Le Boucher [The Butcher] ***** (1970, Stéphane Audran, Jean Yanne, Antonio Passalia) – Classic Movie Review 4197

Writer-director Claude Chabrol’s tantalizing, mesmerizing 1970 French thriller Le Boucher [The Butcher] is absolutely superb, a miniaturist masterpiece of tension, atmosphere and character.

Chabrol’s then wife Stéphane Audran stars as a repressed French provincial small-town schoolteacher called Hélène, whose dour new friend, the titular butcher Popaul (Jean Yanne), may be a murderer, as a series of grisly Ripper-type serial killings murders devastate the peace of the village. It is set in the village of Trémolat on the river Dordogne.

The two meet at a wedding in the village and begin their unlikely close friendship. The deeply troubled butcher Popaul falls in love with the school head teacher Hélène, though she refuses a physical relationship despite being happy with their close friendship. But girls are being murdered and then Hélène finds the lighter she gave Popaul at a crime scene.

These two perfect performances light up one of the director’s best films that for once succeeds in matching Chabrol’s idol, Alfred Hitchcock. But then everything is perfect, so subtle is Chabrol’s screenplay, so delicate are the nuances of the characters, and so carefully judged is the development of the story.

Chabrol delights in all the details of rural French provincial life, beautifully captured in Jean Rabier’s cinematography.

Also in the cast are Antonio Passalia, Mario Beccaria, Pasquale Ferrone, Roger Rudel and William Gueralt.

Stéphane Audran is best known for Babette’s Feast (1987), The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972) and Le Boucher (1970). Chabrol directed her in 24 films, a TV movie and a TV episode. They were married 1964 – 1980 (divorced).

It is Jean Yanne’s third film with Chabrol, after Line of Demarcation (1966) and Que la bête meure [The Beast Must Die] (1969).

Jean Yanne (born Jean Roger Gouyé; 18 July 1933 – 23 May 2003) won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor for the film We Won’t Grow Old Together in 1972.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 4197

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