Bertrand Cantat, the controversial French rocker notorious for killing his girlfriend, is now under fresh legal scrutiny following the release of a widely watched Netflix documentary that revisited his history of violence.
Cantat, who fronted the influential 1980s rock band Noir Desir, served time in prison for the 2003 killing of actress Marie Trintignant, whom he fatally assaulted in a hotel room in Vilnius. Despite public outrage and boycott campaigns, he resumed his music career after his release.
On Thursday, prosecutors in Bordeaux announced they have launched a new investigation into the 2010 death of Cantat’s ex-wife, Krisztina Rady, who was found hanged at her home. Authorities said they are examining possible “acts of intentional violence” linked to Rady’s suicide.
This latest probe will consider multiple claims and testimonies highlighted in the Netflix series that were not part of four earlier investigations, all of which closed without pressing charges.
In “The Cantat Case” on Netflix, a nurse claims that Rady visited a hospital in Bordeaux “following an altercation with her partner, a violent argument” which had resulted in a “scalp detachment and bruises.”
The nurse said he consulted her hospital file out of “curiosity” in the archives of a hospital in the city where he was a temporary worker.
Rady, a Hungarian-born former interpreter, had also left a terrorised message on her parents’ answering machine before her death. In it, she referred to violence by Cantat, the documentary and a 2013 book written by two French journalists claimed.
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Bertrand Cantat’s lawyer, Antonin Levy, said he was not aware of the reopening of an investigation into the case when contacted by AFP.
After being released from jail in 2007, the Bordeaux singer worked on a new album and toured with the band Detroit.
Bertrand Cantat’s criminal past has long polarised public opinion in France. While some fans were ready to forgive his violent history, arguing that he had served his prison sentence — four years out of the eight-year term for killing Marie Trintignant — others remained deeply angered by his continued presence in the music industry.
Women’s rights groups have consistently condemned Cantat as an emblem of entrenched misogynistic violence, a sentiment that intensified following the suicide of his ex-wife, Krisztina Rady, in 2010.
His re-emergence in the spotlight sparked fresh controversy in 2017 when he released his debut solo album “Amor Fati.” The launch coincided with the global #MeToo movement, which emboldened women worldwide to speak openly against domestic abuse and sexual assault. In response, feminist organisations organised protests, leading to the cancellation of several of Cantat’s scheduled performances.
During a major concert at Paris’s Zenith venue in 2018, which drew thousands of devoted fans, Cantat lashed out at the media’s persistent scrutiny. “I have nothing against you,” he told journalists in attendance. “You have something against me… I couldn’t care less.”