Gerard Depardieu’s Downfall: French Public Broadcaster Says It Won’t Ban Films Starring the Actor, but Won’t Celebrate Him Either

variety.com:

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent French broadcaster France Televisions has been blamed by supporters of Gerard Depardieu, the Oscar-nominated actor of “Cyrano de Bergerac,” for contributing to the downfall of one of country’s most iconic actors with a bombshell documentary about his history of sexual abuse allegations which aired on Dec.

7. The broadcaster’s head of film and international co-production, Manuel Alduy, tells Variety the TV group doesn’t have any agenda against Depardieu, however, and won’t boycott his films. “We will not ban films, but we won’t celebrate artists who have been accused until they’re completely cleared,” says Alduy, who joined France Televisions in 2021 after working at Twentieth Century Fox and Canal+ Group. “Films are collective works of art and Depardieu happens to have starred in more than 100 films, including some classics of French cinema,” says Alduy. “It would be unfair for these films and for rights holders if we banned them, and it would be a dangerous slippery slope.” The broadcaster will, for instance, program several films by Francois Truffaut next year to mark the anniversary of the revered auteur’s death.

The retrospective will likely include “The Last Metro,” in which Depardieu stars opposite Catherine Deneuve. The 74-year old actor, known also to American audiences for starring opposite Andie MacDowell in 1990’s “Green Card,” was indicted on Dec.

16, 2020 regarding allegations of rape and sexual assault tied to a 2018 lawsuit filed by actor Charlotte Arnould, but that one case wasn’t enough to derail his career and tarnish his huge popularity in France.