2023-05-24 00:00:39
With more than 120 films to his credit, the late actor Jean-Louis Trintignant remains a legend of French cinema. In a new biography, signed by the journalist Laurent Del Bono, we paint the intimate portrait of an artist with immense talent, shy, modest and discreet who maintains the mystery. A great seducer, he loved several women, including Brigitte Bardot. With a life crowned with success, we especially retain the image of a man bruised by the death of his adored daughter, Marie Trintignant, murdered by her spouse.
Considered one of the most prestigious French actors of his time, Jean-Louis Trintignant, who died last year from cancer at the age of 91, had a phenomenal career mainly in cinema and theater.
Born in Piolenc in France in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region, Jean-Louis Trintignant did not have an easy childhood. He grows up with the impression of not being much. He’s shy, introverted and had trouble getting three words in a row.
These parents Raoul and Claire were the subject of an “arranged” marriage and never loved each other. Claire comes from a wealthy family while Raoul runs a food factory. Together, he gives the impression of a decent family with good values, going to church on Sundays with their two children. But behind this facade, we learn that Raoul Trintignant is a leader of the Resistance during the Second World War and will be arrested by the German army and then imprisoned, while Claire will be humiliated following having an affair with a German soldier.
This one is so passionate regarding poker that she transforms her villa into a gaming room in addition to making rounds in casinos, in particular that of Monte-Carlo. She is in fragile health, but nevertheless abuses all kinds. Suffering from severe diabetes, she will end up in a hospital room, blind and with both legs amputated. These events will mark the sensitive heart of Jean-Louis Trintignant.
It was at the age of 19, then a student at the law faculty of Aix-en-Provence, that his destiny took shape when he attended a play by Molière, The Miser. For him, it will be a revelation: he will want to become an actor at all costs. He will abandon the law to move towards the dramatic arts. It was following several training sessions that he conquered his pathological shyness.
Subsequently, he landed small roles on the boards. In particular, he has the chance to play in the play Macbeth the Shakespeare.
He becomes an internationally famous actor when he plays alongside Brigitte Bardot in the legendary film And God created the woman at the age of 26. He also maintains an affair with BB at this time. There followed a large number of films which confirmed his talent as an actor. He knows the international glory in particular with the films, A Man and a Woman, The Lying Man, The Woman of My Life et Amour. His career is interrupted by his military service which marked him psychologically.
He became a director several years later, but his two films were commercial failures.
A fan
We understand from reading his biography that behind the discreet man is a passionate man. In addition to theater and cinema, there is motor racing. Three of his uncles are motor racing enthusiasts, a passion that is quickly passed on to him. But nothing was easy, his uncle Louis Trintignant killed himself at the age of 30 during practice for the Grand Prix de Picardie in 1933. His uncle Henri took part in the Grand Prix automobile de France in 1936. his uncle Maurice who had the best career: he became the first Frenchman to win the Grand Prix in the history of Formula 1 at Monaco in 1955, driving a Ferrari.
Jean-Louis in turn embarked on the track, without experiencing great success.
He nevertheless took part a few times in the Monte Carlo rally. This is an opportunity for him to meet Marianne Hoepfner, racing driver, who became his third wife in 2000 following his divorce from Nadine Trintignant.
He then embarked on a new adventure, buying a five-hectare vineyard in the Côtes-du-Rhône. In just a decade, his estate has become one of the best rated in the Rhône Valley.
The death of his daughter
He will say it himself, the death of his daughter: “it is the great drama which shook my life. »
In fact, Jean-Louis Trintignant never recovered from the murder of his daughter Marie, who was beaten to death by her husband, the singer Bertrand Cantat of the group Noir Désir in 2003.
Already the actor had been upset by the death of his daughter Pauline who died at the age of 10 months in 1969. It was with his second wife, Nadine Marquand Trintignant, director and screenwriter, with whom he had three children, Pauline , Mary and Vincent. His first wife being actress Stéphane Audran, who filed for divorce following his affair with Brigitte Bardot.
Jean-Louis also had an important love affair with his playing partner Romy Schneider. But no love breakup has made him suffer as much as the death of Marie, his daughter, brutally murdered by her husband, riddled with blows to the head and body for a little story of jealousy.
If initially Jean-Louis Trintignant reacted with silence, guilt followed. He felt that if he had been there, the tragedy would not have happened. He even said that the idea of going to kill the murderer of his daughter Bertrand Cantat had crossed his mind, he who was released from prison following only four years. It’s because his relationship with his daughter Marie was special, almost Oedipal, with a fascination for each other. They even played a lot together in the cinema and in the theater. “She is the woman I loved the most in the world,” the actor confessed.
Jean-Louis Trintignant announced in 2017 that he had prostate cancer. He systematically refuses all medical treatment. In addition, suffering from diabetes, he gradually becomes blind. He died at home in France in June 2022 surrounded by his relatives and his wife Marianne Hoepfner Trintignant.
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Jean-Louis Trintignant has been nominated several times and has received several awards:
In 1968, he received the Silver Bear for Best Actor for The man who lies
In 1969, he received the prize for male interpretation at the Cannes Film Festival for Z
In 2012, he received the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival for Amour
In 2012, he received the Best European Actor Award for Amour
In 2013, he received the César for best actor for Amour
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Jean-Louis Trintignant: a family story
Laurent Del Bono
Prisma Editions
280 pages
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– Laurent Del Bono is a freelance journalist in France and works for Gala magazine.
– He has already signed the biography Véronique Sanson, the ultra-sensitive.
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