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One of Claude Chabrol s most acclaimed psychological thrillers, Le Boucher stars the director s wife Stéphane Audran as Hélène, the repressed headmistress of a small village school. At a wedding, she strikes up a conversation with the local butcher Popaul (Jean Yanne), which leads to a hesitant, strictly chaste courtship, emotionally hampered not just by their social differences but by her memories of an unsuccessful past romance and his traumatic experience of conflict in Indochina and Algeria. Things come to a head when women are found dead in assorted rural pleasure spots, and Hélène has to confront the very real possibility that Popaul might be the murderer. But is it a case of mistaken identity? And even if he s guilty, what will she lose if she turns him in? Chabrol s control of this material is masterly, leading to a climactic confrontation that rivals anything in Les Diaboliques for palm-sweating suspense.
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Subtle, sinister, and written and acted with pinpoint precision, this is Chabrol at his sophisticatedly creepy best. --Film4.com
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Le Boucher/The Butcher is one that falls into the love it or hate it camp. Certainly by modern standards, Claude Chabrol makes little of his premise - smalltown schoolteacher Stephane Audran falls for smalltown butcher and serial killer Jean Yanne - either as a suspense vehicle or moral drama. There are occasional hints of something deeper in the butcher's descriptions of the atrocities he saw in Algeria and IndoChina and which he has brought home with him to the outwardly idyllic backwater and scene of his unhappy childhood, but they're just left for the audience to make the connections. As usual, Chabrol is more interested in milieu than the crimes themselves, and his sense of place and community is impeccable without being forced, as his direction. Although the script is fairly thin, it perfectly captures the way comparative isolation and lack of diversion brings people into each other's spheres more than burning passion (in fact, Yanne reveals that it's her ability to calm his passions that makes her so special to him). And it's telling that the two characters never have a romance: they don't even share a kiss. It's more akin to a drawn-out old-fashioned courtship - it's just that one of them happens to be a serial killer.
One thing that is particularly striking is that way he is able to use long, unshowy takes (some lasting several minutes) simply because his actors are up to the challenge, giving the film an unforced, natural flow. There's imagination and striking imagery when required - the film's most tense moment takes place during a fade to black, while a night time drive takes on a disembodied quality - but he's not out to batter his audience with technique. Quietly impressive, but you may need to have lived in a small town to get the most out of it.
Arrow's UK PAL DVD does offer a better transfer than the US Pathfinder DVD in a slightly cropped widescreen ratio, but contains no extras.
One thing that is particularly striking is that way he is able to use long, unshowy takes (some lasting several minutes) simply because his actors are up to the challenge, giving the film an unforced, natural flow. There's imagination and striking imagery when required - the film's most tense moment takes place during a fade to black, while a night time drive takes on a disembodied quality - but he's not out to batter his audience with technique. Quietly impressive, but you may need to have lived in a small town to get the most out of it.
Arrow's UK PAL DVD does offer a better transfer than the US Pathfinder DVD in a slightly cropped widescreen ratio, but contains no extras.
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
I first saw "Le Boucher" at college when I found it in the video library there. I've been waiting ages for it to come out on DVD. This release has no extras, but the film is worth it.
Reminiscent of Hitchcock, the film tells the story of a teacher in a rural French village who begins to fall for the local butcher. But when several girls are murdered, events lead her to suspect him.
"Le Boucher" maintains a leisurely pace throughout that matches the pace of village life. Rather than relying on shocks, it builds tension and suspense - esp effective are the scenes of the schooltrip and the finale in the schoolhouse.
The scenery is beautiful, direction and performances subtle. Highly recommended
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Chabrol sets the scene and tees the plot up expertly as always, but the film doesn't really follow through on its early promise. Unlike the best Chabrol, the plot is entirely predictable and character is not fully explored. There's a sense that he ran out of time, money or inspiration about two thirds of the way through shooting. But for Chabrol completists, worth watching for the performances and the sense of atmosphere.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Just the film on the DVD
I saw the film first on 16mm with a group of students interested in film; it was part of a series looking at French film. Read more
Published 6 months ago by RR Waller
Cigar Claude? Not quite.
I have decided Chabrol is always interesting but I have not seen something which knocks me out. Le Boucher is the one I would watch again. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Mario
Drip drip...
Very stylish slow-paced thriller with a very French 60s feel.
Not one if you want twists and turns and pace, this is one with wonderful athmosphere and that slow drop... Read more
Not one if you want twists and turns and pace, this is one with wonderful athmosphere and that slow drop... Read more
Published 17 months ago by The Hedgehog
Slow, But Taut, Powerful Thriller That Stays With You
"The Butcher," ("Le boucher") (1969) is one of the best-known films of French director Claude Chabrol, (The Claude Chabrol Collection [DVD]), one of the leading lights of the... Read more
Published 20 months ago by Stephanie DePue
The moral ambiguity of M. Chabrol
Even though i have always been a fan of French cinema, i had never really found myself enamoured by Chabrol's work. Read more
Published 22 months ago by Mr. P. M. Searle
A film to watch over and over again
To be honest, not all of Chabrol's films are of this standard, but when he is good he is very very good!
The wedding scene. Read more
The wedding scene. Read more
Published on 16 May 2010 by NorthBrit
A great French classic
If you are looking for an action-packed, thrill-a-minute sort of film then you should probably look elsewhere. Read more
Published on 2 Oct 2008 by Hombre M
Not a masterpeice, but still worth watching
I was a little disappointed by the film as it gets a top-rating in Halliwell implying that it is one of the best films ever made, which it isn't. Read more
Published on 15 Aug 2007 by Bluebell
Inevitably, bad things happen
Helene Daville (Stephane Audran) is the school mistress in Tremolat, a quiet village in the Perigord region of France. Read more
Published on 18 Jun 2007 by C. O. DeRiemer
Disappointing presentation
This is an excellent example of late New Wave filmmaking, marking the point at which Chabrol started to get a bit artier, and there's nothing wrong with that provided the... Read more
Published on 3 Jan 2007 by D. A. Clare
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