BERTRAND CANTAT. The singer Bertrand Cantat, known for having been the leader of Noir Désir, is also (and above all) known for having been sentenced for the murder of his wife Marie Trintignant.
Jean-Louis Trintignant died at the age of 91. If he spent the end of his life fighting against illness, the actor will have been haunted by the drama of the death of his daughter, Marie Trintignant, under the blows of his companion at the time, Bertrand Cantat. On the night of July 26 to 27, 2003, Bertrand Cantat hit his partner twenty times, after a violent argument. Marie Trintignant died on August 1 from her injuries.
At the time, Bertrand Cantat was the emblematic leader of the particularly popular Noir Désir group. Since this tragedy in August 2003 and after serving a four-year prison sentence (out of the eight he received at the trial held in Vilnius in 2004), Bertrand Cantat has tried to return to the stage. In vain. Each of his appearances sparks controversy. In 2010, upon his release from prison, he set off again on the roads of France. But in 2018, as each of his concerts triggered protests, he retired from the stage.
In 2021, his programming at the Théâtre national de la Colline, in Paris, for a show for which he composed the music, also arouses a vast controversy. Up to the highest spheres of the State: Roselyne Bachelot, then Minister of Culture, is inevitably questioned on the subject. But despite protests from feminist associations, the show remains on view in the fall of 2021. The feminicide of Marie Trintignant will remain a social affair, which continues to divide.
Bertrand Cantat was born in Pau, in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, on March 5, 1964. His father, a soldier, participated as a paratrooper in the indochina war ; his mother was a teacher and a housewife. He has a brother, Xavier, who will become a photographer before joining the ecologist party; and a sister, Ann, photographer, who died in January 2018. The future artist grew up in Normandy, then in Bordeaux. Very quickly Bertrand Cantat is interested in music and several artists like MC5 or the Doors. Influenced by the musical tastes of his parents, he began to write his own texts.
The life of Bertrand Cantat is, of course, inseparable from his group, Noir Désir. In high school, he met Serge Teyssot-Gay, with whom he formed Noir Désir, with Denis Barthe and Frédéric Vidalenc. The band from Bordeaux, inspired by new wave, began to perform as amateurs in the early 80s. After signing with Barclay, they released their first album, “Veuillez rend l’âme”, in 1988. Noir Désir became the one of the most essential French groups until the early 2000s, author of hits like “Tostaky”, “Un jour en France”, “L’homme pressed” or “Le vent nous portera”. The Marie Trintignant affair will sound the death knell for these years of brilliance for Bertrand Cantat, despite his attempts to get back on stage.
If Bertrand Cantat’s 2018 tour had sparked such controversy, it is because the singer is still considered one of the faces of violence against women. And whose story will remain linked to that of actress Marie Trintignant, who died in 2003. At the time, the singer of Noir Désir was married to Krisztina Rády, when he met the daughter of Jean-Louis and Nadine Trintignant at the end of 2002. Their story lasts 18 months, and ends with the tragedy that occurred in Vilnius in Lithuania on the night of July 26 to 27, 2003.
The singer beats his partner, “four slaps” according to his testimony, “9 blows, including 4 to the face, given with closed fists”, according to the Baltic forensic doctors. The actress, transferred to France, died of her injuries on August 1, 2003. The leader of Noir Désir was sentenced to eight years in prison in 2004, but was released in October 2007.
For the first time on French television, images of Bertrand Cantat’s hearing before the Lithuanian courts in 2003 were broadcast in November 2019. In the program Enquête Exclusive, a documentary broadcast at 11:10 p.m. on M6 retraced the investigation on the death of Marie Trintignant, killed by her companion, former leader of the group Noir Désir. A femicide that has become the sad French symbol of violence against women.
The documentary of the program Enquête Exclusive therefore brings together fifteen minutes of images of Bertrand Cantat’s hearing, which was filmed in Vilnius in August 2003. “We realized that there was not a but two filmed hearings. August 8 and 21, 2003. This allows us to see that Bertrand Cantat changed his story during the investigation. Initially, he said he had drunk alcohol the night of the crime, but a few days later, he assures the opposite. In Lithuania, the state of intoxication is an aggravating circumstance”, explains Jacques Aragones, the producer of the documentary interviewed by TV Mag.
And to add: “The idea is not to redo the trial. Bertrand Cantat has served his sentence. Only, we had never seen and heard him speak on this case (…) The general public going to discover his defense system. But above all to note that his explanations and his attitude are similar to those of men guilty of domestic violence today (…) Finally, the images are not broadcast in a raw way. They are commented on, deciphered and interpreted by direct or indirect actors: Bertrand Cantat’s lawyer but also the public prosecutor, Marlène Schiappa or even a psychiatrist expert. It was essential.”
“When you love someone, you don’t kill them”
Moreover, Marlène Schiappa also expresses herself in the documentary, which also brings together several testimonies. “There are hundreds of thousands of Marie Trintignants,” says the Secretary of State for Gender Equality in the documentary. And to add: “When you love someone, you don’t kill them. And I think these are not crimes of love, but crimes of possession. It’s very different. If it’s acts of crime of passion and that was killed for love, women love too. And yet, women do not kill, or almost not in proportion to men.”
Nadine Trintignant, mother of Marie, also testifies and remembers the last memories she has of her daughter, the very day of her death, when the actress was finishing a shoot. “I’m sure in the morning she told him it was over. On the last day of shooting, she was happy. She told me ‘I feel free’.”
Who was Bertrand Cantat’s wife?
Before and after the drama of the death of Marie Trintignant after being hit by Bertrand Cantat in Vilnius, the singer lived with Krisztina Rády. The couple had met in 1993. Of Hungarian origin, the young woman was 25 when she crossed paths with the singer. Four years later, they get married in Bordeaux. Krisztina Rády, very active in the Parisian cultural milieu, is cultural director of the Hungarian Institute. The couple have two children, Milo, born in 1997 and Alice, born in 2002.
On his release from prison for the murder of Marie Trintignant, Bertrand Cantat settles down again with Krisztina Rády in the Landes. But their “free relationship”, reported Le Point, will be tarnished by the relationship of the latter with another man. This triggered the singer’s anger. On January 10, 2010, she was found hanged in her home by her son Milo, who was 12 years old at the time. Alongside him, a farewell letter was found, but remained secret. The investigation decides first for a suicide, but an investigation is reopened a few months later with new elements transmitted by the lawyer and president of a feminist association.
In October 2021, the discreet return of Bertrand Cantat had sparked a lively controversy. The singer had been invited to compose the music for Wajdi Mouawad’s show at the Théâtre national de la Colline in Paris. Despite the outcry the show had caused, up to the highest levels of the state, the dates had been maintained in the fall of 2021. “So I don’t see how I should change anything , or ask anyone to withdraw”, even wrote Wajdi Mouawad in his press release, affirming his “unreserved” support for “fights for equality between women and men and against violence and sexual harassment .”
The director of the Théâtre de la Colline then said he refused to participate in an opinion which “punishes beyond justice and law” and “does not suffer from any nuance”, as he explains in his press release. A response to the growing controversy of recent days, which had prompted Roselyne Bachelot to speak on the subject. Asked about France Inter on the question, the Minister of Culture assured not having “to intervene in the management of La Colline.”
“I regret that Bertrand Cantat was invited nevertheless,” she added. However, the minister said that she supported “the freedom of creation” of Wajdi Mouawad, who directed the show and who, according to her, “cannot be accused of the slightest complacency with regard to the fight against sexual and gender-based violence.” The artist was sentenced in 2003 to eight years in prison for the murder of Marie Trintignant.
Since then, Bertrand Cantat, whose judicial review ended in 2011, has had a string of show cancellations. In 2020, his return to the stage in a play called “Paz” and planned in a room near Bordeaux, had been deprogrammed. Two years earlier, it was his solo tour that had been canceled, each of his dates being marked by demonstrations. On Saturday, in Paris, 300 people demonstrated in Paris as part of the #Metothéâtre movement, to denounce violence against women in the community.