France detains top film directors over sex abuse allegations
Al Jazeera
Benoit Jacquot and Jacques Doillon accused of sexual assault, charges the two men deny.
French authorities have detained two leading arthouse film directors, Benoit Jacquot and Jacques Doillon, over accusations of sexual abuse, as a renewed #MeToo reckoning rocks France’s film industry.
Jacquot, 77, and Doillon, 80, arrived at a Paris police station on Monday morning, accompanied by their lawyers, according to the AFP news agency.
The directors’ detention over alleged abuses, some dating back to the 1980s and all of which they deny, came as activists say French cinema has too long provided cover for abuse.
Earlier this year, Judith Godreche, a 52-year-old actor and director, formally accused Jacquot of rape and Doillon of sexual assault when she was a minor, accusations the two men deny.
Godreche has described Jacquot as having had an unhealthy “hold” over her during a relationship of “perversion” with him that started when she was 14, from 1986 to 1992.
