(3 Feb 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Paris, France – 3 February 2025
1. Various of actress Adele Haenel (in grey suit) arriving and entering courtroom
2. Various of filmmaker Christophe Ruggia arriving and entering courtroom
3. Various of actress Judith Godreche, who came to support Haenel, waiting and entering courtroom
4. Wide of journalists and policemen outside courtroom
5. Tracking shot of Haenel exiting courtroom
6. Crowd applauding and cheering Haenel as she reaches ground floor
7. SOUNDBITE (French) Fanny Colin, lawyer representing Christophe Ruggia:
“Christophe Ruggia maintains that he never touched Adele Haenel. Adele Haenel’s recollection of these alleged touchings only came back to her 15 years later. (To be) sentenced in these conditions and on the sole basis of her words seems not only unjustified but also dangerous. In this case, the law of the strongest, of the one who shouts louder, of the one who has the unconditional support of the public opinion, has crushed the fundamental principal of the law which is the benefit of the doubt."
8. Mid of people exiting courtroom
9. SOUNDBITE (French) Judith Godreche, French actress:
“It was a very moving and a very important moment that reminded me of things that, for my part, may go unpunished.”
10. Haenel talking to people who came to support her
11. Various of people leaving
STORYLINE:
A Paris court found a filmmaker guilty of sexual assault on French actor Adèle Haenel when she was between 12 and 15 in the early 2000s, in the country’s first big #MeToo trial.
Filmmaker Christophe Ruggia was sentenced Monday to two years under house arrest with an electronic bracelet plus a two-year suspended sentence. Ruggia had denied any wrongdoing.
Haenel, now 35, was the first top actor in France to accuse the film industry of turning a blind eye to sexual abuse after the #MeToo movement broke out.
In 2019, she accused Ruggia of having repeatedly touched her inappropriately during and after filming of the movie “Les Diables” (“The Devils”) in the early 2000s.
Haenel appeared relieved, breathing deeply, as Monday’s verdict was being released. She was applauded by some women rights activists as she left the courtroom.
The court ruled that Ruggia “took advantage of the dominant position” he had on Haenel at the time.
“During quasi-weekly meetings at your home for over three years you had sexualized gestures and attitudes,” as Haenel was “gradually isolated” from her loved ones, the court said in a statement.
Ruggia’s lawyer said her client would appeal.
Haenel, star of the 2019 Cannes entry “Portrait of a Lady on Fire,” has in recent years vocally protested what she’s called an insufficient response to sexual abuse in French filmmaking.
At the César Awards in 2020, she walked out of the ceremony after Roman Polanski won best director. Polanski is still wanted in the United States decades after he was charged with raping a 13-year-old girl in 1977.
In 2023, Haenel, announced she was quitting French film industry that she denounced for “complacency toward sexual aggressors.”
She published an open letter in which she said Cannes and other pillars of the French film industry are “ready to do anything to defend their rapist chiefs.”
While #MeToo initially struggled to find traction in France, some other actors and film industry workers have since spoken out.
AP video shot by Oleg Cetinic
Production by Catherine Gaschka
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