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A French court convicted the director Christophe Ruggia on Monday of sexually assaulting the actress Ad\u00e8le Haenel when she was a minor, handing him a four-year sentence \u2014 two years under house arrest and the rest suspended.<\/p>\n
It was the first major case<\/a> to examine an accusation of sexual misconduct in French cinema since the #MeToo movement, which emerged in 2017 and was met with a severe backlash in France<\/a>. It is also an important milestone for the French courts, which feminist activists in the country have denounced as ineffective, or even discriminatory<\/a>, in cases of sexual violence<\/a>.<\/p>\n Mr. Ruggia stood at attention as the judges explained the guilty verdict.<\/p>\n \u201cYou took advantage of the influence you had on the young actress Ad\u00e8le Haenel,\u201d the head judge, Gilles Fonrouge, said.<\/p>\n Ms. Haenel did not show any clear emotion when the verdict \u2014 which also ordered Mr. Ruggia to pay 50,000 euros, or about $51,300, in damages \u2014 was read out. But after she left the courtroom, and was applauded by a crowd outside, she paused for a moment to thank her supporters.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThank you all for coming, and for advancing human rights, by your presence, and the fact that we don\u2019t give up,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re in this together,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n Mr. Ruggia\u2019s lawyer, Fanny Colin, called the ruling \u201cnot just unjustified but dangerous,\u201d stating that the judges had ruled to satisfy public opinion and \u201ccrushed\u201d the fundamental rule of law \u2014 having the benefit of the doubt. Mr. Ruggia planned to appeal, she said.<\/p>\n Mr. Ruggia cast Ms. Haenel in his 2002 film \u201cThe Devils,\u201d about a relationship bordering on incest, when she was 12 and he was 36. After the filming finished, she continued to visit him regularly on Saturdays over three years at his apartment, where, the court ruled, he made \u201csexualized moves\u201d toward her.<\/p>\n When Ms. Haenel first revealed such accusations publicly in 2019, she was the first major French actress<\/a> to speak out about her personal story of abuse since the #MeToo movement emerged. She was a rising star, praised for fierce yet sensitive performances that had earned her two C\u00e9sars, the French equivalent of the Oscars.<\/p>\n Mr. Ruggia was a relatively unknown director, but in the insular world of French cinema, he had a prominent role in the French directors\u2019 association and had a reputation for making films about social justice and for defending migrants and human rights.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The case stirred huge interest in the country. The courtroom was packed with Ms. Haenel\u2019s supporters over a two-day trial in December<\/a> and again on Monday for the verdict.<\/p>\n \u201cRuggia\u2019s conviction is a warning to producers and directors to be careful,\u201d said Genevi\u00e8ve Sellier, an emeritus professor of cinema studies at Bordeaux Montaigne University and the author of \u201cThe Cult of the Auteur.\u201d The ruling, she said, puts an end to the long-held French romantic tradition of sanctifying male artists and holding them above the law when it came to their abusive treatment of usually younger female muses.<\/p>\n \u201cIt clearly indicates that it is a relationship of domination of an older man over a very young woman,\u201d Ms. Sellier said.<\/p>\n Among Ms. Haenel\u2019s supporters in the court was Judith Godr\u00e8che, a French film star whose public accusations against two directors<\/a> dating from when she also was a young actress of 14, relaunched the #MeToo movement in France last year. In tears after the decision, she hugged Ms. Haenel and called the court\u2019s decision \u201chard-hitting\u201d and \u201cunequivocal.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThere are similarities in our stories. Both are stories of children, told from our adult position,\u201d Ms. Godr\u00e8che said in a text message later, adding that she did not believe her complaints would ever see a courtroom, as they were filed beyond the statute of limitations.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n During the two-day hearing, two conflicting versions of the past were presented. Ms. Haenel depicted the regular Saturday sessions in Mr. Ruggia\u2019s Paris apartment, where he was meant to teach her the classics of French cinema, as a ruse to sexually assault her.<\/p>\n Mimicking his voice, she recounted how he would caress her thighs, kiss her on the neck while breathing heavily, put his hands under her T-shirt to touch her breasts and her belly, and under her pants to reach the edge of her intimate parts. She broke ties with him when she was 15 and, for years afterward, described experiencing shame and depression.<\/p>\n She said she was speaking in court to defend her former 12-year-old self and other child victims who were hushed into silence, calling it the \u201cmost important thing I\u2019ve done in my life \u2014 trying to break the loneliness of children.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt makes you want to die, in fact, when no one speaks,\u201d said Ms. Haenel, now 35, who often writhed with anger in the courtroom, her face overcome by tics and her feet banging on the floor.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cShut up!\u201d she screamed at the director at one point, rushing out of the courtroom.<\/p>\n Mr. Ruggia discounted Ms. Haenel\u2019s account as \u201cpure lies.\u201d But he acknowledged having kissed her on the head and grabbing her, but said it had been in a fatherly manner.<\/p>\n \u201cThese were affectionate gestures,\u201d he said in court. <\/p>\n Although he talked about her overpowering sexuality, and wrote letters to her stating his heart was broken after she cut ties with him, Mr. Ruggia said he had never been in love with Ms. Haenel.<\/p>\n \u201cFor me, Ad\u00e8le was a kid, a preadolescent,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Since the publication in 2019 of Ms. Haenel\u2019s story in an extensively researched article in Mediapart<\/a>, a French investigative site, Mr. Ruggia has been cast out of cinema. He moved to Brittany in northwestern France to care for his mother and lives off welfare. He said during the court proceedings he had been waiting years for the trial, \u201cto see if I\u2019m going to get my life back, if I\u2019m going to be able to make films again or not.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Since her disclosure, Ms. Haenel has also stopped working in cinema. She later explained in a public letter that she believed the industry protected sexual abusers and preferred that victims \u201cdisappear and die in silence.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI am canceling you from my world,\u201d she wrote<\/a>.<\/p>\n The trial\u2019s subtext was how the justice system in France deals with perpetrators of sexual assault and their victims. According to a French parliamentary report published last month<\/a>, eight out of every 10 rape victims do not go to the police, revealing a profound distrust in the system.<\/p>\n