The French actress, Judith Godrèche, has filed a rape complaint against filmmaker Benoît Jacquot, according to reports from Le Monde newspaper. Godrèche met the thirty-nine-year-old director when she was fourteen in 1986 on the set of Jacquot’s movie Les Mendiants. The accusations include “predation” and “violent rape of a minor under 15 years old committed by a person in authority.” The complaint was filed with France’s Juvenile Protection Brigade.
Despite their inappropriate age gap and Jacquot’s position of power over Godrèche, he pursued a relationship with the actress, lasting six years. The actress stated that she was “in his grip.” She later starred in his 1990 film La Desenchantee.
Before the hearing that took place Wednesday, Godrèche wrote:
“It’s a story like the stories of children who are kidnapped and who grow up without seeing the world and who cannot think ill of their captor. I would have liked Benoît to agree to be my friend, to not have me, I didn’t want his body. Very quickly, he disgusted me.”
She told Le Monde, “It’s the first time in my entire life that I cried for myself, for this abused child that I was.” Godrèche has acted in more than 50 films throughout her career, notably The Overnight and The Man in the Iron Mask.
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