"Bruises" and "Broken Teeth": Why Are Suspicions of Violence Against Krisztina Rady Reviving the Cantat Affair?

Analysis Four months after the release of a damning documentary about the former leader of Noir Désir, the Bordeaux public prosecutor has decided to reopen the investigation into possible violence committed against his former wife, Krisztina Rady. She committed suicide in January 2010.

By Cécile Deffontaines

Published on July 30, 2025 at 12:30 p.m. , updated July 30, 2025 at 1:45 p.m.

A photo of Krisztina Rady held up during a protest against French singer Bertrand Cantat's concert in Nantes on June 4, 2018. SEBASTIEN SALOM GOMIS/SIPA

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Prosecutors also watch documentaries. The Netflix documentary released at the end of March, entitled "The Cantat Case" (produced by Capa, an investigation by Karine Dusfour and Zoé de Buissierre, with Nicolas Lartigue and Anne-Sophie Jahn), took the decision to revisit the trajectory of the adored rock singer up to his fall – and even after – using a more modern reading grid. A reading grid where the "crime of passion" has become "femicide," where psychological and physical violence can lead to suicide. Part of this documentary series, viewed by the current Bordeaux public prosecutor, Renaud Gaudeul, was devoted to Krisztina Rady, married to the Noir Désir singer in 1997, mother of his two children, and long relegated to a supporting role in the Cantat-Trintignant affair.

Overshadowed by the media coverage of the "Vilnius tragedy," that fatal night in July 2003 when rocker and Noir Désir frontman Bertrand Cantat fatally shot Marie Trintignant , Krisztina Rady has long remained in the collective imagination as someone who supports, who loves despite everything. We remember the protective gestures of this beautiful Hungarian woman with wavy hair, colorful outfits, ethnic jewelry, a big, frank smile, and…