Original subtitles

DESCRIPTIONS OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AND SUICIDE MAY UPSET VIEWERS.

IF YOU OR A LOVED ONE IS SUFFERING,

FIND RESOURCES AND INFO AT WWW.WANNATALKABOUTIT.COM/?REDIRECT=OFF

VILNIUS PRISON LITHUANIA

SEPTEMBER 2004 6 MONTHS AFTER THE TRIAL

Bertrand Cantat is due to be transferred to a French prison in the next few weeks.

The justice system in Lithuania has given the green light.

When Bertrand Cantat flew to Lithuania, he was a normal passenger.

A year and a half later,

he's taking his return flight as a prisoner.

Cantat will finish serving his sentence in France.

Bertrand Cantat has returned to France.

The singer of Noir Désir has been transferred

to a prison south of Toulouse.

Here, Kristina Rady, the singer's wife,

continues to support him.

If you really want him to have a chance to rebuild himself,

you need to leave him alone, and leave us alone too.

TRINTIGNANT FAMILY'S LAWYER

Kristina Rady is an absolutely essential character in this story.

MARIE'S FORMER PARTNER

Kristina Rady.

She was a champion for him,

but I'd never blame her because

he was the father of her children, and she was protecting them.

And so, I could never bring myself to blame her for…

…for hiding certain truths.

Kristina Rady's passing is the reason that I first looked into Bertrand Cantat.

And what I discovered…

JOURNALIST - LE POINT MAGAZINE

…is more shocking than I ever could have imagined.

Bertrand's crazy.

Terrible things have happened since we last spoke.

Kristina Rady's story,

hers is just as sad and terrible as Marie Trintignant's.

In fact, there wasn't just one Cantat case,

but several Cantat cases.

FROM ROCK STAR TO KILLER

EPISODE 3 THE CANTAT CURSE

MURET DETENTION CENTER

SEPTEMBER 2007

Bertrand Cantat,

who was convicted for causing the death of Marie Trintignant,

has a very good chance of being granted an early release

in just about a month's time.

It's very difficult for the victims to understand

how a sentence could be cut in half.

If you don't give an opportunity like this to a prisoner,

then prison is just a place where people become even more broken.

This judge is responsible

for upholding sentences at the Muret detention center.

In a month, he'll be the one to decide

whether Bertrand Cantat will be approved for this conditional release.

FORMER SENTENCE ENFORCEMENT JUDGE

Bertrand Cantat,

he had completed four full years of actual detainment

while serving in prison.

He filed a request for conditional release,

which then got examined. I examined it at a hearing

in the month of September.

So, he presented his case with his wife by his side, Kristina Rady.

During the hearing, he came in acting a bit like

he was a teenager. Super casual.

She asked questions and took notes in this little notebook.

She asked, "What do we do? When do we file the request?"

"What do we do about work, about housing?"

I examined everything at the hearing, and their case was very good.

All the criteria for granting the release had been met.

His behavior had been impeccable in prison.

There were good reports following his temporary release.

And also, we checked other information,

criteria that was particularly important

when releasing someone who had committed a serious crime.

Experts in psychiatry and experts in psychology

came back with very positive reports.

I only saw him one time, in Muret.

EXPERT PSYCHOLOGIST

To me, when I saw him there at that time,

he didn't have the characteristics of a violent man.

In my opinion, there were a range of factors that led to this tragedy,

which were due to each of their respective personalities.

And as far as I could tell,

nobody else had ever complained about Bertrand Cantat being violent.

Of course, my final decision, it was reinforced

by the notion that this was a crime of passion.

JUDGMENT PHILIPPE LAFLAQUIÈRE

CRIME OF PASSION

This was a crime that took place within the context

of so much romantic passion, an excessive amount.

And so, there was no fear, at first glance,

that it could possibly happen again.

The sentencing judge decides.

DIRECTOR OF CRIME SQUAD

I'm not one to criticize a court decision,

but, again, there seems to be a certain leniency

for a crime of passion,

which, like I said, I mean, to me, that's just… It's incomprehensible.

I think the idea is to argue that he wouldn't do it again.

That someone who killed his partner he won't do it again,

because since she's dead, he can't kill her again.

Let's just say that he's not in the same category

as potential repeat offenders, like sexual predators,

or those who are pathologically violent.

But are we really sure that someone who is capable of killing his partner

will never kill again?

I'm not entirely sure of that.

Singer Bertrand Cantat left the Muret prison in Haute-Garonne,

where he had been detained.

The sentencing judge for his case

accepted his request for conditional release

after four years in prison.

Bertrand Cantat will have served half of his eight-year sentence

following the death of Marie Trintignant.

His family and his friends have gathered today at the singer's house.

When I heard Cantat had been released from prison, I thought to myself…

ACTRESS AND MARIE TRINTIGNANT'S FRIEND

…a woman's life isn't worth much.

Four years isn't a long time at all.

JOURNALIST

And the message that sends out is that it's not serious.

It's not a… a murder.

Committing murder, then getting only four years in prison,

the punishment doesn't fit the crime.

Bertrand Cantat is no longer a prisoner,

he is a free man for the most part.

The singer is limiting communications with the media,

and has appointed his drummer as his spokesperson.

Today, he's been released

following a decision directly from the court.

The same would've been granted for any prisoner, not just him.

Honestly, he just wants to be left alone.

-Great. -Thanks a lot, Denis.

-In fact… -Thank you.

…one of the elements that worked in favor of Bertrand Cantat's release

was that he went back to live with his wife, Kristina Rady.

When I let him out, I knew that most importantly,

the whole family unit would finally be back together.

This is a man who killed a woman,

and he gets sent home to live with another woman.

Please leave a message after the tone.

Hi, Mom. Hi, Dad. It's Kristina.

Terrible things have happened since we last spoke.

Mm…

It's impossible for me to get out of this safely.

2 YEARS AFTER CANTAT'S RELEASE

At the time, Bertrand Cantat and Kristina Rady

were officially living together, except they each had their own lives.

Kristina lived alone with the children.

At that time, I was 25 years old.

I was an au pair at Kristina.

KRISTINA RADY'S AU PAIR

The house was really unique.

It was really colorful.

Kristina introduced the family. She said that there is Alice and Milo.

Kristina and Bertrand lived a separate, calm life.

Bertrand wasn't living there. It's only the four of us.

And their arrangement, around the kids,

was they both shared the duties of… of a parent.

For me, it looked like a good setup for a divorced family.

And the mother and the father get on well with each other.

At that time, Kristina, she was single for a while,

and the first time I remember her mentioning François was in a letter

she left at home saying that, um,

she's not home at the moment because she is dating

and she's falling in love with this guy.

At the time,

I no longer believed in love, in love at first sight,

and then, it came out of nowhere.

KRISTINA RADY'S FORMER PARTNER

My first impression of her was that she was beautiful,

full of smiles and really likeable.

What made me laugh was that she was even later than I was.

I was an hour late, and she was an hour and five minutes late.

The waiter came to our table and asked what she'd like,

and she said, "The same as him."

Without even knowing what I'd ordered.

And then, I don't know, things snowballed from there.

It was just

love at first sight for the both of us and the rest of the time we were given,

we spent it together.

TODAY 16:20

ALL I SEE IS YOU, EVERYWHERE, ALL I THINK ABOUT IS YOU, ALL THE TIME.

Things moved very quickly.

Very soon after that,

I asked to get together with her and her children,

to see how that would go.

Both children were quite easygoing and… and open, and they liked him.

It was really great to see Kristina being happy

and smiling more.

But there was big problem with Bertrand,

because, from day to day, he was living closer.

It was like I stole his toy.

From the moment he knew that Kristina was in love with me,

that we were both in love,

well, that's when he started sending me emails,

and also harassing me on the phone,

and, well, emotionally manipulating Kristina.

Things like that.

He was jealous, for sure.

He couldn't stand the thought of Kristina loving someone else,

or starting a new life with someone else.

I started noticing that my relationship with Kristina

was becoming very fragile and complicated.

She and I sent each other a lot of texts.

Talking was more difficult.

She said he controlled everything.

He was always on her case, wanting to know what she was doing.

On several occasions, she told me that…

that if he found our texts, her life would be at risk.

She was afraid.

Afraid of him.

I BEG YOU, DON'T CALL ME

IF HE FINDS OUT THAT YOU HAVE MY NUMBER,

MY LIFE WILL BE OVER.

One day, Bertrand decided to bring the family together.

And Bertrand moved in.

I could feel the tension between him and Kristina

growing, from week to week.

And the atmosphere became

toxic and… and troublesome.

And they had more and more fights.

More violent.

I had some idea of what's going on in her,

but I was quite too young to really understand.

I remember asking her why she is not moving to Hungary with her kids

because she has a family in Hungary. She has an apartment.

Bertrand had threatened to commit suicide if she left him.

KRISTINA RADY'S MOTHER

My daughter told me everything.

She told me that all four of them were at the table,

and he cut his arm with a knife.

He wasn't normal.

Bertrand's crazy.

We listened to the message she left, and we were stunned.

We didn't want to believe what we were hearing.

He keeps calling it love,

but that's not what it is anymore.

It's become…

Well, even just yesterday,

I almost lost my life.

I wasn't able to stop hyperventilating.

I was that scared.

It was so shocking to us. We tried to call back right away.

But Bertrand didn't pick up the phone…

…and we weren't able to reach anybody.

I told my husband to call the Bordeaux police station

because he speaks a bit of French,

so that they could check things at the house.

But no matter what, Cini didn't wanna report him.

Showing evidence to the police wouldn't help,

because Bertrand would definitely kill himself,

and then, the children would become orphans.

There is nothing I can do.

It's impossible for me to get out of this safely.

JANUARY 10, 2010 SIX MONTHS AFTER THE MESSAGE

As a veteran police officer…

FORMER BORDEAUX POLICE CHIEF

…of course I remember this case. It was so symbolic.

It was an ordinary Sunday. Calm.

At around midday, we received a phone call

from a young boy

who said that he had discovered his mother hanging.

I remember that my colleagues, they went to the scene.

The man of the house came out right then

and he introduced himself as Bertrand Cantat.

The child who called for help,

his name was Milo. He was twelve.

When he got home right at noon, he noticed that his father was asleep.

And then, he went upstairs, and that's where he discovered the scene.

It was a sight that was horrible for him to see, of course.

He ran back downstairs very quickly and alerted his dad,

who told him that it must be some kind of prank.

But his mom was completely white, and she was hanging there, upstairs.

And there, on a table, was a notebook with something written in it.

HELLO AND GOODBYE! I HAVE KILLED MYSELF

I kept crying for months,

continuously for months and months. Really.

Non-stop.

FORMER NOIR DÉSIR TOUR MANAGER

Honestly, I didn't understand. I… I really didn't.

She loved her children so much. It wasn't possible.

Like Marie, she was young, full of life, with a future that looked so bright.

So once again, it was…

a life cut short.

I was shocked and devastated.

But her death is… is tragic.

And it's… it's just, yeah, unbelievable.

I remember one day, Kristina,

she came up to talk to me in the street.

She wanted to tell me something. And I didn't…

I didn't realize.

She wasn't well at all. She wasn't well at all.

I feel so much guilt. Enormous guilt.

Her suicide was hard to understand.

She was a fighter. Something terrible must have happened.

It wasn't possible.

Because to me, she wasn't depressed. She was always so radiant.

Bertrand Cantat is at the center of a new tragedy

with the suicide yesterday of his former partner, Kristina Rady,

in Bordeaux.

Kristina Rady was 41 years old and allegedly killed herself at home.

An autopsy is in progress.

I had a lot of questions at that point.

I didn't understand Kristina Rady's suicide.

I didn't understand her relationship with Bertrand Cantat.

And I wanted to know what really could've happened.

HELLO AND GOODBYE! I HAVE KILLED MYSELF

I should tell you that the letter that was left behind by Kristina was two pages.

I KILLED MYSELF BECAUSE OF MY INABILITY!

She mentioned all these people

who she had disagreements with over the years.

And she also said that well, in a certain way,

she implicated her… her husband, Bertrand…

THANKS TO BERTRAND'S INCESSANT SHOUTING AND ACCUSATIONS

…by indicating that he believed he could control her. Then there's a gap.

There were no other indications

that explained what could have happened between the two of them.

And Kristina Rady did not name just one person.

She didn't say that one particular person

was the reason why she decided to commit suicide.

"Thanks to Bertrand's incessant shouting and accusations."

"Sole keeper of pain."

He's not the only person she names in this letter.

However,

she does name him as one of the potential causes

that led to her committing suicide.

Kristina Rady, she hung herself inside of their family home,

while he apparently slept.

It seems like Cantat is always asleep when his wives die.

Just after the suicide, Bertrand Cantat left with police officers

and went to the station to be interrogated.

He didn't try to hide from the police

just how difficult and combative his relationship was with Kristina.

He tells the police that he had never hit her.

The investigation concluded at the end of the day, on Monday.

So that means that, roughly speaking, it only lasted about 30 hours,

from start to finish.

The conclusion that they reached was very straightforward,

that it was, in fact, Kristina in the end,

who took her life of her own free will,

which was supported by the letter that she left behind.

He was free. Bertrand Cantat went home a free man.

I learned there was no investigation.

That's extraordinary.

This guy killed a woman.

And now, the mother of his children has killed herself upstairs,

in the same house as him.

And there's no investigation.

The police think, "No, that's normal. That's natural."

Really? Okay.

It's important for me to stay anonymous,

since this relates to medical confidentiality.

I work as a temporary employee

in the emergency room in a hospital in the Bordeaux region.

One day, I needed to search for some data about a patient

in their medical history file,

and so I went down and looked for it in the archives.

While I was searching for this patient's file,

I came across a file labelled "Rady, Kristina."

I was curious, so I opened it.

And I read it. Quickly, but I read it.

In this file, it mentioned that Kristina Rady

had gone to the emergency room,

so that she could document injuries she had

after an altercation with her partner.

It was a violent dispute.

The doctor documented that

Kristina Rady had a scalp detachment, bruises and hematomas.

The fact that a scalp detachment was notated most likely means that

Kristina Rady had been very violently grabbed

by the hair, or even dragged by the hair.

We can imagine that it was horrific.

I remember it said this wasn't the first time.

During observations, it was noted that Kristina Rady cried a lot,

but she didn't want to file a report to protect her two children.

And I remember that these events took place after Vilnius,

when Bertrand Cantat returned.

When he came back and settled into the family home.

That means there is a file that proves

that Bertrand Cantat was violent after leaving prison.

It was a bombshell

because at that time, Bertrand Cantat was still on conditional release.

So if Kristina Rady had spoken out,

then he would most likely have been sent back to prison.

But then, she went right back home to Bertrand Cantat.

After she died, I remember…

that I said right away…

"It's because of him."

"I hope that this time, the media will realize that."

KRISTINA RADY TO DIE OF LOVE

SHE SUFFERED FROM DEPRESSION

But once again, the media in France,

they painted this picture of him, portraying him as the victim.

THE CANTAT CURSE

And people felt sorry for him.

THE SINGER APPEARED DEVASTATED AT HIS PARTNER'S BURIAL.

A NEW TRAGEDY IN THE LIFE OF THE NOIR DÉSIR SINGER.

And I remember saying to myself,

"This man has lost one true love, and then he lost a second love."

"He's just so unlucky." I didn't try to look any further.

At that time, no one in the press was trying to understand

why Kristina Rady killed herself.

CRESTFALLEN, HE EMBRACED HIS LOVED ONES

Even though she gave us clues in that voicemail,

the one she left for her parents,

she talked about violent acts committed by Bertrand Cantat,

that got leaked to several papers.

YESTERDAY I ALMOST LOST A TOOTH, HE HIT ME

MY ELBOW IS COMPLETELY SWOLLEN

After the death of Kristina Rady,

the press started investigating

to see if she might also have been a victim of domestic violence.

I don't know, and I don't really care.

I have nothing to say 'cause I don't know anything.

That's an artist's private life, which doesn't concern me.

I'm a record label.

I can talk to you about anything on the professional side.

But what happened in private? I don't know.

So, in spite of all that,

Bertrand Cantat's image remained intact because since Marie Trintignant's death,

the press campaigns that had been orchestrated, were in his favor.

BERTRAND CANTAT THE ONLY PHOTOS

When he was in prison, some newspapers described him as a model prisoner

who was very slowly getting back into music.

And above all, during his incarceration,

the band Noir Désir received a music award

for the best musical DVD of the year.

As you can imagine,

this is special, it means so much to all of us.

Then their album sales exploded.

There was actually a huge uptick after the case.

We ended up selling approximately four or five times more than before.

While he was in prison, Bertrand Cantat signed a new contract

with the record label Universal.

Artists this talented, like Noir Désir, are uncommon.

So, at some point, yeah,

as a record label, you hope they'll make a new album.

CANTAT'S AUDIENCE IS STILL HERE!

When you're a die hard fan of a band, you stay a fan.

The way he sings his lyrics moves me.

Whatever else he did is his business.

BERTRAND'S BACK! WE LOVE YOU!

We're all just waiting to find out where they're at,

and what music they might give us.

HOW GREAT! SO HAPPY!

Everyone talked about whether the group would get back together,

or not.

NOVEMBER 2010 11 MONTHS AFTER KRISTINA RADY'S SUICIDE

We learned today that the band Noir Désir is splitting up.

Noir Désir is finished. The rock band…

…following the departure of the guitarist, who mentioned disagreements with Cantat,

and shame about the current state of the group.

It was over. Finished.

Well, of course, we were disappointed.

At the same time, we had no idea when the band would make a comeback.

Would they ever come back?

It was so painful.

For everybody.

So no, they couldn't do it. That was it.

What I would have loved, personally,

would be to never hear about this guy again.

That's all, really.

Unfortunately, that wasn't the case.

The comeback of the week is Bertrand Cantat,

formerly of Noir Désir,

who, 12 years after the band's last album,

has made his return under the name Detroit.

I remember that La Cigale was completely packed.

He sang his new songs, and of course,

all of the greatest hits of Noir Désir.

And so Bertrand Cantat, he triumphed.

His songs went platinum,

he completely sold out his run at the Zénith.

So what?

Do you find this appalling? Then don't go see him.

The people who wanna go see him, go right ahead.

Seeing him perform again was really something,

-and I think we all loved it. -It was moving.

It was great. We're so happy that we came.

Who can deny that Bertrand is a great artist?

That aside, as for the human side of him, well, it's…

That's something else entirely. I always separate the two, anyway.

These people are just overly sensitive, that's just how they are.

He doesn't have any consideration for the harm that it does,

just to see his face.

Not at all. He doesn't give a damn.

He's above all of it. He's this guy who thinks, "I'm a genius."

He pushes it on purpose.

Because he's that spiteful.

Bertrand Cantat, he seems untouchable.

And at that time,

I knew Kristina Rady had been a victim of violence

at the hands of Bertrand Cantat after he left prison.

Terrible things have happened.

Now, what I want to know is

if he was violent with her before Vilnius,

before Marie Trintignant's death.

So then, I first called people in the music industry,

mostly from the scene in Bordeaux, to try to fill in any gaps in the case.

No, I'm not going to talk to you.

Nobody wanted to talk.

It's gonna be tough in Bordeaux. There's a vow of silence over this.

Personally, I can't tell you anything.

And the less people spoke, the more I thought,

"They're hiding something. This isn't normal."

I've signed confidentiality clauses

that completely prevent me from speaking about anything

that directly or indirectly concerns the band or its members.

Kristina Rady said in her message there were witnesses.

There's plenty of evidence.

There were people in the street, our friends.

They saw him break everything yesterday.

But everyone stayed silent.

And after months of struggling, I was ready to throw in the towel.

But then…

…a band member from Noir Désir agreed to see me, and to talk to me.

I met him in a café. It was empty,

and he sat next to me.

I asked him if Bertrand Cantat had ever been violent

before Marie Trintignant's death.

He asked me to stop recording.

And then he said to me,

"Of course Bertrand Cantat was violent towards Kristina Rady

before Marie Trintignant's death."

He even gave me the names of two women,

two of his former girlfriends,

who had been assaulted before Kristina Rady.

One was in 1989.

Bertrand Cantat tried to strangle her

so she left.

He also told me, "He's manipulative and toxic."

He told me that there had been a collective agreement

between the whole band, Noir Désir, and Kristina Rady

to lie and cover up acts of violence done by Bertrand Cantat.

And when you play back all of the details…

you realize that this testimony confirms

that Bertrand Cantat was able to hide his violence from everyone.

-What have I done? -The judges.

The press.

The police.

In 2003, we heard from his wife, his previous partners, his friends,

and of course, the band members.

They all said the same thing,

Bertrand Cantat was not a violent man.

It feels like we failed.

In any case,

we feel like we haven't managed to uncover the full truth.

I always suspected. It was despicable.

These musicians

who surrounded him and lied for Cantat, to save Cantat,

but also to save the band,

and every single thing that went into it,

decided to involve Kristina in all of these lies.

They're pieces of shit.

Yeah. That's what I think.

When I was preparing to release these revelations,

I was a bit scared,

because Bertrand Cantat,

he was still being supported by Universal, the biggest record label in the world.

In the music industry, he was still respected.

Yesterday, Bertrand Cantat appeared with celebrity duo

Amadou and Mariam.

Bertrand Cantat didn't disappoint his fans.

And despite the fact that two women died, he was still a figure who people idolized.

For example, in 2017, he was on the cover of Inrocks,

which is the leading music magazine in all of France.

"EMOTIONALLY, I COULDN'T READ, LISTEN."

"Cantat, in his own words."

Yeah, I found it shocking.

He makes this comeback on the front page as if nothing happened.

As if he had been rehabilitated.

That means that the public is erasing everything that we ever knew

about his history of extreme violence.

What's really surprising is that in all seven pages of the interview,

the name Marie Trintignant and the name Kristina Rady never came up.

Each one's a bit like the last. He talks about himself.

There's always this kind of narcissism about him,

where he's at the center of everything.

Except that…

the front page of Inrocks came out in October 2017.

And in October 2017,

what's happening on the other side of the Atlantic, in the US?

There's the Weinstein case, which is exploding.

The film producer Harvey Weinstein

has already denied claims of sexual harassment,

but today, three women accused him of rape.

That was the big trigger for the #MeToo movement.

Sexual violence has got to go! Hey, hey!

With the #MeToo movement,

a new generation of feminists started to emerge.

They challenged Cantat's return to the stage.

He belongs in jail!

Murderer! Murderer! Murderer! Murderer! Murderer!

This time, society dove into this subject,

and the debate became heated.

Are you for or against Bertrand Cantat's return to the stage?

This question is divisive.

Fuck off! Fuck off! Fuck off!

What we're witnessing it's a form of lynching.

It's not normal for him to be acclaimed, admired, almost idolized.

And me? I hate lynching.

He did something awful, and he has to own up to it.

You don't kill.

He's paid his debt to society, justice has been served.

I came for the artist, that's all that matters.

There is something beyond the law, which is called decency.

And that means retiring from public life.

It's not shocking, because he's paid his debt.

Cantat earned his right to be up there.

Woo-hoo! Bertrand! Bertrand!

Bertrand!

-You don't wanna talk? -No, thanks.

-No, just let me get through, please. -Bertrand! Over here!

When my article came out,

BERTRAND CANTAT, INVESTIGATION INTO A SILENCE

…we were in a movement to liberate women's voices.

But all over social media,

there was a wave of reactions that were chauvinistic

telling me to shut up and treating me like a hysterical feminist.

A BEAUTIFUL, HYSTERICAL WOMAN

ANNE-SOPHIE JAHN LOOKS LIKE A WHORE

We have the journalist Anne-Sophie Jahn,

who investigated Bertrand Cantat for Le Point.

I was invited on a show to debate his return to the stage.

And next to me was Éric Dupont-Moretti, a leading barrister.

CAN CANTAT STILL SING?

You have the right to not go and see him and so, just don't go.

The second the cameras were off, he started promoting his book and said,

"I don't know anything about the Cantat case."

"I didn't follow it," and things like that.

The cameras switched back on, and then…

He was convicted for Marie's murder.

-Not for the murder. -He was.

Not if you know the law.

For hits and injuries that led to her death but without intent.

Before calling it murder, we should use his words, Cantat's.

Murder with undetermined or indirect intent.

-Not true. -They called it murder.

For fatal blows.

At that time, he was fully immersed in the media circus,

but he didn't realize that this was a serious subject, violence towards women.

I'm just saying there's a big difference.

For me, it's not about canceling Cantat, but when people applaud him on stage,

I still think, personally, it feels incredibly insulting.

We can't forget Marie Trintignant and Kristina Rady.

An accountant who served his sentence goes back to accounting.

But that doesn't have the same significance at all,

as Cantat, who once again, is a politically engaged singer.

He's someone who spreads, not only a certain style of music,

but different social ideas as well, which makes his case unforgivable.

And then, a few months after the article was published,

Bertrand Cantat sued me for defamation.

COMPLAINANT TRANSCRIPT DISCUSSION OF THE DEFAMATION

He attacked passages in the article

that were verbatim quotes from anonymous witnesses.

BUT THEY REMAINED SILENT

What he wanted, was to know who had spoken out.

He really started putting pressure on witnesses to shut them up.

And some executives from the record label

called members from the band to ask them to refute the article.

THE RECORD LABEL CALLED ME ASKING ME TO REFUTE

CANTAT CALLED ME ON MY LANDLINE SO I PICKED UP

There was really a full operation to silence the article.

BERTRAND CANTAT, INVESTIGATION INTO AN OMERTÀ

Finally, all of his demands ended up being rejected,

and years later,

it's still a subject that really affects me.

It's personal because speaking out is a matter of life and death.

And I say to myself,

if this story had been told properly, if those close to him had spoken,

we might've stopped the deaths of two women,

Marie Trintignant and Kristina Rady.

With Marie Trintignant, it was the same thing, the same silence.

It took 15 or 20 years for people to understand

that it wasn't just some domestic drama, it wasn't a crime of passion,

it was femicide,

a case of extremely serious domestic abuse.

It took me time to understand that.

Did it actually open people's eyes?

Do you really think that?

When every single day

there are women being beaten up?

It's so…

No.

Definitely not.

No.

Fifteen years after the whole Cantat-Marie Trintignant affair,

in my personal life,

I met someone who turned out to be violent too.

And in what was maybe the first violent episode,

the first one I experienced, we were in a hotel,

and there was hitting, I got slapped,

just like in the Cantat case,

and I ran away.

I had some kind of flashback,

and I said to myself, "You'll end up like Marie Trintignant."

"If you stay, if you don't save yourself, you'll end up like Marie Trintignant."

Marie Trintignant saved me, in a way.

I thought, "If you stay with this guy, you'll die."

Me? I do not want that for my daughters.

I've been through it.

Do you think that I'm here because somebody beat me up?

No.

He was a buffoon, the guy who hit me.

But he's not my problem.

My problem is that when I went to the police,

they said it was my fault.

Society told me, "You deserved it."

"Look at the clothes you walk around in."

"Look at the way you talk."

MARIE TRINTIGNANT HAS BECOME A SYMBOL IN THE FIGHT AGAINST DOMESTIC VIOLENCE.

THE LAW ON FORCED SUICIDE WAS ENACTED IN 2020,

10 YEARS AFTER KRISTINA RADY'S DEATH.

EVERY YEAR IN FRANCE, ABOUT 100 WOMEN ARE VICTIMS OF FEMICIDE.

ÉVELYNE 69 HÉLOÏSE 17

SONIA 52 JEANNINE 94

NOÉMIE 21 - SANDY 34 PAULETTE 85 - LOUANE 19

MARIE 90 - EMMA 25 JOSETTE 78 - NASRINE 41

DOMINIQUE 66 CHLOÉ 34 - ANNICK 79

SILENCE STILL KILLS.

BERTRAND CANTAT WAS SENTENCED TO 8 YEARS IN PRISON IN MARCH, 2004, IN LITHUANIA

FOR THE "MURDER COMMITTED WITH UNDETERMINED INDIRECT INTENT"

OF MARIE TRINTIGNANT.

HE WAS NEVER PROSECUTED FOR OTHER ACTS OF VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN.