“The hand suddenly touched my penis.” Juliette Binoche condemns the harassment and sexual harassment she suffered in the cinema.

This is the first time that an internationally recognized French actress has so strongly condemned abuse in cinema. in the columns of Set free , this Saturday, April 27, Juliette Binoche does not mince her words. She reveals that she was a victim of harassment and sexual assault. During filming, but not only. In the mid-1980s, the young actress was in her twenties and was playing there Liberty Belle. Director Pascal Canet invites her to dinner at the Nikko Hotel, at the top of the tower, to talk with her, he assures her about a project. “When he points out the sight of Sen’s forehead, he lunges at me to kiss me. I pushed him vigorously. “But I have a lover.” I couldn’t believe it.” Juliette Binoche is in shock. the director takes advantage of his good faith and uses the same trick as one of his former teachers to achieve his goals. “I had some signs of insecurity when I was first touched by a school teacher at age 7 who taught me to read by stroking my penis behind his desk in front of the class,” he reflects in retrospect.

A few years later, Juliette Binoche reported on Cane’s attack in a film magazine. Which will ask for a “correction” to say that the journalist actually misunderstood the words of the actress. “Rejection by me. Besides, shall we be silent?’ The 60-year-old actress is annoying today.

But for Juliette Binoche, the abuse doesn’t stop there. In the summer of 1984, shortly after the Cane episode, the rising star of French cinema got a small role in the film; Family life By Jacques Doillon, with Sami Frey. “Doillon was a reference for actresses of my generation. On the spot, immediately, I had to take off my cover dress while screaming in the first scene. I was in the course, that’s what matters. I don’t know about the perverted line jam, super excited to be cast opposite Juliette Berto, my mother in the movie. Retrospectively, in light of the #MeToo revolution, the actress takes a dim view of some of the lines delivered by Sami Frei, who plays her father-in-law. “[Elles] “Your mother wants me to love you. He dreams of us loving together. So I’m going to love you.” I wasn’t sure I understood these lines at the time. However, I have fond memories of this shoot.

“I saw the date of the nude scenes with fear”

Still in the interview Set freeJuliette Binoche also looks back on her many nude scenes. He causes a shock to Sami Frey and her mother, caused by a “close-up [son] pubis with Lambert Wilson’s head Designation (1985) by Andre Techine and describes castings as “survival [sa] aspiring to become an actress. “It didn’t escape me at all that in the 1980s and 1990s this craze for naked bodies in cinema was only about young women, rarely men, except for Chereau and later Teschiné. It didn’t bother me, I patiently accepted this request. There was no script without a nude scene.”

I never knew if this hand came from the director’s request or if it was the actor who took this liberty.

Juliette Binoche

That being said, every time the actress feels anxious. “I learned to jump in like you dive into a cold sea, head first. I saw that the date of the naked scenes came with fear to the work surface. only a week left, only two days left… Anxiety rose like courage. On Designation, in the cold winter of 1984, I mastered the requirements of shooting: coldness, nakedness, humility. And sometimes humiliation. I accepted everything with enthusiasm. Every time we shot a sex scene, the producer [Alain] Terzyan sat on the set with his big cigar in his mouth. But his presence couldn’t dampen my enthusiasm, I was too busy filming the challenging scenes ahead of me, spitting on him, mimicking blowjobs and making love on the stairs.”

It is also a set Designation that Juliette Binoche was the victim of a “gesture which[elle] would prefer

Victim or witness

Over time, the Oscar-winning actress believes she should have called for a close-up shoot when scenes called for it, or questioned a nudity scene in the script.[elle] not found

Despite the trauma, Juliette Binoche assures him. “All these wounds cause anger, rebellion.” However, he never thought of stopping cinema, his passion. “Low blows, inappropriate gestures, sexist expressions. I don’t forget, they poison life, but they remain secondary. After all, all is forgiven. Everything is transformed, everything has sculpted me. The desire to give myself through play remains stronger, the art of play is a form of secret joyful knowledge, impossible to grasp, impossible to steal.” The tongues are clearly not done loosening.