Fiction

LE BOUCHER

Butcher, The
Claude Chabrol
FRA 1970
94 min
V'10

Le Boucher follows the relationship between a butcher and a headmistress, a romantic entanglement framed by the growing unrest over a serial killer striking a rural French town. Chabrol uses emotional response to play with the viewers expectations about character and genre. In fact, every aspect of Le Boucher, from the aforementioned filmmaking techniques to the muted and stoic performances, subverts the thriller genre, mixing extreme formal devices to reveal Chabrol’s patented spatial menace.
The tempo and the temper and even the weather of the little town of Tremolat are very much a part of Le Boucher and of the lives of Popaul and Mlle. Hélène, who emotionally, anyway, pass in the course of the storm from late summer into irrevocable autumn. This is not to say the movie is without some conscious Hitchcockian details. Chabrol builds his suspense obliquely and although he uses blood sparingly, it is done with a sense of spectacle. (Vincent Canby, 1970)

In memoriam to Claude Chabrol (1930-2010).

Credits
  • Stéphane Audran - Hélène
  • Jean Yanne - Popaul
  • Antonio Passalia - Angelo
  • Pascal Ferone - Cahrpy
  • Mario Beccara - Leon Hamel
  • Claude Chabrol
  • Jean Rabier
  • Guy Chichignoud
  • Jacques Gaillard
  • Pierre Jansen
  • Guy Littaye
  • Joseph Poulard
Les Films de la Boétie Euro International Film

Artedis (SA)

35 mm
col
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