French director Christophe Ruggia has been found guilty of sexually assaulting actor Adèle Haenel during the early 2000s, but avoids jail time. This is France’s first major #MeToo trial in Paris.
ADVERTISEMENTFrench filmmaker Christophe Ruggia, 60, has been found guilty of sexually assaulting actor Adèle Haenel when she was between 12 and 15 in the early 2000s.
Ruggia, who directed Haenel in the 2002 movie The Devils (Les Diables), was handed a four-year sentence, but two of those years were suspended and the other two will be served under house arrest with an electronic bracelet.
Haenel, now 35, was the first major French actor to accuse the film industry of turning a blind eye to sexual abuse in the wake of the #MeToo movement. She accused Ruggia in 2019 of subjecting her to “permanent sexual harassment” during the making of The Devils, where she portrayed a girl with autism.
The court ruled that Ruggia “took advantage of the dominant position” he held over Haenel at the time. “During quasi-weekly meetings at your home for over three years you had sexualized gestures and attitudes,” as Haenel was “gradually isolated” from her loved ones, the court said in a statement.
Speaking candidly after the verdict, Haenel opened up about the psychological toll the abuse took on her. “I felt guilty after the filming of The Devils,” she said, quoted by The Guardian. “I had suicidal thoughts.”
Ruggia denied the allegations. His lawyer, Fanny Collin, has announced plans to appeal the verdict, but the director has also been ordered to pay €15,000 in damages to Haenel, along with an additional €20,000 to cover her years of psychological therapy.
A number of prominent female figures from French cinema were present in the courtroom to hear the verdict, including Judith Godrèche, a leading voice in France’s #MeToo movement, and director Céline Sciamma.
Haenel, star of the 2019 Cannes awardee Portrait of a Lady on Fire, has been outspoken in condemning what she describes as the French film industry’s inadequate response to sexual abuse.
In 2020, Haenel stormed out of the Césars, France’s prestigious film awards ceremony, shouting “Shame!” after Roman Polanski won the Best Director award. Polanski is still wanted in the U.S. for the 1977 statutory rape of a 13-year-old girl.
She announced in May 2023 that she was stepping away from cinema altogether, citing the industry’s deep-rooted complicity with sexual abusers.
In a poignant letter published in ‘Telerama’, Haenel explained: “I decided to politicise my retirement from cinema to denounce the general complacency of the profession towards sexual aggressors.”
