Yesterday, the French mega-star was found guilty of sexually assaulting two women on a film set. It's verdict which could have a big impact on the country's film industry.

It couldn't have been timed more dramatically if it had been written into a film script. The world's most famous film festival, in Cannes, began on the same day that Gérard Depardieu, one of the biggest film stars France has ever produced, was found guilty of sexually assaulting two women on the film set of a 2021 film, The Green Shutters, who described him groping them while using obscene language. "The giants of cinema are no longer untouchable," exclaimed one French news website, while another said that the news had "shaken up" the start of the iconic festival, from where I am currently reporting.

Seventy-six-year-old Depardieu is the veteran of around 200 films and TV productions. Famous in France since the late 1960s, he had international art house hits with films such as 1986's Jean de Florette. He became a global name as a result of a best actor Oscar nomination for a lavish French-language film production of Cyrano de Bergerac (1990), as well as the Hollywood romcom Green Card from the same year. Yesterday, Depardieu was given an 18-month suspended prison sentence, fined €29,000 (£24,430) and added to France's sex offenders register, but his lawyer said he will appeal the judgement.

Around 20 women have made allegations about Depardieu's improper behaviour in the past, but this is the first to come to trial, and the significance of the verdict cannot be overstated, according to writer Agnès C Poirier. "When a monument falls, it is always powerful and symbolic," she tells the BBC.

She adds that his reputation is "profoundly tarnished" but that "the French film industry sentenced him a long time ago. He hasn't shot a film in three years. His career is finished. He's still one of the greatest actors of the 20th Century, though we may now feel different when we watch his films."

For many years, the larger-than-life figure of Depardieu has also been linked to the Cannes Film Festival. He won the best actor prize here for Cyrano de Bergerac, launching it on its Oscar journey, and also played a part behind the scenes; its director, Thierry Frémaux, admitted that a much-derided football film from 2014, United Passions, starring Depardieu, premiered at Cannes because of pressure from the actor. He was most recently seen in 2015 at the festival with Isabelle Huppert for the film Valley of Love (and was seen staging a mock kiss at the photocall, as pictured below).

Unsurprisingly, Cannes Jury President, Juliette Binoche, who has also starred opposite Depardieu, was asked for her thoughts on the importance of his conviction at yesterday's opening press conference.

"He is no longer sacred," she told journalists, a reference to the scale of Depardieu's power in the French film industry.

Eve Jackson, the Culture Editor at French news channel France 24, tells the BBC that Depardieu "has........

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