A thriller wafting on the fumes of the French New Wave, Claude Chabrol’s The Butcher takes place in a small French village where the headmistress (Stephane Audran) begins a relationship with the local butcher (Jean Yanne), who has recently returned after years abroad serving in the army. Meanwhile, a murderer begins preying on young women in the area. A long, walking-and-talking single take and the existential nature of the conversations recall the French New Wave, yet Pierre Jansen’s discordant score and increasing hints of violence push The Butcher into Hitchcock territory. If the movie never quite clicks in a psychologically satisfying way, it may help to (spoiler ahead!) see the lead characters in symbolic terms: the butcher standing in for the young men sent off to commit and endure violence in Algeria and Vietnam; the teacher standing in for France itself, unable to admit or take full responsibility for the repercussions of said violence.
(2/10/2026)
