Vanessa Springora

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Vanessa Springora
Vanessa Springora (2022)
Born (1972-03-16) 16 March 1972 (age 52)[1][2]
Paris, France
Alma materLa Sorbonne
Occupation(s)Publisher, writer, film director
Notable workConsent

Vanessa Springora (born 16 March 1972) is a French publisher, writer and film director. She is the author of the memoir Consent, describing sexual abuse she experienced beginning at age 14 from author Gabriel Matzneff, then 49. The book became a bestseller and prompted changes to the French age of consent.

Early life[edit]

Born and raised in Paris by her mother,[3] she studied at the collège Jacques-Prévert, and later the lycée Fénelon in Paris, before taking a Diplôme d'études approfondies in Modern Literature at the Sorbonne University.[4]

Career[edit]

In 2003 she began working at the Institut national de l'audiovisuel[4] as a writer and director, before joining the publisher Éditions Julliard in 2006 as an editorial assistant. She has written and directed for the screen, with titles including the film Dérive (2006) and the television series Quotidien (2016).[citation needed] In 2019, she was appointed head of Éditions Julliard.[5]

Consent[edit]

In early January 2020, Springora published Le Consentement (French: Consent),[6] a memoir in which she describes how, from the age of 14, she was groomed and sexually abused by the author Gabriel Matzneff, who was then 49.[7][8] In the memoir, she describes herself as a vulnerable teenager of divorced parents who first met Matzneff when she was 13. The book describes how Matzneff actively pursued her by writing her letters, waiting for her outside her school, and following her in the street.[7] Springora's memoir met with critical and commercial success, quickly becoming a bestseller.[9] It also sent shockwaves through the French publishing world, since it highlighted a history of pedophilia and sex tourism that Matzneff has discussed and written about in his own books for decades. Matzneff made no secret of his sexual activities. In 1975, he appeared on Apostrophes to promote his essay Les moins de seize ans (The Under 16s), in which he discussed sexual relations with people under the age of 16. He later wrote an anonymised account of his relationship with Springora in the book La Prunelle de mes yeux (French: The Apple of my Eyes) (Gallimard, 1995).[10][11]

The fallout was significant. Matzneff’s three publishers all ceased working with him; a lifetime stipend was revoked; and the French government announced it would implement an age of consent of 15.[12] The scandal and the ongoing criminal prosecution also turned a spotlight onto a number of high-profile figures in French society who supported and socialised with Matzneff (including François Mitterrand, Jean-Marie Le Pen, the fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent and his partner Pierre Bergé).[13] The French politician Christophe Girard [fr] claimed to have been unaware of Matzneff's pedophilia,[14] despite a long association with the writer. Following public pressure, Girard resigned as deputy mayor of Paris in July 2020.[15]

Le Consentement was published in English as Consent (translated by Natasha Lehrer) by HarperVia in February 2021.[16] In The New York Times, critic Parul Sehgal praised the memoir and the translation, and noted the impact the book was having: "By every conceivable metric, her book is a triumph."[12]

In September 2021, Editis announced that Springora was leaving the management of Éditions Julliard.[17]

In 2023, Consent was adapted into a film of the same name directed by Vanessa Filho, starring Kim Higelin [fr] as Springora and Jean-Paul Rouve as Matzneff.[18]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Bachat, Sophie (10 January 2020). "Vanessa Springora ou les mots qui délivrent". Causeur (in French).
  2. ^ She writes in Consent (p.43-44) the coincidence between her birthday and the beginning of the Gabriel Matzneff novel Nous n'irons plus au Luxembourg — first edited by Table ronde in 1972 —, which she bought and read not long after they met.
  3. ^ Springora, Vanessa (2020). Le consentement. Paris: Bernard Grasset. ISBN 978-2-246-82269-1.
  4. ^ a b "Vanessa Springora prend la tête des éditions Julliard". ActuaLitté.com (in French). Retrieved 12 January 2021.
  5. ^ "Bernard Barrault et Betty Mialet quittent Julliard". Livres Hebdo (in French). Retrieved 12 January 2021.
  6. ^ "Le consentement", Vanessa Springora (in French). 2 December 2020.
  7. ^ a b Chrisafis, Angelique (27 December 2019). "French publishing boss claims she was groomed at age 14 by acclaimed author". The Guardian. Retrieved 12 January 2021.
  8. ^ "Explosive Book Alleging Underage Sexual Relationship With French Writer Prompts Outcry". HuffPost. 12 January 2020. Retrieved 12 January 2021.
  9. ^ Onishi, Norimitsu (7 January 2020). "A Victim's Account Fuels a Reckoning Over Abuse of Children in France". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 15 January 2021.
  10. ^ Onishi, Norimitsu (12 February 2020). "Gabriel Matzneff, Who Wrote for Years About Pedophilia, Is Charged". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 12 January 2021.
  11. ^ "Pédophilie: avec Matzneff, l'édition va-t-elle connaître son affaire Polanski?". LExpress.fr (in French). 23 December 2019. Retrieved 11 June 2020.
  12. ^ a b Sehgal, Parul (16 February 2021). "'Consent,' a Memoir That Shook France, Recalls Living a 'Perverse Nightmare'". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 24 February 2021.
  13. ^ Onishi, Norimitsu (11 February 2020). "A Pedophile Writer Is on Trial. So Are the French Elites". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 12 January 2021.
  14. ^ Onishi, Norimitsu (7 March 2020). "Supporter of Gabriel Matzneff Says He Was Unaware of Pedophilia". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 15 January 2021.
  15. ^ Méheut, Constant (14 September 2020). "A Second Paris Deputy Mayor Resigns Amid Sexual Abuse Allegations". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 12 January 2021.
  16. ^ Elkin, Lauren (11 February 2021). "Consent by Vanessa Springora review - a memory of lost adolescence". The Guardian. Retrieved 14 February 2021.
  17. ^ "Édition : Vanessa Springora quitte la direction de Julliard". Le Figaro (in French). Agence France-Presse. 20 September 2021. Retrieved 23 November 2021.
  18. ^ "AFM: 'Consent,' France's Buzzy Adaptation of Vanessa Springora's #MeToo Bestseller, Lures Major Distributors Around the World (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. 4 November 2023.
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