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Even from the opening credits, where
an eerie soundtrack plays over random shots from an ancient cave, the
sense of ominous foreshadowing is decisively abundant in Claude
Chabrol's Le Boucher (The Butcher). Made
in 1969, and often touted as the definitive Chabrol thriller, it stars
Chabrol regulars Stéphane Audran (The Unfaithful Wife, Les
Biches) as Helen, and Jean Yanne
(The
Beast Must Die,
Line of Demarcation)
as Paul.
Breaking abruptly from the mood of
the credits, we see a wedding party of a young couple in a small French
town. The focus, however,
is not on the bride and groom, but rather on the conversation between
Helen, a beautiful young headmistress, and Paul, the town butcher, who
recently came back to town to take over his estranged father's business. This
sets the beginning of their friendship, and it soon becomes obvious that
Paul is falling in love with her.
Meanwhile, the local police arrive
with search dogs to look for clues in the grisly murder of a young woman
in the nearby woods. As the camera focuses on the lighthearted play of
Helen and the school children the dark music thunders down as the police
walk by with their search teams in the background.
This type of contrast, between the
mood of the soundtrack and the scenes being shown occurs throughout the
movie. Innocent little encounters of Helen, the children, and the breezy
small town, have a heavy, gong laden, dark score to them that continue
to hint at the upcoming events.
Soon Paul questions Helen on the
nature of their relationship, and if she would consider taking him as
her lover. She explains why she is alone and lets him know that she
values their friendship. Paul continues to pine for her, in longing
shots where he observes her interacting with the children. The intensity
of his desire is captured in a scene where Helen is teaching the
children to dance, and Paul is obsessively staring at her to the point
where the audience shares his view, and the back of her head takes up
almost the entire frame for a long moment.
Stéphane Audran is especially
strong as Helen in this role, being the definitive example of goodness
and kindness without being condescending or contemptuous. Then
during a symbolic school trip to an ancient cave with the children,
Helen encounters the second savagely murdered young woman, and the hunt
for a serial killer begins. She is soon torn between the tragedy of the
crime and her loyalties, while the ordeal crumbles her usual sense of
well being and self sufficiency.
The movie then cascades into an
avalanche of heart stopping events as Helen is forced to face the
terrible truth and deal with the consequences.
While the beginning of the movie
teases the viewer slowly with the contrasting scenes and moods, the end
of the movies races towards the end in a finale that leaves as many
questions as it gives answers. The questions are open ended though, and
while there is closure on the events of the movie, the nature of the
feelings and state of mind that the characters had, as well as ended up
with, is left in a way that allows the viewer to determine their own
conclusion.
In one of the most compelling shots
of the movie, you see Helen, in a stunned and dazed state, watching the
elevator signal as the elevator rises, and it is amazingly clear that
the flashing of the signal represents the current events and the
resulting answer she is waiting for.
This is just one of the ways the
film, while seemingly rife with obvious foreshadowing early on, ends up
feeling like it was instead pointedly subtle from the beginning.
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