UpgradeDirector and actor Nicolas Bedos, 44, who was already brought before a Paris criminal court in February 2024 for drunken sexual assault, is on trial for rape and sexual assault after three separate complaints from women.
The preliminary investigation was opened on July 5 and handed over to the first district of the Paris judicial police, the prosecution said on Tuesday, confirming information from Mediapart.
Contacted, Mr. Bedos’ attorney, Mee Julia Minkowski, declined to comment.
Two of the women who say they sent a statement to the Paris prosecutor’s office at the end of June told Mediapart the facts of the sexual nature they accuse Nicolas Bedos of.
One of them, a 50-year-old actress and screenwriter, who calls herself Chloé, alleges that the director raped her on a night in 1999 at the Bedos house in Neuilly-sur-Seine (Hauts-de-Seine). Aged 26 at the time and a maid, she agreed to follow along with friends and later established a “form of friendship” with her parents, Nicholas Bedos.
A second woman, under the name Marion, described to online media that she was sexually assaulted by the filmmaker at a vacation home in August 2017. She had known Nicholas Bedos since he was a teenager, and his age was not mentioned at the time of the incriminating facts.
The facts alleged in the third complaint are not stated.
Mediapart notes that the revelation of the actor’s police custody and the announcement of his trial made the first two women who knew each other to testify in court.
The director was taken into custody on June 21 after a woman complained that he touched her private parts through his pants at a Parisian club on the night of June 1-2.
The excuse of alcohol, a “procedure”
At the end of his trial, he was summoned to the Paris Criminal Court in February 2024 for sexual assault while apparently intoxicated, for which he will be sentenced to five years in prison and fined 75,000 euros.
“He didn’t want to question the word of the complainant describing an inappropriate gesture for a few seconds on his jeans,” his lawyer, Mee Julia Minkowski, explained a few weeks ago. “But such a gesture, which he doesn’t remember, could have happened on the dance floor of a nightclub, and could only have been accidental under the influence of intoxication,” he adds.
According to Mediapart, the woman, who calls herself Khloé, clarified that she “went (to court) to testify that it was definitely not an accident.” Marion condemns the alcohol excuse put forward by the actor, which according to him, is “more of a function than an excuse”.
A preliminary inquiry must determine whether the facts impugned are not suggestive and whether there are no other victims.
Prior to 2017, the statute of limitations was three years for sexual assault and ten years for rape. The Act now provides a limitation period of six years and twenty years.
Nicholas Bedos has many hats in the world of cinema: playwright, essayist, screenwriter and actor.
The son of comedian Guy Beddoes, he has made a name for himself by distinguishing himself in many fields since making his theatrical debut in 2004 at the age of 25, with several plays including “Sortie de scène”.
An artist and humorist who takes politically incorrect, sometimes divisive positions, Nicolas Bedos is the author of four films, three of which were presented at the Cannes Film Festival.
“La Belle Epoque” (2019), his most noticed film, won eleven César nominations for Best Picture and Best Director and attracted 1.2 million viewers in theaters.
He transformed the gratin of French cinema from Jean Dujardin (“OSS117: Red Alert in Black Africa”) to Isabel Adjani (“Masquerade”) via Daniel Auteuil, Guillaume Canet and Fanny Ardant.
Read more
Nicolas Bedos will be tried in early 2024 for intoxicated sexual assault
Free onbeperkt toegang tot Showbytes? That’s Gun!
Sign in to your Mac account.
“Total coffee junkie. Tv ninja. Unapologetic problem solver. Beer expert.”