Adèle Haenel: France ‘Missed the Boat’ on #MeToo

Brava! And thank you! Well-said!

It isn't just France. Other European countries with supposedly "non-puritanical" attitudes towards sexuality have similar histories of child abuse. I will never forget going to the English church in the center of Copenhagen back in the 1980s and hearing the women serving tea and coffee there - all British women married to Danes - telling horrific story after story about the incest and pedophilia among Danish families.

I think France and the USA are more similar than the article would let you believe. Saying that France is more tolerant towards sexual abuse of children and women is untrue. It is against the law to abuse children and women and the French do have police forces. Do we have pedophile priests and scouts, pedophile coaches? Yes, same as everywhere. Having worked as a teacher in France, I know for a fact that social services and the law did take care of abused children as well as they could. Their services are underfunded, same as everywhere. Is it easy in France to stand up against powerful people? Not quite, but how's Richard Gere's career gone since he stood up for Tibet? Money speaks extremely loudly everywhere, particularly in the Arts, where the extreme need for financing enables rich abusers. Would the French elect a woman president? They didn't but at least they did not vote for someone like Trump, who embodies the fact that too often immorality and success go hand in hand.

I feel so terrible about these abuses of power in filmmaking. Might we remember visual cinema is the printing press of the 1400's. It is a feudal world in its very anatomy and cannot exist without subjugation. The camera, as press, is inherently a subjugation for someone. "Content is King" - disturbing as this is - it is the mantra of everyone that works in cinematic markets, regardless of gender or ethnicity. Accountability is impossible to enforce because the medium is inherently hegemonic. I look forward to the day when cinema becomes entirely CGI and people start investing in local theater again.

For about 50 years I spent 6 months annually in France. Fortunately, the French, like many countries have a very different attitude about sexuality. The abuse of the very young is illegal there, as it is in most places, but what American women and men understand about their relations is very different. MeToo has never taken off there, because it is about American puritanism, it is extremist, it's sexism a its worst. it covers the frigidity of American women and the sexual naiveté of american men. That combination leads to frustration on the part of both sexes and the frustration leads all too often to real abuse and violence. Just look at the statistics. The American sexual psyche is warped in a very unique societal way. I have campaigned for womens' rights since I was in the university. In my late twenties I first started living in France part time and discovered the difference in attitudes. Sex in France was healthy, normal, respectful and mutual; everything it was not in America. MeToo has not taken hold there, because the French don't need it. Sex is not some aberration there. The American problem is societal, deeply rooted in the American adoption of Victorianism in the 19th century, and a social negative that, fortunately, never was adopted in France. Adèle may have a case, I don't know the details, but I do note that it was Elian from London who wrote this, not someone from the Paris bureau.

Bravo, Adèle! Lines can be much blurrier in France, making it all the harder to know when there cause for complaint or exploitation. When I lived there, I often encountered men who exposed themselves in the Metro. I was told that men often followed women whom they found attractive, without any other intentions, so not to worry. I was told that I needed to wear skirts to be taken seriously at work (when my job had nothing to do with my appearance); another said that he couldn't work at all with a woman sitting next to him. Outside of work, as an amateur photographer, I noticed that photography publications often featured nude women; I am not a prude - as an art student, I have sketched nudes; but if one judged by those publications, it seemed that French photographers (mostly male) preferred taking photos of nude women. A male photographer I encountered asked me to join him in his project, not to take photographs, but to essentially babysit the children whose portraits he was taking. This may give the impression that France is particularly misogynistic, compared to the US, which would be untrue; I've experienced different kinds of issues here, often being accused of being a female in one way or another ('emotional', 'having an attitude', etc...) in a way that is so subjective that it cannot be countered with a rational argument. In France, I was more than likely paid on par with my male colleagues, because of the bureaucratic salary requirements.

Ah, it’s finally starting to come out. I was born in Western Europe and lived there most of my young life. It was only when I came to the US for college that I learned that women could be your friends and not your rivals. It was here that I learned that I didn’t have to bend to the will of a man, or men. When I moved back to Europe for 2 years recently, I realized how behind the times the sexual mores were there. The infidelities of wealthy men are expected: it’s what keeps Hermès in business, a new Birkin is an accepted pay-off. And when it’s said that the French are so much more liberated than the Americans when it comes to sex, it’s true only to the extent that it applies to the guys only, who use that as a cover for their philandering and worse.

France, where I lived for a few months long ago is a really different place. How different I perhaps did not fully comprehend in my youthful, unbounded enthusiasm for the different, the literary and the artistic. Traveling in Italy a few years ago, an American ex-pat asked me why there are so many scandals, and arrests, over child sexual abuse in America. Was there an epidemic of abuse? I didn't have a good answer. Reporting and caring about what happens to the fragile emotions of a child could be one explanation for the increase here. Later, I learned that when an adult and a child have sexual contact, in France they blame the child at least somewhat. The girl or boy "lured" the man? This seems outrageous, ridiculous, but when a whole society, or the elite leadership, subscribes to a notion, it can be hard to root out. France is very proud of its culture and its traditions. This pride can block change because the idea is to stay the same, to be French. Cigarette smoking is still so common the last time I was at CDG the nicotine smell nearly knocked me over when I got off the plane. Apparently, they didn't get the memo. The unfiltered, strong Gitane cigarettes are still very popular, too. We should not feel superior. Apparently, though, France is due for a rocking to its core.

My daughter, a French girl aged 9, was being bullied by a group of 6 boys in her class (private French school). Of course, it was "her fault" for not "standing up for herself". I said, well she has tried but she is quite outnumbered. Having an American mother (me), I told the teacher my daughter was raised feminist. To which the teacher replied, " the other girls are not seductresses". This was a young teacher, under 30, and to her the opposite of a feminist was a seductress. This was in Dec 2019... The French have a deep suspicion of American culture and unfortunately, gender, race, ableism conversations just reek of "not French". There is only one way to be really French, diversity and inclusion is not French. So, naturally, my daughter is already a target... luckily her self esteem is quite high (that's her American side, lol).

If you look at that 1/9/18 NYT article on this same subject, you'll see that the actresses who pooh-poohed #MeToo looked like a Who's Who of French cinema. If I'd been victimized and possessed the resources to do so, I'd think twice before working with enablers of rapists. Meantime: Catherine Deneuve et al, please wake up.

If being a child rapist isn't enough to disqualify you from awards, I wonder what is, for France? Mass murder? Eating a McDonalds cheeseburger and praising the cheese? Box wine?

Wonderful interview. I love that Adele Haenel doesn't beat around the bush, but has the courage to tell the truth straight - giving Polanski a distinction really IS saying that raping women isn't that bad. Powerful. I look forward to seeing the movie!

France is not America and will never be. Catherine Deneuve said it best when she talked on the subject of me too. Like any country, we have our problems with rape, sexual assault, and full equality. To casually bring out the Polanski case without diving into the details, like a carreer minded DA going back on agreement, or without engaging the parental responsibility, is one sided and not a service to the cause, and fails to show why mr Polanski was granted refuge in France. As to why the me too wave has not had the same success, support, as here, maybe because we are slightly leery of a person seeking fame jumping on the flavor of month. Her accusation against the justice system is pathetic. Yes the judiciary has problems, but if you really want to change it you challenge it by bringing charges and forcing it to have a record of the issue so you can attack it again, again and again, and you simultaneously bring your case to the public, not ten, thirty years later. It is unfortunate that the me too movement or balance ton porc has turned into a witch hunt, because it diminishes a righteous cause.

Shame on #YouToo, Haenel. Nothing justifies a crime against you, but nor does the alleged crime against you justify your sweeping slur against "old rich white men." You really don't get it, do you? If you have specific criticisms against particular "old rich white men," then make them, and be prepared to defend them, but that is no justification for stereotyping a whole class of men. As for the risk that going public with your charges harming your career, you are far shrewder than you are letting on. You know full well that this is a great career move for you -- a career as a "victim." In today's culture, there is no more coveted status than that of victim or membership in a "victim class." Victimhood can be used as a form of moral blackmail to intimidate studios into giving you preferred treatment -- roles, movie directorships, and more. It can almost be used to demand more government "funding" for your priorities. Don't answer wrongs with your own wrongs.

Perhaps the French are not as frantically self righteous as we are.

Dear Mlle Haenel, Thank you for doing, as you say, something good for the world. You deserve to feel proud and joyful. In light of the news today about the Harvey Weinstein verdict, I hope Annabella Sciorra knows that she, too, did something good for the world.

In France, we have a problem with excessive tolerance towards child abuse. Abusers may be sports coaches, priests, whatever kind of educator managing to get authority over our children. The movie industry is a different ballgame: you are talking about grownups who want to get fame, whatever the price... In this particular case, and although I am an avid moviegoer, I have never heard of this actress and most likely wouldn't have were it not for her accusation against a movie director I hadn't heard of either.

Adele Haenel was absolutely incredible in ‘Portrait of a Lay on Fire.’ It’s amazing and commendable that she was so brave in coming forward about her assault at the hand of a powerful French director. I love France—the fashion, food, art and love of all things beautiful but the country is woefully behind in its understanding of abuse and the powerful men who use their power to hurt, oppress and sexually assault women.

Bravo, Ms. Haenel, the world needs more artists like you. Thank you for holding a mirror to the systems of power that continue to abuse those in positions of vulnerability. This is the kind of action that leads to change.

Much of the immediate conversation in France among actors seemed to be that American women were just making attention for themselves; noted reactions from Deneuve and also to an extent Marceau who claimed consent is "more complicated" and that women are in control of saying No. This is the sort of subversive narrative which does more to undermine victims of sexual impropriety. It forces the burden entirely onto women when it is still that case that our society in France, and in America, is largely controlled by cisgender men. Thank you to Adele for both a beautiful performance in 'Portrait of a Lady on Fire' but also for your courage in speaking up.