Trintignant dies; Cantat held

Marie Trintignant, the French actress, was pronounced dead yesterday, five days after falling into a coma after an argument with Bertrand Cantat, her rock-star lover, in a Lithuanian hotel room.

The death of a woman who enshrined the melancholic beauty that France craves from its film stars prompted a wave of tributes from fans ranging from Jean-Pierre Raffarin, the Prime Minister, to internet-users. . .

After a week in which France had watched with deepening gloom as hopes for Trintignant’s recovery faded in Vilnius, the news was expected. Yet there was a sense of shock that two of the country’s modern cultural figureheads should have become embroiled in what Libération described as a sordid drama that had left one dead and the other in prison. . .

Cantat, the lead singer of the successful French group Noir Desir, has been remanded in custody in the Lithuanian capital and may face murder charges. In a bail hearing on Thursday, Cantat, often described as the Gallic Jim Morrison, had pleaded with Trintignant’s family to accept his story that she had fallen during an argument in the Vilnius hotel room where the couple was staying. . .

The 39-year-old rocker had been the driving force behind one of the few French rock groups capable of uniting rebellious adolescents and left-wing intellectuals. He had adopted all the causes cherished by the French cultural establishment, from France’s peasant farmers to the Palestinian people. His relationship with Trintignant had been a “bohemian ideal”, Libération said, but became a sordid drama.

UPDATE: Obituaries here, here, and here (and elsewhere); for a savage assessment of the whole affair, see Merde in France (31 July; scroll down)

Posted by David on August 2, 2003 7:09 PM