Nadine Trintignant

Biography

A native of Nice, France, Nadine Trintignant was born Nadine Marquand on November 11, 1934. She is the sister of late actors Christian Marquand and Serge Marquand. In 1960, she married French actor Jean-Louis Trintignant, who had already starred in several of her early films. The couple had three children: a daughter, actress Marie Trintignant; another daughter, Pauline; and a son, actor and screenwriter Vincent Trintignant-Corneau. They remained together until their separation in 1976. Following their split, Trintignant started a relationship with French director Alain Corneau, who later became the adoptive father of her children Marie and Vincent. Trintignant and Corneau lived together for 37 years until his death in 2010.

Trintignant has suffered the loss of two of her three children. In 1970, her nine-month-old daughter Pauline died of crib death, and in 2003, her older daughter Marie died from injuries inflicted by her boyfriend, French musician Bertrand Cantat, during a domestic dispute.

In her films, Trintignant has focused greatly on the topics of family and relationships, often borrowing from events of her own life. Much of her work took place during the 1970s, which was a time of great advancement for woman filmmakers in France. Trintignant's interest in feminist issues and the perils of the heterosexual couple can be seen in many of her films, such as Mon amour, Mon amour (1967), or Le voyage des noces (1976). However, her identity as a feminist was not limited to her filmmaking. In 1971, she placed her name on the Manifesto of the 343, published in the French magazine Le Nouvel Observateur. The article was signed by 343 women including Trintignant who admitted to having abortions in order to raise awareness of female reproductive rights.

Beginnings

At the age of 15, Trintignant’s first experience with the film industry was working as a lab assistant. Following this, she held various small positions mainly in the editorial department before turning to directing with her first credited job being that of assistant editor for the 1955 film Du rififi chez les hommes. Following Rififi, Trintignant worked in editing for the films Si Paris nous était conté (1956), Une Parisienne (1957), Une Vie (1965), Léon Morin, Prêtre (1961), L'eau a la bouche (1960), Le Coeur Battant (1961), Le Petit Soldat (1963), Les grands Chemins (1963), Le Chemin de la Mauvaise Route (1963), and Les Pas perdus (1964).

As film director

Trintignant made her directorial debut with her 1965 short film Fragiliteé, ton nom est femme. Two years later, she wrote and directed Mon amour, mon amour, a dramatic film about a young woman’s love affair with an architect and her secret struggle over whether or not to have an abortion once she becomes pregnant. The film was nominated for the Palme d’or award at the 1967 Cannes Film Festival.

Following the death of her nine-month-old daughter Pauline in 1970, Trintignant wrote and directed Ça n’arrive qu’aux autres, a semi-autobiographical film related to her personal tragedy. The 1971 film starred Catherine Deneuve and Marcello Mastroianni as a couple who must cope with the death of their infant daughter. Trintignant blurred the boundaries between the film world and her own lived experience in several ways: she cast her brother Christian Marquand as Deneuve’s character’s brother, included her older daughter Marie in several scenes, and used actual images and footage of her daughter Pauline to depict the deceased child in the film.

Trintignant's next film Défense de savoir was released in 1973, followed by Le Voyage de noces in 1976. In the 1980s Trintignant continued to write and direct many films focusing on relationships through a feminist lens, such as Premier Voyage (1980), L'été prochain (1985), and La maison de Jade (1988), despite the fact that according to critics such as Nina Darnton of the New York Times, the "fire of the women's liberation movement [was] no longer fanned to so bright a flame" by that time.

In 1991, Trintignant joined 30 filmmakers to create Contre L'Oubli for Amnesty International. The film project consisted of 30 short films, each directed by a different filmmaker paired with a public personality, and each dedicated to make a plea for human rights, focusing on a specific political prisoner. Trintignant collaborated with her daughter Marie for the segment on José Ramon Garcia-Gomez of Mexico.

Throughout the 1990s and 2000s Trintignant continued to make films in collaboration with her family: Rêveuse Jeunesse (1994) and Fugeuses (1995) starred Marie; L'insoumise (1996) starred both Marie and Jean-Louis Trintignant, and was co-written by their son Vincent; and L'île Bleu was co-written again with Vincent. Trintignant's most recent directorial credit is for the 2003 film Colette, une femme libre, a film which once again had starred her daughter Marie. Marie's sudden death occurred during production of the film, however the necessary scenes with the actress had already been captured, so Trintignant completed the film and dedicated the final product to her daughter.

As novelist

Trintignant has penned several novels alongside her work as a filmmaker throughout the years such as Ton Chapeau au vestiaire (1997), Combien d'enfants (2001), and Le Jeune homme de la rue de France (2002). Following the death of her daughter Marie, Trintignant wrote the memoir Marie, ma fille (2003). She has since written numerous books pertaining to her personal life: her autobiography J'ai été jeune un jour (2006); a collection of short stories depicting her pain after Marie's death, titled Un étrange peine (2007); a memoir of her late partner Alain Corneau, Vers d'autres matins (2012); and an homage to her mother, titled La voilette de ma mère (2014).

Awards and nominations

Trintignant's 1967 Film Mon amour mon amour, which she both wrote and directed, was nominated for the Palme d'or award at the Cannes Film Festival of the same year.