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Le Boucher

Original title: The Butcher

“An outstanding new film by one of France's leading directors.”

1970 · 1 h 33 min
Directed by Claude Chabrol

Cast

Stéphane Audran Jean Yanne

Credits

Written by: Claude Chabrol

Plot

In a quiet French village, the schoolteacher Hélène befriends the local butcher, Popaul, a shy man who has returned from the army. As a series of murders of young women takes place, she begins to suspect him, and her feelings of attraction and fear intertwine. Claude Chabrol's 1970 psychological thriller, with Stéphane Audran and Jean Yanne, is less a whodunit than a study of loneliness and desire, and is among his finest films.

Sinekatalog’s take

Claude Chabrol's quiet thriller of a schoolteacher suspecting a gentle village butcher is subtle and chilling. Stéphane Audran and Jean Yanne are superb in a tense, humane study of desire and fear.Sinekatalog’s own editorial review – not a user or critic quote.

Ratings

IMDb: 7.3 / 10 (10,622 votes)
IMDb rating and vote count from the IMDb ratings dataset (October 2026). Scores change over time.

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