

The actress Judith Godrèche accused director Jacques Doillon of sexual assault on the set of the film La Fille de 15 ans (The 15 Year Old), which took place in the spring of 1987. Speaking on radio France Inter on Thursday, February 8, she said he had wanted "the same thing" as Benoît Jacquot, against whom she filed a complaint on Tuesday for "rape with violence on a minor under 15" committed by a person in authority. "On the set, it was unbelievable. He hired an actor (...), fired him and took his place. All of a sudden, he decides there's a love scene, a sex scene between him and me. We do 45 takes. I take off my sweater, I'm shirtless, he's groping me and making out with me."
All this took place before the eyes of Jane Birkin, who was then the director's partner and working as an assistant on the film set. "He'd kiss Judith Godrèche 20 times in a row asking me what the best take was. A real agony," Birkin wrote in her memoir Munkey Diaries, published in 2018. The film La Fille de 15 ans was released in cinemas in the spring of 1989.
During her interview on France Inter, Godrèche also mentioned, in a sibylline way and without going into details, other events that she said took place before the film shoot, at Doillon's home. In her complaint against Jacquot, filed on February 6 at the Paris Judicial Police's Minors' Protection Brigade and seen by Le Monde, she described precisely Doillon's actions, which would constitute a rape. She was 14. She said the incident took place in Birkin's home on Rue de la Tour, Paris.
Contacted by Le Monde, Doillon, now 79, had not replied by Thursday afternoon. Nor had his lawyer, Marie Dosé. "Doillon discovered these accusations in the press this morning," she told Agence France-Presse earlier in the day. "He strongly refutes them and looks forward to explaining himself before the courts." The preliminary investigation, opened on Wednesday by the Paris prosecutor's office, will focus on the acts committed by Jacquot and Doillon denounced by Godrèche.
According to the actress's account, Doillon invited her several times to Birkin's place for auditions, which eventually led to La Fille de 15 ans – the story of a teenage girl in love with a boy her own age (played by Melvil Poupaud), and with whom the boy's father (Doillon) falls in love. It was her agent at the time, Isabelle de La Patellière, who introduced her to the director, who was then looking for a young actress for a film he was planning to make.
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