The celebrity murder case that divided France
Witness History
BBC
4.5 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 19 August 2024
⏱️ 11 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In 2003, the French rock star Bertrand Cantat murdered his actress girlfriend, Marie Trintignant.
The attack happened in Lithuania where Marie had been shooting a film.
Cantat was sentenced to eight years, but was released after just four and returned to music.
Journalist Michelle Fines tells Vicky Farncombe how the case divided opinion in France with some calling it a brutal murder, others a crime of passion.
Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more.
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You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the time an Iraqi journalist hurled his shoes at the President of the United States in protest of America’s occupation of Iraq; the creation of the Hollywood commercial that changed advertising forever; and the ascent of the first Aboriginal MP.
(Photo: Marie Trintignant. Credit: Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm Rory Stewart and I want to talk about ignorance. I will die without having read everything that was written in classical Latin. |
| 0:11.6 | Because ignorance isn't simply the opposite of |
| 0:14.0 | knowledge. It's part of what it means to be human. Just about every game I can |
| 0:19.4 | think of involves ignorance. There's no adventure without ignorance. There's no there's no narrative. |
| 0:25.0 | The long history of ignorance from Confucius to Kianon |
| 0:29.0 | with me Rory Stewart, |
| 0:31.0 | listen on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:33.0 | Hi, you're listening to the Witness History Podcast from the BBC World Service with me, |
| 0:43.4 | Bicky Farncombe. |
| 0:44.4 | I'm taking you back more than 20 years |
| 0:47.3 | to when the French actress Marie Trantignon |
| 0:50.3 | was killed by her rock- boyfriend Bertrand Kontar. |
| 0:54.0 | I've been speaking to the journalist Michelle Feene |
| 0:57.0 | about how it divided opinion in France, |
| 1:00.0 | with some calling it a brutal murder, |
| 1:02.0 | others a crime of passion. |
| 1:04.4 | This program contains descriptions of violence. |
| 1:08.0 | Bartre Complea was a very charismatic singer in France. |
| 1:17.0 | He was the leader of a group named Noordezir, which means Black Desire. It seems to me now that it was a prophetic name. |
| 1:30.0 | Bertrand-Kanta wrote, moreover, very, very beautiful and very poetic songs. |
| 1:37.4 | He was tall with a nearing and maybe something savage in him. |
| 1:44.0 | And I remember that I and all women in France at that time |
... |
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