From "Gérard Depardieu Convicted of Sexual Assault/The French actor was found guilty of sexually assaulting two women on the set of a movie in which he starred in 2021. He was given a suspended sentence of 18 months" (NYT).
How long ago was that other era when men could be flamboyant, bombastic and unapologetic? Depardieu is 76.
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35 comments:
"The actor said he was not the 'vulgar, rude, trashy person who makes fun of people' that he had been portrayed as in the media."
My first thought was Oscar the Grouch.
He has been accused by an additional 18 women and admitted to drunkenly grabbing one of the two women in this suit but said he did not do so in a "sexual manner." If he truly sexually assaulted two women, he should get well more than an 18 month suspended sentence. If the conduct warranted no more than this sentence, it probably shouldn't be criminalized.
Not vulgar or rude? I thought he was French!
So he was 72 at the time?
He went teh way of Pepe Le Pew…
Apparently, he thought he could just grab the nearest woman and make love to her.... He could do it in the old days and he didn't want to let go of the old ways.
"The court heard that Mr. Depardieu grabbed Amélie by the waist and pulled her toward him one day on set while he was sitting down. Then he locked her between his legs and ran his hands over her buttocks, genitals and breasts while muttering obscenities, she testified. The assistant director, now 34, testified that the actor had touched her breasts and buttocks on three occasions on the set in Paris."
It does sound entirely Pepe Le Pew!
Looking online it sounds like he was accused of groping. One woman said he laced his legs around her to effectively trap her then groped her stomach, breaststroke, and buttocks. Obviously this is, and always was unacceptable behavior. That being said it feels like behavior that is best policed by a man giving him a black eye.
That's an exceptionally low bar to cross for the French. He must've been much more bombastic than usual, even for them.
sacré Dieu he’s a cad.
Kind of like Bill Murray who was accused by a female crew member of straddling her and kissing her on the mouth. They were both wearing masks because of Covid (2022?) Murray said he thought he was being funny. It resulted in a $100,000 settlement. He has since said he felt “barbecued” by the backlash. I don’t think the movie was ever completed.
I thought that when you were a star they let you grab them by the derrière.
It must be difficult, having once been a rich, or powerful, or famous, decently looking man. And these aggressive come-ons worked to various degrees a majority of the time--they seemed sometimes welcome--with the worst downside a face-slap.
Then something changed. It doesn't work any more. Worse, lawyers and police come knocking.
If you haven't already read, I encourage you to look up how much wine he consumes per day.
https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2014/09/gerard-depardieu-bottles-wine-per-day?srsltid=AfmBOopjuD1SZgQUJt4QQqcgZOLdo9S_zS7cVCNssh3BCe-sxYxUEAGd
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/gerard-depardieu-says-he-can-drink-12-13-14-bottles-of-wine-a-day/
Over multiple news outlets and multiple years he claims to drink 12+ bottles of wine per day (about 2.5 gallons a day).
Just to add some rich, french cultural flavor to this mix.
Gay Paris is not as libertine as it was in its youth? Sequester the "burden".
Al Franken? #MeToo? Where have all the liberals progressed, senator.
Philippe Sollers "Women" becomes more important as a guide for dealing with women in France. Feminism as droll entertainment.
Just looking forward, how would a case like this play out under Sharia law?
"Grabbing" women's genitals won't work. Maybe in French there's a better verb with the right connotation.
Pressing women's genitals is what it should be in English, except it lacks "and not feeling much" in its repertoire.
Still, there is Wittgenstein
626. ``When I touch this object with a stick I have the sensation of touching in the tip of the stick, not in the hand that holds it.''
but that still requires some actual definition in the thing touched, which women's genitals lack.
Need a French expert. There's a translation problem.
Then there's LBJ's famous complaint about pantyhose.
Google characterizes LBJ as "vulgar" on the topic, a word probably brought out by vulva and vagina and the V in general.
Franken, my dear, I don't steam a clam.
EE Cummings goes for Y not V
(only feeling the belly's merry thrust
Boost my huge passion like a business
and the Y her legs panting as they press
proffers its omelet of fluffy lust)
He can't touch that... Hammer time.
Ann Althouse said...
“It does sound entirely Pepe Le Pew!”
Pepe Depardieu
Gender deference(s).
"Omelet of fluffy lust"!
Gonna remember that one!
“Then there's LBJ's famous complaint about pantyhose.”
The dumb sonuva bitch Texan would’ve been better served if he allowed Ladybird to wear a paper bag on her head… she must’ve looked a real fright using pantyhose.
Doesn't he play a "vulgar, rude, trashy" person in most of his movies? That might have been a clue to keep one's distance. I'm not blaming the victim, just saying that if one knew that he was rowdy and undisciplined and no actual harm was done, then maybe he's not quite in the same category as other offenders.
Then there was the rape story a few years back which may or may not have hinged on a mistranslation of the French word "assister."
Apparently, he thought he could just grab the nearest woman and make love to her.... He could do it in the old days and he didn't want to let go of the old ways.
In the really old days of Henry James and Edith Wharton "making love" had a different meaning, which makes their novels rather confusing reading nowadays.
“Plus je t’enlace, plus j’aime t’enlacer.” - French cafe song
This gives it a new meaning.
What a fool, he grabbed the wrong woman, should've grabbed Fanny Ardant instead.
Lee Child, The Affair, Reacher book 16
It was hard to imagine a more beautiful woman. Hair, eyes, face, smile, shoulders, figure, everything. Janice May Chapman had had it all going on, that was for sure...
[The second woman] was black, probably in her middle twenties, and was every bit as spectacular as Janice May Chapman. Maybe even more so. She had flawless skin and the kind of eyes that start wars. Dark, liquid, radiant. She wasn't looking at the camera. She was looking right through it...
[The third woman] was also black. Also young. Also spectacular. Truly spectacular... She had a short natural hairstyle and a white blouse with three buttons undone. She had liquid eyes and a shy smile. She had magnificent cheekbones... [If a supercomputer] with all we had even known about beauty, from Cleopatra to the present day, the circuits would have hummed for an hour and then printed this picture.
Max Beerbohm, Zuleika Dobson
Zuleika was not strictly beautiful. Her eyes were a trifle large, and their lashes longer than they need have been. An anarchy of small curls were her chevelure, a dark upland of misrule, every hair asserting its rights over a not discreditable brow. For the rest, her features were not at all original. They seemed to have been derived rather from a gallimaufry of familiar models. From Madame la Marquise de Saint-Ouen came the shapely tilt of the nose. The mouth was a mere replica of Cupid's bow, lacquered scarlet and strung with the littlest pearls. No apple tree, no wall of peaches, had not been robbed, nor any Tyrian rose-garden, for the glory of Miss Dobson's cheeks. Her neck was imitation-marble. Her hands and feet were of very mean proportions. She had no waist to speak of.
Lazarus (10:36am):
My mother was there when the meaning of "making love" changed from hugs and kisses, or just loving words, to actual sex. When she was in high school (1942-46) a friend told her she'd seen John and Mary making love in the balcony of the movie theater. My mother knew the newer meaning, and was flabbergasted - her informant was still using the older meaning, and was surprised she was surprised.
Well, I guess its admirable that a 71 y/o is interested in the fairer sex. Most me that age care more about their golf score.
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