French Cinema #MeToo: Filmmaker charged with rape of two actors

An examining magistrate on Wednesday placed prominent arthouse film director Benoit Jacquot under formal investigation for rape, the Paris prosecutor’s office said, in a high-profile case in France’s #MeToo movement.

Jacquot, 77, has been placed under formal investigation for the rape of actors Julia Roy, now 34, in 2013 and Isild Le Besco, now 41, between 1998 and 2000, it said.

He was to be freed after two days of questioning in custody but remain under judicial supervision, it added.

Investigators launched an investigation after Judith Godreche, 52, filed a complaint earlier this year against Jacquot, alleging that he raped her during a relationship that began in the 1980s when she was 14 years old and he was 25 years her senior.

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Le Besco, 41, had filed a complaint over alleged rape during her own relationship with Jacquot that also started when she was underage.

And Roy, 34, had accused the director 42 years her senior of sexual assault in “a context of violence and moral constraint which lasted several years”, according to a source close to the case. She acted in four of his films that came out between 2016 and 2021.