France detains two leading film directors over sexual harassment allegations

French authorities detained prominent film directors Benoit Jacquot and Jacques Doillon on Monday for questioning over sexual harassment allegations, sources close to the case said.

An AFP journalist saw the two men, who deny the accusations, arrive at a Paris police station on Monday morning accompanied by their lawyers.

Judith Godreche, a 52-year-old actress and director, formally accused Jacquot of rape and Doillon of sexual assault when she was a minor. Both men deny these accusations.

She described Jacquot as someone who had an unhealthy “power” over her during a relationship that began when she was 14, from 1986 to 1992.

She accused Doillon of molesting her on set while she was acting in one of his films.

Fellow actress Isild Le Besco, 41, has also formally accused Jacquot of raping her between 1998 and 2007 during an abusive relationship that began when she was 16 and he was 52.

Actress Julia Roy, 34, also filed a sexual assault complaint against him, “in the context of violence and moral restraint spanning several years,” said a source close to the case.

The director’s lawyers said there was no need to detain them for questioning and emphasized that they should be considered innocent until proven guilty.

Jacquot’s lawyer, Julia Minkowski, said her client “will finally be able to express his opinion before the law.”

Doillon’s lawyer, Marie Dose, stated that no legal criteria could justify his detention for questioning “36 years” after the incident alleged by Godreche.

Sources close to the case say the questioning could include a confrontation with the accuser or accusers.

Godreche wrote on Instagram that she was deeply moved that the police finally summoned both directors.

“I’m crying… Because of all this… I don’t know if I have the strength, but I will. I will have… For her,” she wrote, posting a photo of her teenage children and herself next to Jacquot, 25 years her senior.

The French film industry has been grappling with accusations that it hid abuses for too long, including a series of allegations against 75-year-old film legend Gerard Depardieu, all of which he denies.

Since breaking her silence, Godreche has become a leading voice in the French #MeToo movement.

After she called for a cinema watchdog, parliament voted in May to create a commission to investigate sexual and gender-based violence in the film industry and other cultural sectors.