Judith Godrèche continues to make her voice heard. Guest on the set of C this evening Monday February 12 on France 5, the actress, who filed a complaint for “rape of a minor” against directors Benoît Jacquot and Jacques Doillon, denounced the “complicity” of the world of cinema and the French press. “I didn’t dare speak because of that,” insisted Judith Godrèche in front of Karim Rissouli and Laure Adler, columnist of the show.
“You were part of a system that didn’t help me”
The latter was directly targeted by the actress, who did not appreciate one of her interviews in 1995, The midnight circle on France 2. Judith Godrèche had just published her novel Side stitch. “I wrote this novel just after fleeing the apartment in which I lived with Benoît Jacquot. I rented a maid’s room and I started to write (…) This novel tells quite clearly the story of “a young girl who leaves a man she has been with since she was 14, who runs away and, in her escape, steals a child. It was a metaphor. This child is her little one, this childhood that she never experienced,” explained Judith Godrèche.
At the time, Laure Adler ended her interview by broadcasting an extract from The disenchanted, film with Judith Godrèche directed by Benoît Jacquot. “The film had nothing to do with what I wrote,” said the actress indignantly in This evening. “On the contrary, I escape, I run away, I write and I am told, ‘You are going back to the box’. For me, there is something extremely patriarchal in that sentence. ‘You, you’re pretty, you wrote a book. Well, we talk about it a little, that’s good. But now, we’re going to show a real moment of cinema, something magnificent’, a word that was not used for talk about my novel. There is still a whole system of which you were part at that time and in that place which did not help me at all”, she then asserted.
“I read your book as a sort of farewell”
Laure Adler, taken by surprise by Judith Godrèche’s statements, was not offended. “First, I would like to apologize if I ever offended you. And obviously, that day, I offended you. So I would really like to apologize to you if I hurt your feelings,” she said. say again. “If I invited you, it’s because I really liked your novel. I still remember it today,” she then said, before admitting: “I read it like a kind of farewell to childhood, not like a confession.”
Laure Adler then explained why she had chosen to broadcast an extract from Benoît Jacquot’s film: “If I put an extract from ‘La disenchantée’, it is because, for me, at the time, you were the muse by Benoît Jacquot. Perhaps I misunderstood because it was the period. I had the impression that it was the story of an extremely intelligent young woman who loved poetry (.. .) And so, when I close this interview with an extract from The disenchanted, it’s because I admired you Judith. So excuse me if I misunderstood my form of admiration,” she assured. Confused, she apologized to the actress before the end of the show: “I would like to say a mea again culpa towards you because I ignored your suffering. It’s true that I didn’t understand your suffering.”