Star's days 'are numbered', says surgeon
French actress Marie Trintignant remained in a “deep coma” today after allegedly being beaten by her rock star boyfriend, who was being questioned by police.
At the request of her family, a second operation was performed on her in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius today.
It was a bid to ease pressure on her brain caused by cerebral haemorrhaging and bring the 41-year-old star out of the coma, said Dr Robertas Kvascevicius at Vilnius University Hospital.
But Trintignant’s condition remained unchanged after the ”surgery of hope,” said Kvascevicius,.
He said French brain surgeon Stephane Delajoux, who arrived in Lithuania last night, assisted in the operation.
“Unfortunately, I think her days are numbered now because she is in a deep coma, and the surgical decompression that was performed wasn’t enough,” Delajoux said.
Trintignant was being kept alive by artificial respiration and that her chances of survival were “minimal.”
Trintignant’s father, film star Jean-Louis Trintignant, 72, flew to Lithuania a day after the first operation.
The actress’ 17-year-old son Roman, and her mother, film director Nadine Trintignant, were also in Vilnius.
Police identified her boyfriend, French rock singer Bertrand Cantat, as a suspect, and began to question him today about the alleged attack on Sunday in the Domina Plaza Hotel in Vilnius, where Trintignant was staying with her mother, son and Cantat.
Cantat, lead singer of the popular French band Noir Desir (Black Desire), had been admitted to the same hospital on Sunday after drinking “dangerously high” amounts of alcohol, police said.
He was released today and police immediately began questioning him, investigator Juozas Kandzezauskas said.
Lithuania’s Lietuvos Rytas newspaper quoted Dr Anele Pavinksniene, who claimed to have examined Cantat, as saying the singer’s right fist was bruised.
Authorities said it could take days or weeks before they decide whether to formally charge Cantat. They have refused to comment on what he could be charged with.
Crime suspects in Lithuania are usually not jailed until they are formally indicted. Even then, they are often freed on bail – unless they are considered flight risks. But courts normally bar suspects under investigation or anyone indicted from leaving the country.
Trintignant, born in Paris in 1962, performed in 30 mostly French films. She made her first film appearances as a teenager in films produced by her mother. Though mostly typecast as neurotic, mentally unstable women, she has tried in recent years to do more comic acting.
She has been in Vilnius since the beginning of June playing the lead role in a joint French-Lithuanian TV movie called Colette, a love story set in the 19th century. The film, which also stars Lambert Wilson, was being directed by Trintignant’s mother.
The Baltic Sea nation, with castles and manor houses dotted across its vast forests, has become a favourite venue for European and Hollywood film makers for its old-world ambience.
