OSCAR-nominated director and animator Eric “Bibo” Bergeron, who worked on the Madagascar and Flushed Away films, has been arrested for raping a woman who has since taken her own life.
Bergeron’s arrest on January 2 is the latest in a string of sexual assault cases that have rocked the French film industry.
The 54-year-old director has been charged with rape, according to the prosecutor’s office in Aix-en-Provence, the capital of the south-eastern French region of Provence-Alpes-Cote d’Azur.
His alleged victim was reportedly one of his students at the Gobelins film school in Paris and also worked on the production team of his 2011 film: “A Monster in Paris”.
She took her own life in 2017.
The prosecutor’s office said he had been placed under judicial supervision and that the investigation began in 2018. The alleged rape is said to have taken place in 2007.
Bergeron reportedly “completely” denies the allegations.
His lawyer Stephane Le Buhan said his client “disputes the entirety of the charges against him” and “will restore to justice his honour, marred by the serious accusations against him”.
Some of Bergeron’s credits include: Shark Tale, Asterix in Britain, Asterix and the Big Fight, Fievel Goes West, FernGully: The Last Rainforest, We’re Back! A Dinosaur’s Story, A Goofy Movie, The Adventures of Pinocchio, Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, The Madagascar Penguins in a Christmas Caper and Flushed Away.
Bergeron directed the 2011 film ‘A Monster in Paris’, which was voiced in English by Sean Lennon, Vanessa Paradis, Adam Goldberg, Danny Huston, Madeline Zima, Catherine O’Hara, and Bob Balaban.
Bergeron was nominated for the Oscar for the best animated film in 2005.
On Tuesday, famous French director Christophe Ruggia, 55, who made international headlines when he was accused by Adele Haenel of sexually assaulting her between the age of 12 and 15 was arrested and his home was searched by investigators.
The allegations made by French actress and Cesar winner Adele Haenel, 31, appeared on 3rd November 2019. She accuses him of “touching” her and “sexually harassing” her during shooting and at film festivals.
Police opened an investigation on 6th November 2019 and at the end of the month the actress had filed a complaint against him.
The French Directors’ Guild (Societe des Realisateurs de Films, SRF) also promptly expelled him in the midst of the allegations.
The 54-year-old film director had at the time denied the allegations but said he had “made the mistake of having played pygmalions”, asking the actress to “forgive” him.
Pygmalion is a legendary figure in Greek mythology who was a king and a sculptor who fell in love with a statue he had carved.
Oscar-winning French actress Marion Cotillard praised Haenel for “breaking a silence that was so heavy.”
