Isild Le Besco is not ready to file a complaint against Benoît Jacquot

The actress Isild Le Besco explains in an autobiography to be published on Wednesday that she is not ready to file a complaint against the director Benoît Jacquot, whom she nevertheless believes “raped” her. This book entitled Say true, published by Denoël, looks at length at the relationship they began when she was 16, during the filming of the film Sade, and he is 62 years old. During an interview with The Parisian in February, the actress, now 41, said it was “probable that at one point” she would file a complaint against him, as well as against another director, Jacques Doillon.

At the end of the book, Isild Le Besco gives the reasons why she did not respond to calls from investigators from the juvenile brigade who wanted to hear from her. “They are asking me and still asking me to collect my complaint against Benoît Jacquot and Jacques Doillon”she reports. “I don’t want to confront myself again with these dusty institutions, designed and governed by men (…) It’s already so trying to write. To name. To face your troubles”continues the author.

 

“To say that Benoît raped me is obvious (…) I was a teenager and I gave him my complete trust. He replaced my father, my mother, any authority figure. In this way, her rape is also incestuous”

Isild Le Besco

“Being a victim, yes, but of whom? And from what exactly? The sexualization of my body in cinema? Years of influence from Benoît Jacquot? Jacques Doillon’s lack of professional ethics? she asks herself. “To say that Benoît raped me is obvious (…) I was a teenager and I gave him my complete trust. He replaced my father, my mother, any authority figure. In this way, his rape is also incestuous”considers the actress.

Another actress, Judith Godrèche, 52, filed a complaint against the two directors for sexual and physical violence which dates back to her adolescence. She has become a spearhead of the #MeToo movement in France.