Actress and filmmaker Judith Godrèche, at the forefront of a new #MeToo wave in France this year, has been invited to the world premiere of a short film by the Cannes Film Festival Me too in the official selection.
The film, which highlights the stories of victims of sexual violence, will be shown during the opening ceremony of the “Un Certain Regard” section in the Salle Debussy at the Palais des Festivals and as part of the free, public Cinéma de la Plage program on May 15th.
Me too follows Godrèche’s decision earlier this year to publicly denounce her six-year relationship with director Benoît Jacquot in the 1980s, which began when she was 14 and he was 39.
The actress and filmmaker, who said she was under his influence and the relationship was fake, lodged a police complaint Farewell, my queen And Diary of a chambermaid Director in February for “forcible rape”. He has denied the allegations.
Godrèche then gave a historic speech at France’s César Awards, calling for an end to the culture of silence in the French film industry regarding sexual harassment and abuse.
The actress and filmmaker’s actions have sparked a new #MeToo wave in France and encouraged other victims of sexual harassment and abuse to speak out.
Godrèche wrote and directed Me tooproduced by Didar Domehri of Maneki Films, in response to the more than 6,000 responses she received after she called on social media for victims to come forward and share their statements with her.
Shot under the radar on a Paris street on March 23rd. Me too gathers more than 1,000 victims of sexual abuse who have answered Godreche’s call.
“Suddenly there was a lot of sacrifice in front of me, a reality that France also represented, so many stories from all social classes and generations,” Godrèche said in a Cannes Film Festival statement announcing the short film’s selection.
“Then the question was, what would I do with them? What do you do when you are overwhelmed by what you hear, the sheer volume of testimonies?” She reconstructed an intimate audio and visual landscape, created a film in the form of a choral piece consisting of personal accounts told in fragments, and staged this bitter but life-saving journey, from wordless pain to the beginning of liberation through words. with around 1,000 people. Music, dance, images and the world of fantasy offer them a space that is as physical as it is symbolic: to be together, in the middle of the street, in broad daylight, and to occupy the city as a militant gesture.”
Godrèche began her career in 1981 with Nadine Trintignant Next summerand has since amassed almost 50 credits working with directors such as Sophie Fillières, Cédric Klapisch, Park Chan-wook, Olivier Assayas, Jerzy Skolimowski, François Ozon and Tonie Marshall.
In 2010 she wrote and directed her first film “Girls Cry” and returned to the director’s chair in 2023 with her series “Icon of French Cinema” broadcast on Arte.