If it goes forward, the trial will test ideas of coercion, consent and vulnerability. On Thursday, August 28, an investigating judge ordered Gérard Depardieu to stand trial in Paris on charges of raping French actress Charlotte Arnould. The actor is suspected of having digitally penetrated Arnould, then an aspiring actress, without her consent on two occasions in August 2018. He was 69 at the time, she was 22.

Some uncertainty remains over whether the trial will go ahead. In French criminal law, defendants can challenge an order to stand trial before the investigative chamber. Such reversals are rare, given the detailed reasoning investigative judges typically provide. Contacted by Le Monde, Depardieu's lawyer Jérémie Assous declined to comment on the ruling or say whether he would appeal. In court, Depardieu acknowledged having had "two intimate moments" with Arnould on August 7 and 13, 2018, at his home, but denied both the allegation of digital penetration and that the encounters were nonconsensual.

"We are relieved and confident," Arnould's lawyer Carine Durrieu Diebolt told Le Monde. "This is a form of judicial truth for Charlotte as she waits for the criminal trial. This order is also a response to the false allegations made against her in certain media outlets." In an op-ed published in Le Figaro in October 2023, Depardieu wrote: "There was never any coercion, violence or protest between [us]." He added, "She wanted to sing Barbara's songs with me at the Cirque d'Hiver [a theater in Paris]. I said no. She filed a complaint."

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