The Butcher (1970)

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.

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.

Hitchcock comparisons abound with Chabrol. However, you may be hard pressed to see anything other than a superficial similarity between them here.Although nicely acted and crafted, 'Le Boucher' has a curious sense of disengagement that will either fascinate or frustrate viewers. While not necessarily a bad thing in itself, this can also give the impression of a lack of depth. It's hard to fully discern what the character motivations are so, depending on your proclivity, you are likely to become either enthralled or disinterested in what they might actually be.Viewers familiar with Francois Truffaut will notice some similarities in approach but Chabrol lacks the concise poetry of that other French great. Even though the opening wedding sequence nicely sets up a scene of normality for the events that follow, it's rather overlong and a more Hitchcockian terseness would certainly have helped. Still, the film does have a strange charm and there are some excellent character ideas regarding the schoolteacher (content with her celibacy long after a bad relationship) being seduced? threatened? by the promise of new love from the local butcher - who may or may not be a murderer. These threads are either unexplored or deliberately withheld, depending on your point of view.A worthwhile watch for those interested but, possibly, not quite the masterpiece some might lead you to believe it is.

This film is very beautiful, rich and true in colour and with an unmodulated picture quality. There's a lot of pressure on the actors and make-up/props/special effects I'd imagine and they come through admirably (e.g. blood is blood-red not ketchup-red).With this at his disposal Chabrol goes about documenting the claustrophobia and oppressive loneliness of a parochial (French) town. Stéphane Audran's schoolmistress is an imperfectly acted but nonetheless thoroughly watchable existential recluse, crushed once in love and consequently disingenuous in company. Jean Yanne's eponymous butcher brings a shady, war-scarred neediness into her life. The double act of unspeakable past and collision-course future is played out against a backdrop of serial murder.Though the story-telling is reasonably straightforward we have to make a number of assumptions for ourselves, not least at the equivocal end. But then Chabrol hasn't made a conventional thriller, rather he's used a genre for a study of the characters' relationships. 50% satisfying - 5/10