“Benoît Jacquot thought he knew better than me who I was and what I thought. (…) For example, he was constantly telling me that I was fat. There was also physical violence, sometimes, out of anger” explained Isild Le Besco in an interview at Parisian last February. She also affirmed that it was “probable that at one point” she would file a complaint against him, as well as against another director, Jacques Doillon.
Now 41 years old and immersed in the context of the MeeToo of French cinema launched by the speech of Judith Godrèche, the actress explains in an autobiography to be published on Wednesday that the time has not yet come to follow up judicial to this “destructive influence”. She specifies in her book entitled “Dire vérité”, published by Denoël, that she is not ready to file a complaint against the director Benoît Jacquot, whom she nevertheless considers to have “raped” her.
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.
“He replaced my father, my mother”
“I don’t want to be confronted again with these dusty institutions, designed and governed by men. […] It’s already so taxing to write. To name. To face your troubles,” continues the author.
“To be 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.
“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,” considers the actress.