The director of “Léon” and “The Fifth Element” has been accused of rape by Sand Van Roy since 2018. The Court of Cassation on Wednesday rejected the appeal filed by the actress.
The Court of Cassation has decided to definitively dismiss Sand Van Roy’s rape charges against Luc Besson this Wednesday, June 21, 2023. According to information from AFP The high court thus rejected the appeal filed by the actress in reaction to the dismissal of the appeal from which the director benefited, in 2022.
In 2018, actress Sand Van Roy filed a complaint against the filmmaker for rape and sexual assault, including non-consensual digital penetration. The filmmaker has always denied the allegations. As a reminder, these charges were already dismissed in December 2021, confirmed on appeal in May 2022. Sand Van Roy’s lawyers then seized the Court of Cassation, the highest French legal body, to an appeal, claiming that the judgment of the Court of Appeal had suffered from procedural irregularities. This last procedure was therefore rejected by the Court of Cassation on Wednesday.
Biography of Luc Besson – Luc Besson was born in Paris in 1959, but he hardly lived in the capital during his childhood. He has indeed followed his parents, diving teachers, around the Mediterranean for more than fifteen years between the Greek, Italian and Yugoslav coasts. Passionate about the sea, it is only natural that he undertakes to follow in the footsteps of his parents as a marine biologist specializing in dolphins, but a serious diving accident reduces his hopes to nothing. At 17, he learns that he will never be able to dive again and that the accident could have cost him his sight.
The first experiences
The return to the benches of high school is therefore not easy for the young Luc Besson. However, it was at this time that the teenager was to develop a certain taste for the cinema, starting to devour all the films in the cinematheques, going to UNITED STATES for three years to approach the film sets through often thankless odd jobs, or even join the Chambéry multiplex every evening during his military service. He immediately found a few odd jobs: trainee for Pialat, Arcady, he also made a few clips to develop his own directing techniques. As these experiences progressed, he met Pierre Jolivet, with whom he became friends, and the two friends together created the production company Les films du loup.
The triumph of the Big Blue
From his first short film, The Before Last (1981), the future Besson “family” was made up of: Jean Reno in front of the camera (met on the set of Bidasses aux grandes manoeuvres) and Eric Serra, who would compose the music for all his movies. His first feature film, Le Dernier combat (1983, again bringing together Pierre Jolivet, Jean Reno and Eric Serra), was nominated for the 1984 Césars in the Best First Work category. Then comes Subway (1985), detective film bringing together Isabelle Adjani And Christopher Lambert, which is its first real success with just under three million admissions. But what then of the triumph of Big Bluebringing together more than nine million spectators, which has become the cult film of an entire generation?
Unmissable French filmmaker
Claiming to have a certain American influence, Luc Besson then approaches two black and nervous films, Nikita in 1990 and Leon in 1994. Seen in France by more than three and a half million spectators each, these films also enabled him to achieve a certain breakthrough on the American market. The fifth Element (1997), deep science fiction film Bruce Willis in a colorful futuristic universe, also had a fine career at the box office across the Atlantic, and enabled the filmmaker to win the César for Best Director. Screenwriter and producer of most of his films, his success also led him to produce for d other directors, until the opening of his own production and distribution company, EuropaCorp. Created in 2001, it is at the origin of Le Baiser mortal du dragon, Yamakasi and other Taxi 3, but also more confidential titles such as La Turbulence des fluids, Tristan or Peau d’ange.
Faced with criticism
However, Luc Besson must therefore face virulent adversaries: the critics. Already rarely spared in the past (the opening of the Cannes Film Festival in 1988 with The big Blue remains one of his worst professional memories), this one is now regularly the target of journalists who reproach him for filling the rooms with productions deemed easy, calibrated and tasteless. Therefore, the public and professionals are all very eager to witness his big comeback behind the camera, which he hasn’t touched since. Jeanne D’Arc in 1999, for the very mysterious Angel-A featuring Jamel Debbouze in 2005 and the animated film Arthur and the Invisibles in 2006 and its two sequels Arthur and the Revenge of Maltazard in 2009 and Arthur 3, the war of the two worlds. In 2011, Luc Besson takes the direction of the biopic dedicated to the politician Aung San Suu Kyi, The Lady with Michelle Yeoh as the Burmese opposition figure. In 2013, he led the film’s dream cast Malvita with Tommy Lee Jones, Robert De Niro and Michelle Pfeifer. In 2014, he hired Scarlett Johansson for the action feature film Lucy, which was a huge success at the global box office. Unfortunately, this will not be the case in 2017 for his Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, which had a monumental flop, even though it is the most expensive French film in the history of cinema.
Sand Van Roy filed a complaint against Luc Besson in May 2018, accusing him of rape the day after an appointment with the filmmaker in a palace. She later denounced other rapes and sexual assaults. The director of the Fifth Element and Léon has always denied these accusations, and has never been indicted in the context of this complaint. The Paris prosecutor’s office had closed the case without further action in February 2019. The actress had however filed a complaint a second time against the director, before a dismissal was pronounced on December 9, 2021.
Investigating judge Marie-Claire Nouriel dismissed Luc Besson, accused of rape by Sand Van Roy since 2018. The actress’s lawyer assured that his client was going to appeal: “The defense knew that Mr. Besson’s best lawyer was the investigating judge. She decided not to investigate and succeeded in the rare performance of never meeting the complainant”, he explained to franceinfo. On Twitter, Sand Van Roy announces his desire to “file a complaint for forgery” against the investigating judge, who dismissed the case in favor of Luc Besson. The defense of Luc Besson for his part estimated at the microphone of franceinfo that “this dismissal is consistent with the constant position of the public prosecutor”, who would have considered, according to his point of view, that “the charges were not unfounded”.
Luc Besson reacts to the case
Luc Besson reacted to this affair which has been hovering since 2018 in the morning of BFM TV: “This affair is a lie from A to Z. I did not rape this woman, I have never raped a woman in my life, I have never laid a hand on a woman, I have never threatened a woman, I have never physically and morally coerced a woman into anything, I have never drugged a woman, this is a lie”, he details very precisely.
The producer of Europacorp, however, believes that this does not exonerate him from his responsibilities: if he denies the assaults, he confirms having had extramarital affairs. “I have responsibilities. I made mistakes and made mistakes, I also lied. I lied to my wife, I lied to my children, because I had a relationship with this young person, for two years, that was an emotional relationship. I lied and betrayed my wife and children, and it didn’t happen to me just once, it happened to me several times in twenty years of marriage”. A preliminary investigation against the French producer is still open in Paris, following accusations by a Canadian actress for prescribed facts. She claims that Luc Besson attempted to sexually assault her in March 2002.