Though French auteur Claude Chabrol made a
string of highly acclaimed movies in his prolific career, Le Boucher undeniably remains his most widely reckoned work among
foreign film enthusiasts. This moody and slow-burning psychological thriller
was a riveting character study and a disturbing love story, and has been
likened as distinctly Hitchcockian in its style, themes and execution. The movie starts
with an elaborate Catholic wedding sequence (reminiscent of the opening
sequence of The Godfather) where the
two principal protagonists, viz. Helena (Chabrol regular Stephane Audran), the young
headmistress of a school, and Popaul (Jean Yanne), the local butcher and a
former army man, are introduced to the viewers as well as to each other. Both
being reserved, introverted and lonely individuals with few, if any, friends,
they take an instant liking to each other, and the bond keeps growing stronger
the more they meet and interact with each other. In a distressing twist to
their burgeoning friendship and platonic relationship beautifully captured by
the director and the actors, he has a deeply scarred past on account of the
violent memories of his army days, and his sense of alienation is not helped by
her strong apathy towards any forms of intimacy. Meanwhile, the quaint town
that they live in gets terrorized by a vicious serial killer who is butchering
one young woman after another – and this starts adding subtexts to their
already complex relationship. Despite the exquisite evocation of suspense and
mystery, Chabrol never intended this as just another plot-based thriller, and
neither did he provide any easy answers, as he led the viewers to a haunting, deeply ambiguous and memorable finale.
Director: Claude Chabrol
Genre: Thriller/Psychological Thriller/Mystery
Language: French
Country: France
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