion of Honor isn’t about morality — an odd claim given that he’d jumpstarted the process of recalling the same honor given to another serial rapist, Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, in 2017. And most tellingly, Macron failed to express his sympathies toward the victims of Depardieu’s actions.
Clearly, the worldviews of Macron and Zemmour, which were once so dramatically different, are now a distinction without a difference.
In the wake of last year’s election, which left him without an absolute legislative majority, the effectively lame-duck Macron, who had been accustomed to rule without obstacles, tilted sharply rightward to pass legislation and maintain relevance — a tilt that brings him closer and closer to opposition leader Marine Le Pen’s ascendant extreme-right National Rally (RN).
Thus, as the European elections approach later this year, it is vital to recall — even if Macron failed to — that the RN shares the same reactionary and authoritarian worldview as Zemmour’s Reconquest! A world where equality between men and women — not to mention foreigner and French — doesn’t exist, where liberty is the privilege of the powerful, and fraternity resembles the old boys’ club proud to call Depardieu a member.