The Mediator's Chronicle: Introspection Twenty Years After the Cantat Affair

On ^August 1, 2003, actress Marie Trintignant, 41, died in Neuilly-sur-Seine hospital , following blows inflicted a few days earlier in Vilnius by her partner Bertrand Cantat, 39, singer of the band Noir Désir. In March 2004, in Lithuania, the Bordeaux native was sentenced to eight years in prison. Like all the media, "Sud Ouest" reported on this news story. The purpose of this column is not to "rehash" the case. Justice has been done. But a documentary series, on Netflix , recently brought this tragedy back into the news.

How did we handle it? A colleague, David Patsouris, a young journalist at Sud Ouest in 2003, poses the question. "In the fascinating series 'From Rock Star to Killer,' I was struck by the testimony of TV journalist Michelle Fines," he says. "She explains that, in 2025, she would no longer tell the story in the same way. Her words demonstrate how much the view of the murders of women has changed. The word 'femicide' didn't exist, and almost no one would have thought to use it. I remember that this femicide had shaken our editorial staff. Several journalists at Sud Ouest knew Bertrand Cantat personally; others simply admired him. There is certainly some soul-searching to be done."

"It was shock and amazement. I tried to contact people close to the group. No response."

So we reread our articles. We didn't see the word "femicide" in them, but also no "local" bias. At that time, before the Internet, we realized that information coming from the Baltic country was especially rare. Stéphane Jonathan, head of the culture department, was at the Bordeaux office in July 2003. "AFP first announced that Marie Trintignant was in a coma following the blows inflicted by her partner. Without giving the partner's name," he recalls. "I knew she and Bertrand Cantat were together. But I didn't know he was in Vilnius. It seemed improbable to me because Noir Désir was supposed to play a few days later in Langon. I thought he was here... Then his name was given by AFP. It was shock, bewilderment. I tried to contact people close to the group. No response."

"It's hard, in this context, to talk about someone you know," the journalist continues. "It was a news story, I'm a culture journalist... But in the middle of summer, with half the editorial staff on vacation, I had to tackle it. Twenty years later, everything has changed. We wouldn't approach the subject in the same way. In the heat of the moment, I primarily talked about the man who was then the biggest rock star in France. I knew the character, a bit like the man who had a good image..."

"The lesson is that when you write, you are not cut off from the spirit of the times, from the atmosphere in which you find yourself."

Dominique Richard, a retired journalist, was in charge of the investigation at "Sud Ouest." "I didn't write that it was a crime of passion," he says. He has been investigating for a long time, notably in 2010 at the time of the suicide of Kristina Rady, Bertrand Cantat's partner . Because a complaint—which would be dismissed—accused the singer of violence against his ex-wife. "At "Sud Ouest," I was never forbidden from writing an article on this affair," assures Dominique Richard. "But it's clear that in Bordeaux, the musical and cultural worlds remained silent. And these people had connections in the city as well as at "Sud Ouest," they exerted pressure as best they could, wherever they could." This omerta still exists since Netflix [which Dominique Richard advised on his series, Editor's note] has not found anyone to testify, twenty years later...”, a classic attitude of relatives uniting around one of their loved ones in difficulty.

In "Sud Ouest Dimanche" on August 3, 2003, editor-in-chief Yves Harté wrote an editorial whose title – "Crazy Love" – sums up the content. What does he say? "I accept responsibility, but today, I wouldn't write the same way. I didn't emphasize enough the gravity of the act. The lesson is that when you write, you're not cut off from the spirit of the times, from the atmosphere in which you find yourself. We try to write "literature" against a backdrop of tragedy and we miss the raw truth: a woman was killed by a man... "Inrocks," "Libé," we went straight to the question of why what happened happened when it wasn't the right time." Noted.