Medina, Clara Morgane, Pomme... 600 artists respond to the platform of support for Gérard Depardieu

The Depardieu affair continues to divide the world of culture. More than 600 personalities signed a “counter-tribune” published Friday December 29 by the far-left collective Brains, not available on the Mediapart website. They intend to protest against a column in support of the actor, published in the pages of Le Figaro. The 75-year-old actor, who fell from his pedestal after the broadcast of images in which he multiplies misogynistic and sexual remarks, including towards a little girl, is the target of three complaints for sexual assault or rape which he refutes. Emmanuel Macron was keen to emphasize that Gérard Depardieu is “an immense actor, a genius of his art”. “It is not on the basis of a report that we take away the Legion of Honor from an artist because at that price we would have taken away the Legion of Honor from many artists,” he said. he adds.

“When we attack Depardieu, it would be art that we are attacking! As if Depardieu represented art in France. As if the status of artist or talent justified singular treatment,” protest the signatories, including the actresses Corinne Masiero, Judith Chemla and Sophie de la Rochefoucauld (deputy for LFI MP Sophia Chikirou), the musicians Gauvain Sers, Pomme, Vitalic, Médine, the actress and playwright Noémie de Lattre... “We wish with this counter-tribune to demonstrate our disagreement with this idea,” they say.

Also read “Don’t erase Gérard Depardieu”: the appeal of 50 personalities from the world of culture

“We can’t stay silent! Let us break the law of silence, against complicit silence, let us break the echo of impunity. Let’s shed light on the truth and choose the end of the gray areas,” they hope. “Above all, taking refuge behind the “let justice take place” or the pathos “we must separate the man from the work” means agreeing to put one's own judgment aside. It means believing that we have no role to play in the evolution of our society. That we cannot help and support the victims,” we can still read in the forum.

“If the questioning of Depardieu's impunity was a “manhunt” (Emmanuel Macron's expression, Editor's note), then how can we describe the very real attacks that women victims of male violence suffer every day? , ask the signatories. “So yes, we will come together, come together, and support each other. And if that bothers Depardieu, Macron and 56 cultural “celebrities”, so much the better,” they conclude.