French movie star Emmanuelle Béart was a victim of incest as a child, she says in a documentary presented on Tuesday, September 5, without identifying her abuser. Béart, who has starred in dozens of films and television productions over the past five decades, is the co-director of the documentary screened at a news conference. It will be aired on M6 television on September 24.
The documentary, called Un silence si bruyant ("Such a Resounding Silence"), includes the stories of four incest victims, as well as Béart's contribution. In a video address to reporters, Béart said that she had initially not wanted to talk about herself, only about other incest victims. "But their honesty and courage made me want to speak out, too," she said.
The attacker was not her father, later French singer Guy Béart, co-director Anastasia Mikova told reporters on Tuesday. Speaking on behalf of the actress, who did not attend the press conference, Mikova said Béart would not name her abuser because that is not "the approach of the film" The incest started when Béart was 10 and continued until she was 14, she said.
In the documentary, her voice is heard off-screen, addressing her abuser: "Since my father, mother, and friends didn't notice anything, you could do this again, and you did, over four years." Béart said she had been "saved" by her grandmother.
Some 160,000 children become victims of sexual assault every year in France, and 5.5 million French adults suffered sexual abuse during their childhood, according to Ciivise, a government-created commission for the protection of sexual abuse victims.