Judith on misconduct

Why does French actress Judith Godrèche urge politicians to establish a commission to probe into sex crimes and sexism in French cinema? This remains a very wide and open question. She has explained it in a very fine way. Her fear emanates from her personal experience. Like other women, she also feels differently and desires an immediate end to such atrocities upon women.

She gave an emotional testimony to a French Senate commission on recalling her worst experiences as a teenager breaking into the industry

“Everyone knows that in the film industry, an abuser disguised as a director makes little girls suffer so they cry … He then arranges to meet them in an attic room and takes possession of them for real,” Godrèche said in her opening remarks.

Visibly shaken, she said she didn’t know she had the right to say “no.” She urged for an independent inquiry into misconduct in the French industry, the appointment of independent guardians for underage actors on film sets and other proposals to address past abuses and also prevent new ones.

She categorically called on France’s film industry to “face the truth” about the issue, years after the MeToo movement shook up Hollywood but faced resistance in France.

Following her words to the Senate, Godreche said, “I am speaking as loud as I can and trying to push the door as open as possible and yet nothing is really happening because of the way the system is being built for years and years. I think there is something about French society that is somehow still anchored into like the Moyen Age (the Middle Ages),” she added.