THIS SERIES CONTAINS DESCRIPTIONS OF VIOLENCE THAT MAY UPSET VIEWERS.
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This is a damning report for Bertrand Cantat.
The definitive findings from Marie Trintignant's autopsy
report multiple blows to the face and a fractured nose.
The theory that a slap caused a fatal fall has collapsed.
Bertrand Cantat has lied,
according to the definitive results of Marie Trintignant's autopsy.
The singer's account that she fell onto a radiator is not true.
The actress appears to have been the victim of a fatal beating.
RICHARD KOLINKA MARIE TRINTIGNANT'S EX-PARTNER
When they tell you…
that she was beaten to death…
Well, you think that…
Plus, the guy has those huge mitts with huge rings too.
And when I went…
I don't want to talk about that.
But I can tell you,
I could've killed him.
I can't get over it.
You know, these are things that you don't get over.
That you go over and over in your head.
It's been awful.
LIO ACTRESS AND MARIE TRINTIGNANT'S FRIEND
AUTOPSY CONDEMNS CANTAT
The autopsy is published in the press in mid-August.
And for the first time, Bertrand Cantat's image suffers.
JOURNALIST - LE POINT MAGAZINE
CONDEMNS
Marie Trintignant's nose was crushed.
It was literally shattered.
Brain lesions and lesions on two optic nerves.
MICHELLE FINES JOURNALIST
According to medical examiners, she had shaken baby syndrome.
And it was just Cantat who did that with his hands.
He butchered her.
The girl was slaughtered.
It's awful.
Lithuania is already requesting Marie Trintignant's autopsy report
for investigative purposes.
An investigation in France was opened at the request of the Trintignant family.
The investigation is assigned to examining magistrate Nathalie Turquey
and Commissioner Jérôme Bonet, for the police.
JÉRÔME BONET FORMER HEAD OF THE CRIME SQUAD
Thanks to the autopsy, we could rule out the theory of "I hit her, then she fell,"
but we don't have the crime scene,
which is key for us.
What happened? What triggered the blows?
We get authorization to go to Vilnius to interrogate him.
Bertrand Cantat has to give us an answer.
FROM ROCK STAR TO KILLER
EPISODE 2 DEADLY PASSION?
The examining magistrate arrived in Vilnius this evening.
She arrives in Vilnius with two officers from the crime squad
and Marie Trintignant's autopsy report in her luggage.
The magistrate asked to meet with Bertrand Cantat
and interrogate him about the course of events.
When we arrive in Vilnius, we collect our luggage,
and we're warned, "It's madness. You'll see."
And indeed, we're harassed,
caught in a swarm of cameras,
and they follow us all the way to the ambassador's car.
We all jump into the car and leave in a bit of a hurry.
There's a lot at stake in this new hearing.
Because during the first hearing Bertrand lied.
In the end, it's much more serious than we thought.
And since Marie Trintignant's death,
he's being charged with first-degree murder,
and could serve 15 years in prison.
So I'm wondering what he'll say to get out of it.
21 AUGUST 2003 SECOND HEARING
In the presence of representatives of the French justice system,
are you ready to make your statement?
Yes, of course. I'm ready. Of course.
The second hearing is extremely important to us.
We'll question him again,
and try to encourage him to tell us the truth.
FRÉDÉRIC PÉCHENARD FORMER DIRECTOR OF THE CRIME SQUAD
As head of the crime squad, at that time, I'm in Paris,
but Commissioner Bonet keeps me abreast of the hearing,
which he was following.
We interviewed Bertrand Cantat on the 21st of August, 2003,
and at this second hearing,
we know we have to confront him with the autopsy results.
And then his story changed.
Please, can you show us how you hit her?
I did very big slaps like this.
Four or five or six.
Like this and this, see?
And maybe more,
because at that time, you know, I won't try it on…
No, no.
No.
But it's true that it wasn't… gentle.
They were big slaps,
and I was out of control.
I wasn't myself. It was like an out-of-body experience.
And I really hit her hard with big slaps like this, with my rings,
so it was actually quite violent.
Did you do it like this, or like this?
The slaps came out of me in that moment,
like that, without…
I didn't think about how hard it would be, but I know that it wasn't…
They weren't hits like this,
as hard as this.
Thanks to the autopsy, we have the first kind of confession.
It's not enough, it's incomplete, but it's a confession.
I think that it was my fault… somehow.
For sure, we fought, and for sure, I hit her.
So, I take responsibility for the fact that she died because of me.
Bertrand Cantat admitted that it was his fault,
and he cried a lot.
It's absolutely awful. It's awful.
Actually, at that point,
the headlines were, "Bertrand Cantat's poignant confession."
The first few words of the article talk about Cantat's tears.
He's described as a man who's lost weight.
It's about a man who killed a woman, but the tone is sympathetic to him.
And he'll start to turn the situation around.
I don't know, there's a point where it's a question of strength.
A problem of…
It took control of me, it… It took control of me, yes, it took over.
During this second hearing, he was already on his way to prison, I dare say.
At that moment, Bertrand Cantat realizes, "I might go to trial and be convicted,"
so he gets worried and he tries to get out of it
by using several defense tactics.
Narcissistic abusers are dangerously clever.
He will do anything to redirect the suspicion elsewhere.
Let's say that things very quickly got heated on her end.
I didn't recognize her.
And it was already…
I didn't recognize Marie.
It became something else.
Things had already escalated.
At first, Bertrand Cantat's defense played on the fact
that Marie could behave,
I won't go so far as to say provokingly,
but was her behavior likely to cause anger?
Yes, she was screaming too,
then she punched me in the face,
she hit me.
Up until then, I was in control of myself, but then, yeah.
I had a split upper lip, and so on.
But no one looked at it, so…
And I remember that Bertrand Cantat's French lawyer, Olivier Metzner,
goes outside…
and speaks to the press.
Marie acted like never before.
He'd never seen her like that.
And his strategy would change everything.
Unfortunately, she…
dealt the first punch.
First, she punched me, then she grabbed me.
She grabbed him, he fell.
After that, she had already lost control,
and then he lost it too.
And the press spoke about it a lot.
According to Bertrand Cantat's lawyer, Marie Trintignant hit the singer first,
which made him angry.
MARIE ALLEGEDLY HIT HIM
Of course, French people were influenced by this.
IT'S NOT THE "EVIL MAN" AGAINST THE "NICE WOMAN…"
TRINTIGNANT ASSAULTED CANTAT FIRST!
The autopsy report was almost forgotten about
because the media repeated Cantat's defense arguments,
which interpret the 20 or so hits as a form of self-defense.
He said, "I knocked her over…"
After grief comes anger and outrage.
The media becomes a battlefield between two leading lawyers.
And Georges Kiejman speaks out to defend the Trintignants.
GEORGES KIEJMAN TRINTIGNANT FAMILY'S LAWYER
He's a media monster,
who worked on the most high-profile cases in France.
The Trintignant family, through their lawyer, Mr. Kiejman,
gave their version of events today.
"No, she did not deliver the first blows."
It is perfectly implausible
to think that this frail, young woman,
at 1.65 meters tall, weighing less than 60 kilos,
could have wrestled and pushed to the ground
a big guy, who is a real athlete, at 1.9 meters tall, 85 kilos,
who trained in several sports.
Marie was a tiny little thing.
She couldn't have physically taken on Cantat in a meaningful way.
But he set out to use the argument of self-defense
in which he was practically the victim.
Poor Bertrand Cantat, who was pushed to kill Marie without meaning to.
Then, Bertrand Cantat defended himself in another way,
not the most elegant way, to say the least.
Smear the victim.
So I tried to keep talking by arguing with her,
saying, "Wait, you can't tell me
that there isn't an imbalance, there isn't a problem."
And she kept shouting, "Go see your wife."
Until she was completely… hysterical.
Furious… hysterical.
He didn't think she could be like that.
And she kept on being hysterical.
She was stuck on, "Go see that amazing woman. Go see her."
The idea that Marie Trintignant drove Bertrand Cantat crazy,
because she was hysterical and she pushed him to the edge,
was then reported by the press.
HYSTERICAL HYSTERIA
In an editorial, you can read, "Words kill."
WORDS THAT KILL
"Words do more harm than hitting." They talk about words that "emasculate."
EMASCULATE
So Marie Trintignant's words did more harm than Bertrand Cantat's blows.
WE HIT TO SILENCE THE WORDS THAT KILL
Frankly, it's shameful.
Cantat had several more lines of defense.
He was clearly trying to disparage the victim.
I won't dwell on Marie's alleged hysteria. It's the classic excuse from violent men.
Marie Trintignant's loved ones were mourning at that time.
They didn't want to speak publicly.
So Georges Kiejman was on his own.
That left the field open for the people close to Cantat.
There's a spotlight on this case due to both of their personalities.
BERNARD COMMENT WRITER
I mean, we can't judge too quickly.
We don't have the conclusions of the investigation
and psychological profiles.
AN ALCOHOLIC WITH A HYSTERICAL WOMAN IT HAD TO END BADLY
SHE WAS A HYSTERICAL, ALCOHOLIC DRUG-USER…
IT DOESN'T JUSTIFY ANYTHING, BUT IT PUTS IT INTO CONTEXT.
MARIE HAD FOUR CHILDREN FROM THREE DIFFERENT FATHERS?
I'm not saying… I don't know Marie Trintignant.
"INROCKUPTIBLES" JOURNALIST AND WRITER
I can't say she wasn't, but he… What's key for Cantat is loyalty.
He hasn't been married three times.
I mean-- No, but--
-You have to say these things. -That's absurd!
-Why not say it? They're facts! -Listen!
If I had to plead in favor of Bertrand Cantat in Vilnius,
I'd say it's more a tragedy than a crime.
-Xavier Cantat, hello. -Hello.
You are Bertrand Cantat's older brother.
You say that Marie's personality is being rewritten,
that she was capable of being excessive, and everyone knows it.
Marie had many lovers.
She had four children with four different fathers, not three.
It doesn't do her justice
to portray her as a perfect little girl.
-Yeah. -Which she never was.
They're trying to make us believe they never saw her get angry with anyone.
Yeah.
I don't know. They just didn't see it, then.
Thank you.
Here is an example of Thierry Ardisson's complacence.
He hosts one of the most-watched shows in France,
and he lets Bertrand Cantat's brother demolish Marie Trintignant's image
when she has just been beaten to death.
I knew that…
DOMINIQUE REVERT NOIR DÉSIR'S FORMER TOUR MANAGER
I knew that Marie Trintignant was quite a complex person.
She was an actress. She was very high-strung.
She was a bit, not hysterical,
but she got angry easily.
That's it.
Cantat's defenders would've done anything to minimize the singer's responsibility.
And even more so in Bertrand Cantat's last line of defense,
which was to connect his crime to undying love.
I loved her so much. She loved me so much.
She jumped on me.
Why did something like this happen?
It's something I don't understand.
I wasn't in control.
She lost control at that moment too.
It's like a completely crazy turnaround.
Everyone, if you talk to them,
if you ask people, everyone knows how much we loved each other.
Everyone knows how much.
I hope that when he is judged,
it will be for something closer to the truth,
which is a crime of passion.
Cantat's lawyers tried to describe the events as a crime of passion.
Without this excessive love, this tragedy wouldn't have happened.
Because under Lithuanian law,
if the events were categorized this way, Bertrand Cantat could halve his sentence.
LOVE - COUPLE - PASSION DYING OF LOVE
And the French media headlines talk about a crime of passion.
"A love story that went wrong."
LOVE
MARIE TRINTIGNANT VICTIM OF PASSION
PASSION
TRINTIGNANT A DEVASTATING LOVE
PASSION A TRAGIC COUPLE
Everyone talks about an exceptional, perhaps excessive, love story.
It's a beautiful love story that went wrong.
The crime itself seems passionate.
The tragic act took place at the very heart of passion.
BERTRAND WAS A VICTIM OF HIS PASSION.
IT'S AWFUL FOR HIM TOO!
How did they both end up there, exacerbating their passion for each other?
No. That doesn't exist. It's not…
You don't kill out of love. That's false.
People need to get that out of their heads.
You kill out of hatred.
The only story being told by the media
was that it was a crime of passion and that she deserved it a bit.
In 2003,
the newspaper headlines talked about a "crime of passion,"
so I thought that's what it was.
I didn't understand at the time.
"Crime of passion." Those things don't go together.
The words "crime" and "passion" don't go together, period.
The notion of a crime of passion reflects a world view at the time
that love must end tragically.
And you get the impression
that the perpetrator is a victim of his own passion.
And at the time, I was outraged by this kind of treatment.
So, I spoke out in Marie's defense.
Welcome to Tout le monde en parle.
-Please welcome Muriel Cerf. -Good evening, Thierry.
-Do you know everyone? -Not at all.
-Okay. -Hello.
-No. -Do you know Lio?
-Yes. -The singer.
You've published a book with Ecriture titled,
Bertrand Cantat or the Song of the Automatons.
So, the explanation you give for Bertrand Cantat's crime
is that "the realm of passion is murder, at its core."
Indeed.
It depends on which passion and how you see it.
And his love wasn't stolen. He killed her.
-Of course he killed her. We agree. -So, carry on. I'm interested.
But Bertrand Cantat was madly in love with Marie,
so the subject of my book is passionate love and what we do with it.
In fact, all I could do was act spontaneously.
What I know
is saying that Marie was also responsible for her own death,
-that passion and love killed her… -What?
No. Love doesn't kill people.
What I know is that Marie died with her face destroyed,
as if she were in a motorbike accident at 120 kilometers an hour.
And those are the words of the doctors.
As long as women accept being victims in the name of love,
it's messed up.
You've been robbed of your love?
But who stole his fucking love?
Marie died because he hit her.
Yes. She… But…
In that show, the only discussion was about the crime of passion.
That's why…
I talk so much.
It's insanely unjust.
And then, they humiliated me.
I was dragged through the mud.
At the time, Lio was all the more courageous,
because she was the only one to do it.
So, she ran the risk of people saying she was hysterical too.
I didn't understand what was at stake.
No one understood at the time.
I thought it was right to defend Marie.
During the second hearing,
Bertrand Cantat faced another accusation.
Something that really shocked me.
After he slaughtered her, perhaps by punching her,
he put Marie Trintignant to bed and did nothing.
The blows he delivered, the fact that she was unconscious,
means he should have called for help quickly.
But that's not what happened.
When I put her to bed…
I wiped up her blood, and she was asleep.
I patted her face, like this.
But it's important to tell you that she was a very deep sleeper.
Especially when she first went to sleep, you couldn't wake her up.
I wasn't surprised I couldn't wake her up.
She was sleeping deeply.
What time was it?
I can't say exactly, maybe 1:00 a.m, yeah.
It is impossible for someone to go to sleep…
BERNARD MARC MEDICAL EXAMINER - HEAD OF DEPARTMENT
…after being the victim of violence and have a peaceful sleep.
Think about a boxing match.
The boxer falls in the ring after being hit.
He's not having a nice sleep.
He's been KO'd.
I saw her blood and everything.
So I cleaned that up.
It's an interesting reaction.
I haven't seen it very often in my career.
I was distraught. I paced around. I was… I don't know anymore.
Either you flee, or you call for help.
But staying there and not doing anything is rather strange.
I was distraught and I thought, "Okay, I'll call Samuel."
Benchetrit, her ex-husband.
I called Samuel.
There was a kind of thing. Like that…
I don't really fully understand why I called Samuel, but…
So what did we talk about?
We talked about the children, and so on.
He said to me, "Don't worry, Marie loves you."
When you have someone who doesn't wake up or react,
who is bleeding from the face,
it's clear that you have to do something.
After the phone call, I went back into the bedroom.
I said, "Shit, she has marks on her face and all."
"Shit. It's…"
I said to myself, "She won't be able to shoot like this."
"There's a problem with her face."
My instinct was to call Vincent Trintignant,
because he was the first assistant on the film, and also her brother.
So, I called Vincent.
His Lithuanian girlfriend answered. She speaks French.
It's 4:00 in the morning. Vincent's phone rings.
RUTA LATINYTE VINCENT TRINTIGNANT'S EX-PARTNER
I pick up the phone and say, "What's going on?"
And Bertrand says, "Put Vincent on."
"Something's happened and it's awful."
That's the word he used. I remember it clearly.
I woke Vincent and he left.
He left.
Then Vincent arrived, and he came up to the apartment.
He immediately said,
"What the hell did you both do?"
He insulted me, and so on, which is normal.
How long did that go on for?
I'm not sure about that either, but a good while.
It went on for a while.
It was maybe an hour and a half.
It was maybe two hours.
And I went back to see Marie every now and then.
At that time, Vincent was convinced that she was just sleeping.
What time did Vincent Trintignant call a doctor?
There was a point, later, we said,
"She has a small cut on her mouth, but it's bleeding."
Suddenly, we both realized,
"We have to call a doctor. Anyway, we'll see."
-This was around what time? -It was…
It was sunrise, I think.
Bertrand Cantat knows how he hit Marie.
He knows he hurt her because she fell unconscious.
But he didn't call emergency services.
Staying with the woman you supposedly love
for seven hours after putting her to bed and doing nothing to help her
constitutes a failure to help a person in danger.
I didn't intentionally not get her help.
If I'd had any idea at all, I'd have done it immediately.
In France, his sentence probably would have been more strict.
But in Lithuania, no one charged him with that.
It's true that he waited to call for help.
VLADIMIRAS SERGEJEVAS PROSECUTOR
He was perhaps unable to assess the danger.
We didn't charge Cantat with that.
But in view of the autopsy report,
his actions must be considered murder.
The prosecutor believed that Bertrand Cantat had killed her,
and from that point on, he was charged with first-degree murder.
That has immense consequences.
Bertrand Cantat, still imprisoned in Vilnius,
will soon learn about the charges against him
and the date of his trial.
Bertrand Cantat's trial should start at the end of March in Lithuania,
according to his lawyer.
The Noir Désir singer will be tried for first-degree murder.
The indictment states that 19 blows were dealt to Marie Trintignant.
At this stage, for murder,
Bertrand Cantat, in Lithuania, could get up to 15 years in prison.
So, it's a lot.
There's a lot at stake.
MARCH 2004
8 MONTHS AFTER MARIE TRINTIGNANT'S DEATH, THE TRIAL BEGINS IN VILNIUS.
Eight months after the tragedy,
Nadine Trintignant has come back to see Bertrand Cantat be judged.
Nadine Trintignant and her son Vincent are here
to see Bertrand Cantat receive an exemplary sentence.
For them, there should be no extenuating circumstances.
The trial will receive a lot of media attention.
It starts in two days,
yet at the airport, the battle is already underway.
It is clear that Bertrand Cantat never wanted Marie Trintignant to die.
He mourns her to this day,
and he'll give us an explanation this week.
Bertrand Cantat's lawyer will focus on the couple's passion.
At this point in the process,
the main objective of the trial is to develop a better profile of Cantat.
Who is he really?
What I want to know is whether Cantat is a violent man or not.
Was he violent with former partners?
And was Marie Trintignant's death caused by a moment of madness,
or was it the result of many episodes of violence?
And, once again, the French media were back.
All the media, all the TV stations.
One hundred and fifty journalists,
all drooling.
"We're going to sell papers."
It's horrible. Horrible.
I saw two groups forming.
On one side of the room was the Trintignant group
with Nadine Trintignant behind her dark glasses,
Vincent, the brother,
Roman, the son,
his father,
Richard Kolinka,
and Samuel Benchetrit.
I just came to say, "The mother of my son was not hysterical."
MARIE TRINTIGNANT'S EX-HUSBAND
"It's not true." Because I lived with that woman, she wasn't like that.
That's not love.
It's no longer a crime of passion. You don't talk about your love like that.
On the other side was the Cantat group…
with Cantat's parents…
I don't feel very well, no.
But I'm waiting for my son.
…Kristina Rady, Cantat's ex-wife, and Noir Désir band members.
The atmosphere was extremely tense.
And for good reason
because Bertrand Cantat could go to prison for 15 years.
Bertrand Cantat was able to speak at length today,
expressing his regrets.
Yes, he spoke about his relationship with Marie Trintignant
and their love, which he described as all-consuming.
He also talked about that sad evening of July 26th,
which ended badly with him hitting Marie Trintignant.
And then, he tried to explain to the court how, for six long hours,
he didn't call for help for Marie Trintignant.
And then, at the end of his hearing,
he turned to Marie Trintignant's family.
He spoke to them while he cried.
He said, "I know they won't listen to me,
but I'd like to tell them about my despair at this situation."
"It is unbearable to know how much they are suffering."
Some people don't admit the truth
and would like to think
that Bertrand Cantat must have wanted Marie Trintignant to die.
And I think that this morning, the statements given at the hearing
have shown that he never wanted this death, quite the contrary.
It's easy to ask for forgiveness.
That's the least he can do.
But I don't care about him being forgiven. I really don't give a damn.
I saw a huge coward.
He killed my mom. I don't care about his excuses.
The least you can do is apologize to a child
when you kill their mother, I think.
And in the Cantat group,
there was one person who would be decisive in the trial
and whose testimony was eagerly awaited.
It was Kristina Rady, Cantat's ex-wife, who is Hungarian.
She was there from the moment Cantat was arrested.
How are you feeling today?
Unhappy.
And Mr. Kiejman, the lawyer for the Trintignant family,
knows that she would be very important.
Kristina Rady is an imposing character.
She's a beautiful woman,
who is very sure of herself, and although she's not French,
she expresses herself in French with a lot of authority.
I don't want to talk.
You have to understand.
She was with Bertrand Cantat for around ten years.
She's the mother of his two kids.
She is the woman he left for Marie.
She is the woman who was scorned, betrayed.
The separation was, for me,
immeasurably painful.
And we don't know what Kristina Rady will say.
And above all, everyone wants to know if Bertrand Cantat was violent with her.
If he hit her.
What she said was going to be crucial to the verdict
because we would know if Bertrand Cantat was a violent person,
if he had been violent towards women, or if this was the first time.
When she reached the witness stand, she stands up…
and she says, at the witness stand…
"Bertrand Cantat never hit me."
Kristina was Bertrand Cantat's wife, the mother of his children.
She said, "He never raised a hand to me."
Mr. Kiejman, the lawyer for Marie Trintignant's family, insisted,
but Kristina was adamant,
"I could never have lived with an abuser."
Kristina Rady claimed that Cantat wasn't a violent man at all.
And she firmly defended Cantat,
making him out to be a level-headed man, incapable of being violent.
I support women's rights.
I could never have lived with a man who beat his wife,
or even someone who was different from how he portrayed himself publicly.
When I heard Kristina Rady at that moment, I said to myself,
"Well, the case is closed. The debate is over."
29 MARCH 2004 DAY OF THE VERDICT
This morning, the verdict of the Vilnius Court is in
for Bertrand Cantat for the murder of Marie Trintignant.
Their eyes reveal their distress.
They've been waiting eight months for this moment.
And the verdict is in.
Bertrand Cantat has been sentenced to eight years in prison.
Eight years in prison.
Eight years in prison for causing the death
of his partner Marie Trintignant.
Eight years in prison for the singer.
The singer did not react. He begged for forgiveness.
These three judges decided that his guilt was incontestable.
Kristina Rady played a decisive role in lowering Cantat's sentence.
She played a huge role.
She fought, she helped him, she did everything. Yeah.
But Kristina called me, actually…
well, to ask for our help,
because she helped him.
So, that's it, we helped.
We helped get him out, helped reduce his sentence as much as possible.
Without Kristina Rady's testimony,
Cantat would have received a longer sentence.
By describing him as a man incapable of violence,
she reinforced the idea that the tragedy was an accident.
He was convicted of murder.
He could have gotten 15 years, but he only got eight.
Eight years for the death of a woman isn't much, in the end.
It's a sentence that could be considered moderate,
but in Paris, the sentence would have been about the same.
And that's why I advised Nadine not to appeal.
I've…
lost all hope.
All hope.
If he'd spent 20 years in prison, what would that have changed?
It doesn't bring people back.
How do family and friends cope with such a thing?
He took someone's life, but at the same time,
he destroyed lives.
How do you cope with that?
The dreadful thing is that by defending Cantat,
Kristina Rady put her own life at risk.
2009 5 YEARS AFTER THE TRIAL
BUDAPEST HUNGARY
Please leave a message.
Hi, Mom. Hi, Dad. It's Kristina.
We haven't talked for a long time.
Terrible things have happened.
Bertrand is crazy.
The events of 2003 may not have happened to me,
but now they are happening to me.
Kristina Rady left a message that was a call for help.
The message was a call for help.
It's impossible for me to get out of this situation safely.
That's a message from a woman who is terrified, who's afraid of dying.