the butcher

Le Boucher - Claude Chabrol

Chabrol's moniker as the "French Hitchcock" somehow lives up to his name (I think the comparison to the master of suspense is rightly justified in someway). Although the film starts pretty slow and Chabrol's emphasis on the character development does a great deal of significance to the outcome of the plot, i believe it is safe to say that the suspense comes from the nature of relationship of the two characters rather than on the events that precipitated the whole shebang. The film tells the story of Helene, a schoolteacher (Stephanie Audran) and her slightly-clandestine affair with the town butcher, Popaul (Jean Yanne), and the series of killings that rock the small village. The plot is not particularly complicated, and Chabrol's focus on the humanity of the characters only allow enough space for the killings to transpire. There are hints of Hitchcockian conflicts to note: the shared secrets and suppressed guilts, and Helene's discovery of the real identity of the perpetrator that ultimately results in a surprising ambiguity.