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Chabrol's mid-career "The Butcher" is slowly engrossing, even though it hardly merits comparisons with Hitchcock (or even Clouzot). A young provincial schoolmistress (Stephane Audran) becomes emotionally involved (or does she?) with the town butcher (Jean Yanne) who's cutting up the local girls as well as the local livestock. (No spoiler here; the movie doesn't even bother working up another suspect for the crimes.) As usual with Chabrol, a civilized, bourgeois surface only obscures more animal impulses, and sordid backstories reach secret fruition in the current action. The butcher's murders are, he says, the result of psychological trauma sustained in war; and the schoolmistress's emotional distance is, she says, the result of a broken heart long ago. But is either story true? We're never really sure, and there's a strange equivalence between the two characters that Chabrol doesn't press too heavily, but at the same time never fully illuminates. He even fades to black at the climax (spoiler: the butcher's knife winds up in his own gut - but who put it there?). At the finish we're left with the schoolmistress staring out to sea, keeping her own secrets (an effect at which the beautiful but sphinxlike Audran certainly excels) - and we realize we've been intrigued, but never quite gripped.

After watching the stylish 1959 movie À double tour (also reviewed),I started talking to a fellow IMDber about the work of auteur film maker Claude Chabrol. Receiving a suggestion for another Chabrol title,I tracked down the DVD on eBay,and get ready to have a butchers at Chabrol.

View on the film:

Opening in a cave,writer/directing auteur Claude Chabrol & cinematographer Jean Rabier boil the film down to its starkest elements,with the yellow and reds in Hélène's house being rubbed into a dour paste.

Following Hélène & Thomas in restrained whip- pans,Chabrol cuts around Thriller chills by cutting into a subtly stylish study of modern masculinity,by making the limited shots of blood take man back from the bourgeoisie of the present to the primal instinct of the past.

Displaying on focus on the psychologically dramatic,the screenplay by Chabrol dissects Hélène and Thomas's attempts to find a fitting in modern society,which is sliced from Thomas giving his butchering work over to Hélène like a bunch of flowers,to Hélène doing the "old fashion" holidays that the pretty young things view as something almost as old as cave paintings.

Simmering with unease over the final flame, Chabrol cuts around tension and bubbling thrills to explore modern masculinity,which whilst elegantly delivered does pull the title into a rather dry direction,via keeping Hélène and Thomas's relationship in a stilted position draining the drops of dangerous atmosphere from the film,as Thomas shows Hélène his real butchery skills.

As others have noted, Chabrol is masterful in setting a tone of uneasy suspense. As the movie progresses, we gradually shift to the edge of our seat, figuratively at least. But is something else going on here as well?

******SPOILERS******

Roger Ebert's review prompted me to have another look at Helene as she appears at the hospital at the very end. He's right, there is something in her look there that is very different from concern or sadness; I'd say it is the look of triumph.

Helene, you will recall, once had a lover, but he left her a decade ago. She claims not to have formed any attachments since. If true, it appears she has never fully recovered from being discarded. Just as Popaul has been traumatized by his time in the army, she appears to have been permanently scarred by this event in her past.

Yet she clearly shows interest in Popaul...inviting him up to her flat to cook a leg of lamb he has brought her, asking him to go mushroom-hunting, giving him a birthday gift. So what gives?

As I read it, Helene's game is to attract men, get them to make an emotional investment, then dump them before she can be dumped--whether out of fear of being abandoned again herself, or as twisted revenge on men in general, or for some other reason. This would explain the triumph and satisfaction on her face at the hospital: Popaul has just given her the most abject confession of love, and even obsession, conceivable. She has (once again?) emerged victorious, unscathed. She has claimed a victim--perhaps another in a series. As such, she is no less a predator than he is, and for parallel reasons.

Perhaps all this is too cynical. Perhaps I'm reading too much into her behavior. But look closely at her expression as they wheel Popaul away on the gurney, and you'll have to admit that she is no cliched innocent victim (or near-victim). Something else is at work here.

"Le Boucher" is one of Claude Chabrol's most heavily (over)praised films, but I suspect that this has more to do with the fact that it was made during the most celebrated period of his career (1968-1973), rather than with the strengths of the film itself. Trouble starts early on, with an opening after-the-wedding-celebration sequence that goes on for SO long, it almost seems as if Chabrol is challenging the viewer not to give up right there. But as the film goes on, you realize that Chabrol has so little story (which he wrote) to tell, that he stretches nearly EVERY scene too long: a funeral, kids entering the classroom, the heroine walking from place A to place B, etc. There is absolutely no mystery - the second you learn about the first murder, you immediately know who is responsible. And although there are essentially only 2 characters in the film, they are not really very well-developed: the killer is given no motivation beyond his 15-year war experiences that apparently desensitized him to blood and killing, and the heroine's behavior makes little to no sense - Charbrol's characters often cover up crimes of their loved ones, but the schoolteacher in this film (who is wonderful with the kids, by the way) shows no more than a passing interest in the butcher, and certainly no indication that she cares about him so much that she would abandon her human values and let brutal crime go unpunished. Even with an unflattering hairstyle, Stephane Audran is fascinating to watch - Jean Yanne less so; Michel Bouquet is a better leading man in "La Femme Infidele". In fact, "La Femme Infidele", which I saw just a few days ago, is a far superior Chabrol film on all levels; watch that one twice before you start with "Le Boucher". ** out of 4.

For people who think movies like e.g. Independence Day are the best ever made, Le Boucher may seem like a slow and extremely boring movie. And it is slow but that is part of the movie's action. Though the movie has aged the movie's strengths and the thoughts put into the details of this movie make it work today too.

Le Boucher is amazing in it's use of symbolism. Few things are incidental in this movie. Colors, shades, shapes, sound, stories in this movie most often contain a message. (The colour red? The obelisk?).

Whereas the movie may work as suspension and entertainment the first time it takes at least another view to fully understand it and notice the main part of the details.

When this film was made, despite the fact that Freud's theories were under attack, the film maker, Claude Chabrol, made a firm statement about what happens when a child's love for his mother is repressed by a father's hostility. In the opening sequence, a wedding, it is established, briefly, that Paul (the butcher)had a dark and unresolved relationship with his father, one that caused him to join the army and resulted in his having seen very little of his cherished mother. When the film begins, Paul and Helene meet and start a friendship that has promise of a relationship. But Helene's unwillingness to become Paul or anyone's lover, because of the pain she endured from a previous relationship, stifles a budding romance. Contrary to turning off Paul, this rejection seems to entice him. He can trust this woman because she is "logical," a word that turns up frequently when the two main characters describe how they run their lives. This "logic" though is not the one we commonly embrace, it is a logic of dark inevitability. Paul, whose father seemed to brutally punish him for his son's aggressiveness (and unconsciously for the boy's possessiveness of his mother), has adjusted to reality by living within the confines of a control in his life that prevents accidents or passions from taking place. He is, in effect, grateful that Helene is not giving him what he wants. Like his desire for his mother still lurks in his unconscious, his desire for Helene is always present - and because Helene has rejected him, like his mother had done, Helene has created a relationship as close to his mother as possible. It is very logical.

The thriller aspect of this film which is about a serial killer finds it's manifestations not in the easy, lurid horror techniques of too many thrillers but in the horror of what's going on within each of the characters - the horror of closeness, a closeness that each fear might kill them. The killings are merely an outward symbol for the internal murder that is going on within each character. The characters who, for years, had been killing themselves emotionally by their repressed desires reach, in this film, a dark emotional catharsis that makes them aware of how their repressed desires have ruined their lives.

The title of this French film was easy to translate, I did not know anything about the plot or anything, but I was going to watch it because it featured in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, directed by Claude Chabrol (Ophélia, Story of Women). Basically in the small rural French village of Tremolat, Périgord, confident and slightly naive young school teacher Hélène (Stéphane Audran, Chabrol's then wife) is lonely, one day she meets war veteran and local butcher Paul Thomas, or "Popaul" (Jean Yanne) at the wedding party of her colleague Léon Hamel (Mario Beccara). Hélène is happy to be friends and have a platonic relationship with Popaul, but she is still recovering from the disillusionment of her last relationship, at his birthday as a gift she gives him a lighter. On a school class excursion to a cave in the woods, Hélène finds the body of a murdered woman, victim to a serial killer, she realises it is Leon's wife, she also finds Popaul's lighter at the crime scene, but takes it and hides the evidence from the police. Hélène is relieved to see Popaul visiting her still has his own lighter, but her suspicions of him crop up again when he is painting her house ceiling, and another discovery affects her sense of security, however they begin to pursue a more close relationship. Hélène enjoys the company of Popaul, and it seems she would do anything for him as their relationship deepens, but she cannot ignore the fact that there are unexplained murders of women occurring in the village. Also starring Antonio Passalia as Angelo, Pascal Ferone as Uncle Cahrpy, Roger Rudel as Police Inspector Grumbach and William Guérault as Charles. The relationship between the teacher and the suspicious man who may be a sex murderer is interesting to see play out, with two great leading stars, you are unsure as much as she is whether he can be trusted, there is not a lot of bloody violence, it is simply an examination of how suspicion can change things in a relationship, like a Hitchcock film would, and also a study of sexual frustration, a great thriller style psychological drama. Good!

Claude Chabrol's "Le Boucher" is a quiet, subtle and utterly absorbing psychological thriller about a couple who, at first glance, seem to be conventional, respectable and very well adjusted. It gradually becomes clear, however, that they're both emotionally and psychologically damaged in different ways and their friendship triggers unexpected impulses that eventually bring both trauma and tragedy to their peaceful village. The village is called Tremolat and is situated in the Pericord region of France.

Helene (Stephane Audran), the headmistress of the village school and Popaul (Jean Yanne) the local butcher, meet at a wedding party and enjoy each other's company. As their friendship develops it emerges that Helene is dedicated to her work, well-liked by her pupils and highly respected by the people of Tremolat. Popaul has recently returned to the village after spending 15 years in the Army and has inherited the butcher shop following his father's death.

Popaul seems gentle and friendly and gives Helene specially selected joints of lamb from his shop and is pleased to help with any work that needs doing in the school building. As a child he'd been abused by his father and during his Army career had seen countless horrific incidents. He tells Helene that he saw many terrible things that are too awful to describe and it's obvious just how profoundly his experiences have affected him.

Popaul is desperate for his friendship with Helene to develop into a romance but when he discusses this with her, she tells him that following a relationship that she had 10 years before, she was left so hurt that she couldn't ever consider getting involved with anyone else in that way again. Popaul accepts the situation and they continue their friendship which remains purely platonic.

During this period, the normal tranquillity of Tremolat is shattered when a young woman is murdered and her body is found at a location close to the village. Helene has the misfortune to discover a second body during a school trip with her pupils and is shocked to discover a cigarette lighter close by which is identical to one that she'd given to Popaul as a present. She, without hesitation, keeps the lighter and later goes through periods during which other developments lead her to believe initially in his guilt, then later in his innocence and finally in his guilt again before their story reaches its tragic denouement.

The traumatic things that happened to Helene and Popaul in their pasts and the ways in which they responded to them were clearly beyond their control. Similarly, at the outset, it would have been impossible for either of them to predict how their relationship might ultimately become responsible for inflaming certain impulses that led to a series of violent deaths in their community. They are unquestionably victims whose actions led to dreadful results and caused them tremendous despair.

Stephane Audran is wonderfully enigmatic as the beautiful, cool and seemingly very composed teacher who always appears to be the stronger partner in the relationship and Jean Yanne is also excellent as her very devoted but troubled friend.

"Le Boucher" is unsettling, thought provoking and rich in atmosphere but also unusual in the way that it combines, so effectively, a very simple plot with so much depth, poignancy and sensitivity This is a work of considerable substance that is totally captivating and a great credit to its writer and director, Claude Chabrol.

Le Boucher is quite possibly the best film that Claude Chabrol ever made. Considering the quality of his output at the turn of the 70's this is quite something. In line with all his best movies from this time, Le Boucher is part thriller, part psychological drama. Also like his other key works, this one doesn't really focus on the crime so much as its emotional fallout. In it a school teacher begins a restrained relationship with a local butcher, whom she subsequently suspects of serial murder. As is the way with Chabrol, this discovery only complicates her feelings for this man.

Once more Chabrol's muse Stéphane Audran stars. And as usual she is quite excellent in the role of the teacher. She imbues the character with the requisite complexity, as well as being a fragrant presence throughout. Co-star Jean Yanne, too, is quite exceptional as the title character. Both actors give the movie a dramatic weight that gives it its emotional core. But where this film differs from other Chabrol thrillers, is that there is more emphasis on suspense than normal. This combination of tension and character-driven drama is exquisitely handled by the director. For this reason Le Boucher may be the primary reason why Chabrol was referred to as 'the French Hitchcock'. Sir Alfred would have certainly been proud of this one.

This is a good movie and I would recommend it to anyone, just not whole-heartedly. You see, it was far from great as there were a few plot problems that got in the way of my complete enjoyment. First, it was very hard to believe that when the school teacher found evidence of who the serial killer was, she would keep this to herself--even if she did like the person a lot. Secondly, the film only had one or two plot twists and there really were no other potential people portrayed in the movie who could have been the murderer, so the identity of the actual criminal wasn't in much doubt--even when a little plot twist was added to make you possibly doubt it was really him. No, to be an exceptional suspense film, there must be more dead-ends and twists--this movie just didn't offer surprises. What I DID like about the film was the romance. I would have MUCH preferred to see this played out instead of the whole serial killer angle.

Chabrol in his previous two films with Audran ("Les biches" and "La femme infidèle") shows a perfect touch in presenting actions whose motivations are unexplained or underexplained yet emotionally plausible. Here, in "Le boucher," he miscalculates and does the opposite: Hélène's motivation is obvious and implausible.

Hélène is intelligent, happy, and successful in a career she loves, and she has sworn off romance after a bad experience. Yet we're supposed to believe she's drawn to a man whose every remark shows him to be embittered, morose, and uneducated. And the attraction is such that after only a few casual meetings with him, she hides evidence that he's a deranged killer.

Her action is a touchstone of the thriller genre: a protagonist covering up a lover's crime. When this moment is handled properly, the audience's shock at the perversion of justice is balanced by sympathy for the protagonist's devotion. But since there is no basis for Hélène's devotion, we respond only with disgust, which destroys our sympathy for her -- a fatal flaw for any film. Our disgust increases after the third murder, which she's partly responsible for. The film grows ever more repellent as it fails to acknowledge how compromised its heroine is.

Finally comes the ride to the hospital, where Paul makes a speech. Here is Chabrol's chance to salvage the situation by revealing some poetic truth behind it. Instead, Paul only declares that he worships Hélène. He adds a creepy, stalker-like confession of how he stood in the street many nights staring at her window. These are platitudes that beautiful women hear all too often. Yet for Chabrol they justify Hélène's radiant expression at the hospital, her first kiss of Paul, and her vigil by the water after his death. Becoming the object of a homicidal sadist's obsession -- something that real women dread -- supposedly transforms and redeems Hélène.

Chabrol apparently had in mind a schematic notion about embracing the bestial foundation of society as it breaks through the bourgeois surface, but he failed to develop the schema into a credible story.