''Le Boucher'' ''The Butcher'' is a 1970 French

psychological thriller film thriller is a genre combining the thriller and psychological fiction genres. It is commonly used to describe literature or films that deal with psychological narratives in a thriller or thrilling setting. In terms of context and convention, it ...

written and directed by

Claude Chabrol Claude Henri Jean Chabrol (; 24 June 1930 – 12 September 2010) was a French film director and a member of the French New Wave (''nouvelle vague'') group of filmmakers who first came to prominence at the end of the 1950s. Like his colleagues an ...

and starring

Stéphane Audran Stéphane Audran (born Colette Suzanne Jeannine Dacheville; 8 November 1932 – 27 March 2018) was a French film actress. She was known for her performances in the films of her husband Claude Chabrol, including '' Les Biches'' (1968) and '' Le Bou ...

and

Jean Yanne Jean Yanne (; born Jean Roger Gouyé ; 18 July 1933 – 23 May 2003) was a French actor, screenwriter, producer, director and composer. In 1972, he won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor for his performance in the film '' We Won't ...

. Set in the village of

Trémolat Trémolat (; ) is a commune in the Dordogne department in Nouvelle-Aquitaine in southwestern France. Geography Trémolat is from the town of Périgueux and is situated along the river Dordogne in the Périgord region. Trémolat station has ...

, it tells the story of butcher Popaul who falls in love with Hélène, the head teacher of the school, while a murder spree is taking place in the area.

Plot

Butcher Popaul and Hélène, the head teacher of the village school, become acquainted at the assistant teacher's wedding. He tells her that he had served in the army for 15 years as a means of getting away from his father, whom he speaks disdainfully of. During the next few weeks, the two repeatedly meet and spend time together, but always on a strictly platonic level. While gathering mushrooms together, Popaul asks Hélène why she is not in a relationship, to which she explains an unhappy love affair years ago that took her months to recover from. In return, Popaul tells her about the awful things he witnessed in

Indochina Mainland Southeast Asia (historically known as Indochina and the Indochinese Peninsula) is the continental portion of Southeast Asia. It lies east of the Indian subcontinent and south of Mainland China and is bordered by the Indian Ocean to th ...

and the

Algerian war The Algerian War (also known as the Algerian Revolution or the Algerian War of Independence) ''; '' (and sometimes in Algeria as the ''War of 1 November'') was an armed conflict between France and the Algerian National Liberation Front (Algeri ...

. Soon after the news of the murder of a young woman reaches the town, a second victim, the assistant teacher's wife, is discovered by Hélène and her pupils during a school excursion. At the murder site, Hélène finds a conspicuous cigarette lighter that she had given to Popaul as a present. Instead of informing the police, she hides it in a drawer in her home. When she meets Popaul the next time, he lights her cigarette with a lighter that looks exactly like the one she had given him. Relieved, Hélène believes that the lighter she found was not his. Hélène agrees to Popaul's offer to repaint her room, which he does while she is out. While looking for a cloth to clean up with, he discovers the hidden lighter and pockets it. When Hélène finds the lighter gone after he has left, she realises that he knows she can identify him as the murderer. Seeing Popaul from her window, she locks the doors, but he has already entered the house. Popaul, cornering her at knife point, tells her that he had bought an identical lighter after losing the first one and explains what drives him to commit the murders. Convinced that he will stab her, Hélène closes her eyes, but Popaul thrusts the knife into his own abdomen instead. While she drives him to the hospital, Popaul tells the crying Hélène about all the blood he has seen and confesses that he loved her and only wished to be with her. Upon their arrival, he asks her to kiss him, which she does. Shortly after, he dies. The last images show Hélène standing on the riverbank with blank eyes.

Cast

as Hélène Daville *

as Paul Thomas, known as Popaul * Roger Rudel as Inspector Grumbach

Background

Chabrol had initially planned to shoot the film in the commune of

Les Eyzies Les Eyzies (; ) is a commune in the Dordogne department in Nouvelle-Aquitaine in southwestern France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and terri ...

, but finally decided to shoot in Trémolat, as he wanted a village with prehistoric caves in the vicinity but found Les Eyzies too touristic. The sites where shooting took place were mostly left unchanged, including the local butcher shop which served as the shop of Popaul. ''Le Boucher'' was released in France on 27 February 1970, where it had a total of 1,148,554 admissions. On 12 September 1970, it was screened at the

New York Film Festival The New York Film Festival (NYFF) is a film festival held every fall in New York City, presented by Film at Lincoln Center. Founded in 1963 by Richard Roud and Amos Vogel with the support of Lincoln Center president William Schuman, NYFF i ...

Reception

After its presentation at the New York Film Festival,

Vincent Canby Vincent Canby (July 27, 1924 – October 15, 2000) was an American film and theatre critic who was the chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' from 1969 until the early 1990s, then its chief theatre critic from 1994 until his death in 2000. ...

of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' wrote a thoroughly sympathetic review of ''Le Boucher'', comparing the film's "romantic realism" with

Alfred Hitchcock Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English film director. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 featu ...

's '' Spellbound'' and

Fritz Lang Friedrich Christian Anton Lang (; December 5, 1890 – August 2, 1976), better known as Fritz Lang (), was an Austrian-born film director, screenwriter, and producer who worked in Germany and later the United States.Obituary ''Variety Obituari ...

's ''

Scarlet Street ''Scarlet Street'' is a 1945 American film noir directed by Fritz Lang. The screenplay concerns two criminals who take advantage of a middle-aged painter in order to steal his artwork. The film is based on the French novel ''La Chienne'' (liter ...

'' and titling it "the most elegant, most sorrowful of Chabrol's recent films", excelled only by his ''

The Unfaithful Wife ''The Unfaithful Wife'' () is a 1969 French–Italian erotic thriller film written and directed by Claude Chabrol and starring Stéphane Audran and Michel Bouquet. The story follows a businessman who discovers his wife has been unfaithful. Plo ...

''. In the January–February 1972 edition of the ''

Los Angeles Free Press The ''Los Angeles Free Press'', also called the "''Freep''", is often cited as the first, and certainly was the largest, of the underground newspapers of the 1960s. The ''Freep'' was founded in 1964 by Art Kunkin, who served as its publisher un ...

'', critic Dick Lochte called ''Le Boucher'' the best of the director's films so far, "a wonderfully controlled psychological thriller" and "a compact, hard, bright jewel of a movie", praising, like Canby, actors Audran and Yanne.

Awards

* 1970:

Silver Shell for Best Actress The Silver Shell for Best Actress (Spanish: ''Concha de Plata a la mejor actriz''; Basque: ''Aktore onenaren Zilarrezko Maskorra'') was one of the main awards presented at the San Sebastián International Film Festival to the Best Actress of a co ...

at the 18th

San Sebastián International Film Festival The San Sebastián International Film Festival ( SSIFF; , ) is an annual FIAPF A category film festival held in the Spain, Spanish city of Donostia, Donostia-San Sebastián in September, in the Basque Country (autonomous community), Basque Countr ...

for Stéphane Audran * 1971:

Bodil Award for Best Non-American Film The Bodil Award for Best Non-English Language Film is one of the categories for the Bodil Awards presented annually by the Danish Union of Film Critics (Danish: Filmedarbejderforeningen). It was created in 1948 and is one of the oldest film prizes i ...

for Claude Chabrol

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Boucher 1970 films 1970s psychological thriller films 1970s French-language films French psychological thriller films Italian psychological thriller films French serial killer films Films directed by Claude Chabrol Films set in France 1970s serial killer films Italian serial killer films 1970s Italian films 1970s French films Films scored by Pierre Jansen French-language Italian films