Actress accuses ‘Fifth Element’ director of raping her

PARIS: A young actress has lodged a complaint for rape against French film director Luc Besson (pic), judicial sources said, the latest in a string of sexual abuse allegations in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal.

The filmmaker’s lawyer Thierry Marembert said he categorically denied the claims calling them “fantasist accusations”, adding that the complainant was someone he knew “towards whom he has never behaved inappropriately”.

Police in

Paris opened an investigation after the actress accused the 59-year-old

The Big Blue,

Nikita and Leon director of raping her, the judicial sources said.

A “complaint has been made for acts qualifying as rape by the plaintiff which happened on Thursday night into Friday in Paris”, they said, adding that police were investigating.

Sources said Besson’s accuser went to police on Friday to file a complaint against Besson after the alleged assault at the Bristol hotel in the French capital.

The complainant said she had been in a relationship with him for around two years, stating she felt pressured into being intimate with him for professional reasons.

One source close to the investigation said Besson was out of the country and had not been questioned.

According to Europe 1 radio, which broke the story, Besson’s accuser said she had “drunk a cup of tea, then felt unwell and lost consciousness”.

The station quoted her as saying that when she came round she remembered being sexually assaulted.

Besson, who is married to a film producer, has three children with his wife and two more from previous relationships.

He has been married four times, including to US actress Milla Jovovich.

Besson is a top name in the French cinema world with 12 Cesar nominations – the country’s equivalent of the Oscars – and 17 films under his belt.

His 1998 sci-fi blockbuster The Fifth Element, starring Bruce Willis, Gary Oldman and Jovovich, won him his only Cesar national award to date.