After these various acting coups, he made a surprisingly impressive directing debut with "A Well-Filled Day" (1973). He went on to star in numerous European films, including "L'Argent des Autres/Other People's Money" (1978), playing the scapegoat of a cover-up, and Francois Truffaut's "Vivement Dimanche!/Confidentially Yours" (1983) as a suspected murderer. Keeping busy, Trintignant appeared in the last of Krzysztof Kieslowski's "Three Colors" trilogy, "Rouge/Red" (1994), playing a cynical ex-judge who finds hope in Irene Jacob's young Swiss model.
Divorced from actress Stephane Audran, he had been married to director-screenwriter Nadine Trintignant (nee Marquand) since 1960 and was the father of actress Marie Trintignant.