Gerard Depardieu, a titan of French cinema, appears in court

Paris:

Gerard Depardieu was known as a titan of French cinema for more than 50 years, but details of his vulgar behavior and allegations of sexual violence in recent years have relegated his star to the background.

The 75-year-old will go on trial on Monday on charges of sexually assaulting two women while filming a film in 2021.

Depardieu’s career spans over 200 films, making him one of the most famous French faces on the global silver screen.

He has had leading roles in adapted French literary classics such as Cyrano de Bergerac and Jean Valjean from “Les Miserables.”

Audiences and other creators have long appreciated his brash, often deliberately offensive nature – but in recent years these qualities have begun to work against him.

In 2023, images shot five years earlier in North Korea, where Depardieu made misogynistic and sexual comments about an underage girl, were broadcast.

But while then-Culture Minister Rima Abdul-Malak called the recording “an embarrassment to France,” President Emmanuel Macron defended Depardieu, saying he remains an “outstanding actor” who “makes France proud.”

Macron’s intervention came as Depardieu faced a string of rape and sexual assault allegations dating back decades.

Raw scenes, big noses

Gerard Depardieu was born on December 27, 1948 in Chateauroux in central France.

Although his teenage years were marked by crime, he discovered theater in Paris and in 1965 appeared in his first film.

One of Depardieu’s breakthrough roles was as a small-time, brutal conman in the 1974 film Les Valseuses (“The Wanderings”), directed by Bertrand Blier – a film that was condemned for its on-screen depiction of sexual acts and vulgarity.

The criticism did not harm Depardieu’s career, and he was crowned with the French version of an Oscar, the 1981 César Award for “Le dernier metro” (“The Last Metro”), directed by Francois Truffaut.

US magazine Newsweek called Depardieu a “hero with a thousand faces” in 1987, when he made a series of films that culminated in 1990’s “Cyrano de Bergerac”, directed by Jean-Paul Rappeneau.

Depardieu won a second César Award and an acting award at the Cannes Film Festival for his portrayal of the titular big-nosed, insightful nobleman in the classic French tale of unrequited love.

He got his start in Hollywood in the early 1990s with credits like “Green Card” and “1492.”

But even then, Time magazine published his earlier statements in which he seemed to admit to committing “rape” in his youth.

Depardieu claimed his words were mistranslated, but the scandal undermined his California ambitions.

The late 1990s and early 2000s saw commercial success with live-action adaptations of Asterix’s comics and dramas, such as the police thriller “36, Quai des Orfevres”, but the actor did not reach his previous artistic heights.

Now Depardieu, a vineyard owner known for his love of rich food, has made headlines for outbursts and offensive, even aggressive behavior, especially towards women.

The allegations are catching up

Long written off due to its unique nature, some charges have finally reached justice.

In 2020, Depardieu was accused of repeatedly raping actress Charlotte Arnould, then in her 20s, which he denied.

The second actress, Helene Darras, filed a criminal complaint of sexual assault, but the case was dismissed due to the statute of limitations.

Where Depardieu’s antics – such as urinating on a plane in 2011 – once brought laughter, they have now become a liability.

Studios removed him from advertising campaigns for his films, then put him on hold at the end of 2023.

Appearing before the court of public opinion, he swore in an open letter that he was “neither a rapist nor a predator.”

“All my life I have been provocative, exaggerated, sometimes vulgar… If I thought I was living intensely in the present moment, at all I hurt or shocked someone, I never meant to cause harm and I am sorry,” Depardieu wrote.

In addition to his legal problems, Depardieu appears to have shunned France in recent years in favor of authoritarian governments from North Korea to Cuba and Algeria.

In 2012, he announced that he would renounce his French citizenship, live in tax emigration in Belgium and acquire Russian citizenship.

Until Moscow invaded Ukraine in 2022, Depardieu praised Russian President Vladimir Putin.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)