A new scandal affects French cinema. Philippe Garrel is implicated by five actresses who testify in Mediapart, Wednesday August 30, of attempted non-consensual kisses and sexual proposals during professional meetings, accusations that the 75-year-old director minimizes, while apologizing. “No complaint has been filed to date”, specifies Mediapart, according to which some of these facts are “likely to be qualified as sexual assault or attempted sexual assault”.
Several of them also say that the filmmaker offered them to go to the hotel. “I can’t make the movie if I don’t sleep with you,” he allegedly told actress Marie Vialle, whom he met at the Paris Conservatory and dated from 1994 to 1997.
Philippe Garrel has been awarded twice at the Venice Film Festival (Silver Lion for Best Director for I don’t hear the guitar anymore in 1991 and for Regular Lovers in 2005). In 2023, the Berlinale awarded him the silver bear for best director for Le Grand Chariot, in which three of his children play, including the most famous, his son Louis, actor and director.