FRANCE, Oct 28 — Gerard Depardieu was known for more than 50 years as a titan of French cinema, but details of his crude behaviour and allegations of sexual violence have brought his star low in recent years.

The 75-year-old goes went to trial yesterday on charges of sexually assaulting two women during a 2021 film shoot.

Depardieu’s career spans more than 200 films, making him one of the best-known French faces on the global silver screen.

It has included leading roles in adapted classics of French literature, such as Cyrano de Bergerac and Jean Valjean of "Les Miserables”.

Audiences and fellow creatives long appreciated his brash, often deliberately offensive character—only for those qualities to begin counting against him in recent years.

A 2023 broadcast of images shot five years earlier in North Korea showed Depardieu making misogynistic and sexual remarks about an underage girl.

But while then-Culture Minister Rima Abdul-Malak called the recording a "shame for France”, President Emmanuel Macron took Depardieu’s defence, saying he remained a "towering actor” who "makes France proud”.

Macron’s intervention came as Depardieu faced a slew of rape and sexual assault allegations spanning decades.

Crude scenes, big noses

Gerard Depardieu was born December 27, 1948 in Chateauroux, central France.

Although his teenage years were marked by delinquency, he went on to discover the theatre in Paris and appeared in his first film in 1965.

One of Depardieu’ breakthrough roles came as a violent small-time crook in 1974’s "Les Valseuses” ("Going Places”) directed by Bertrand Blier—a film that drew opprobrium for its on-screen depictions of sexual acts and vulgarity.

The criticisms did nothing to harm Depardieu’s career, as he went on to be crowned with France’s version of an Oscar, the 1981 Cesar award for "Le dernier metro” ("The last metro”) directed by Francois Truffaut.

US magazine Newsweek called Depardieu a "hero with a thousand faces” in 1987 as he was on a run of films that peaked with 1990’s "Cyrano de Bergerac”, directed by Jean-Paul Rappeneau.

Depardieu bagged a second Cesar and the Cannes festival’s acting award for his appearance as the titular big-nosed, versifying nobleman in a classic French tale of unrequited love.

He launched an adventure into Hollywood in the early 90s with efforts like "Green Card” and "1492”.

But even then, past utterances in which he appeared to confess to committing "rapes” as a young man surfaced in Time magazine.

Depardieu claimed that his words had been mistranslated, but the affair undermined his Californian ambitions.

The late 90s and early 2000s brought commercial success with live-action adaptations of the Asterix comic books and dramas like police thriller "36, Quai des Orfevres”, but the actor did not reach his previous artistic heights.

Now a vineyard owner known for his love of rich food, Depardieu made headlines for outbursts and offensive or even violent behaviour, especially towards women.

Allegations catch up

Long written off as being down to his unique character, some allegations eventually made it into the justice system.

Depardieu was charged in 2020 with raping actor Charlotte Arnould, then in her 20s, multiple times, which he has denied.

A second actor, Helene Darras, filed a criminal complaint for sexual assault, but the case was dropped as it had passed the statute of limitations.

Where Depardieu’s antics—such as urinating on board a plane in 2011 -- had once drawn laughs, he now became a liability.

Studios removed him from publicity campaigns for his films before putting his career on hold in late 2023.

Pleading before the court of public opinion, he swore that he was "neither a rapist nor a predator” in an open letter.

"I’ve been provocative, excessive, sometimes crude throughout my life... if when I thought I was living intensely in the present moment, I have hurt or shocked anyone at all, I never meant to do harm and I apologise,” Depardieu wrote.

Beyond his legal woes, Depardieu has appeared to shun France in favour of authoritarian governments from North Korea to Cuba and Algeria in recent years.

He announced in 2012 that he would give up his French nationality, living as a tax exile in Belgium and acquiring Russian citizenship.

Until Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Depardieu was full of praise for Russian President Vladimir Putin. — AFP