The French director who was the subject of a complaint last June for sexual assault, is the subject of new reports and an investigation for rape and assault according to Médiapart.
Nicolas Bedos would be the subject of a preliminary investigation for rape and sexual assault since July 5, Mediapart tells us this Tuesday, July 18, 2023. The director of “La belle époque” and “Mascarade” was already the subject of a complaint for sexual assault by a 25-year-old woman since June 12. But according to the online media, other women have since reported to the Paris prosecutor’s office, opening this new investigation in parallel.
One of the women who accuses Nicolas Bedos of rape and sexual assault claims that the alleged facts took place in 1999, while she hopes that this “friendly” relationship could help her professionally. She affirms that he would have “grabbed her by the throat, pressed against the wall” when she refused his advances, before having “let himself be made to go up to her room” and having “got hurt when he [la] entered” before “crying” in the taxi taking her home.
A second woman, a teenage friend of the director, says she was the victim of “inappropriate and violent behavior” on the part of Guy Bedos’ son, who allegedly “tried to kiss [him] by force”. When she pushes him away, he would have been “aggressive” and would have insisted until she pushed him away violently. Benefiting from the presumption of innocence, Nicolas Bedos did not wish to comment or respond to requests from Médiapart, and his lawyer did not wish to comment further.
Previously, Nicolas Bedos was the subject of a complaint for sexual assault. According to the Paris prosecutor’s office, he will be tried in early 2024 for sexual assault while intoxicated, and faces up to five years in prison and a fine of 75,000 euros. The complaint was filed on June 12 by a 25-year-old young woman, who accuses the director of having “slipped his hand in his private parts, over his pants” during a night party. June 1-2, 2023.
According to Le Monde, Nicolas Bedos told the investigators that he did not question the testimony of the complainant. He nevertheless guarantees that, “if this gesture existed”, it “can only be accidental”. His lawyer, Me Julia Minkowski, assures that his client has no “recollection” of the facts. “Such a gesture (…) could only have been accidental under the effect of drunkenness,” she added.
The facts go back to the night of June 1 to 2, 2023, in a club in the first arrondissement of Paris where the young woman would have gone with an actress friend, her brother and a few friends. In her complaint, the complainant explains that Nicolas Bedos, whom she would not have recognized immediately, would have stared at her for a long time before approaching her. He would then have “slid [é] his hand at the level of her private parts, over her pants”, then she would have felt a “friction”.
The complainant says she was alone with the director at the time of the events. She believes that none of her relatives could have witnessed the attack she reports. She also insists that she had not consumed alcohol. The young woman says that she would have rejected Nicolas Bedos before throwing at him: “Go get treatment!” At the time of the events, a security guard would have quickly been challenged by the commotion and would have asked the complainant if everything was fine. To which she would have replied: “Fire him!”.
Biography of Nicolas Bedos – Son of humorist Guy Bedos and Joëlle Bercot, Nicolas Bedos is a well-known director and screenwriter in the French cinema world. He notably directed his first film, Mr. and Mrs. Adelman in 2017, before releasing the critical success La Belle Époque in 2019. This last film, with Daniel Auteuil and Fanny Ardant, was nominated eleven times for the César and won the Prix du Best Original Screenplay.
Subsequently, Nicolas Bedos directed Oss 117: Red Alert in Black Africa, released in 2021 and screened at the closing of the Cannes Film Festival. More recently, he released the film Masquerade in 2022, which was critically divided.
Nicolas Bedos is also a controversial public figure. In 2012, he was fined 2,000 euros for publicly insulting the police. He was also convicted of drunk driving in 2010 and 2014 (also that year for contempt and death threats against police officers). He was then given a three-month suspended prison sentence and a fine of 800 euros.
Nicolas Bedos was also indicted in 2014 for racial insult after a column in Marianne, but was finally released the following year, justice considering that his remarks were not to be taken at face value. Finally, in 2020, a message on his Instagram account calling for people to stop wearing a mask in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic will cause controversy on social networks.
