The 75-year-old French director is implicated by several women who accuse him of having made sexual offers to them in exchange for roles.
A new French director is accused of sexual violence. In a Médiapart investigation, five actresses accuse director Philippe Garrel of having behaved inappropriately towards them, in particular sexual propositions in exchange for a role or of having tried to kiss them without their consent. The 75-year-old filmmaker denies most of what he is accused of.
Among the accusers, we find the actress Anna Mouglalis (Black Baron, Jealousy). After having played under the direction of Philippe Garrel in 2013, the latter contacted her again for a film project. The actress, 30 years his junior, invites him to her home for a work session, without any ambiguity on her part, she says. She then finds the filmmaker lying on his bed “while there were two sofas next to him”, inviting him to join him for a reading. She refuses his “insulting” behavior, which the director defends by claiming to have suffered discomfort.
Another actress accuses Philippe Garrel of violence. She met him in 2018, when he was 70 and she was 28. He would have first arranged to meet her in a hotel to discuss a role, which the actress refused before meeting him at an outdoor cafe. There, she accuses him of having caressed her thigh. When she leaves the date, he allegedly “insisted on walking her home” before trying to kiss her. The director denies having tried to kiss her on the mouth and apologizes if his “attempt to seduce, inappropriate or clumsy, could have hurt her”. Three other accusers say they suffered non-consensual kissing gestures and attempts.
For her part, Marie Vialle, a French actress seen in Les inséparables in 2008 and more recently at the theatre, affirms that Philippe Garrel had offered to write a film for her when she was a student at the Conservatoire between 1994 and 1997 and that he was her teacher. During a professional meeting, he would have told her that he was in love with her and that he “can’t make the film if I don’t sleep with you”. Clotilde Hesme (Les chansons d’amour) claims to have been humiliated by Philippe Garrel on the set of Regular Lovers (2005), who nicknamed her “Incest” since the film detailed a love story between her son [ Louis Garrel] and the actress. Laurence Cordier (A beautiful team) ensures for his part that the director would have offered to “pay the hotel” and to have taken her by the waist despite her refusal.
Philippe Garrel denies most of the accusations made against him with Médiapart, however apologizing to certain victims for having “misinterpreted” their feelings or for his “attempts at seduction”. éReading all these testimonies, I realize the difference between what I imagined then and what I made them live, he specifies. I had already become aware of the culture that shaped me, and that opened up a questioning in me.” For her part, Anna Mouglalis claims to have been contacted by the director to withdraw her testimony, but the Philippe Garrel’s lawyer refutes the accusations of pressure: “He ended up telling her that she had to do what her conscience dictated to her. My client tells me that he did not exert any pressure on this actress, and that his approach cannot be interpreted as such.
