Le Boucher

Le Boucher ('The Butcher') is a 1970 French psychological thriller film written and directed by Claude Chabrol and starring Stéphane Audran and Jean Yanne. Set in the village of Trémolat, it tells the story of butcher Popaul who falls in love with Hélène, the head teacher of the school, while a murder spree is taking place in the area.

Plot

Butcher Popaul and Hélène, the head teacher of the village school, become acquainted at the assistant teacher's wedding. He tells her that he had served in the army for 15 years as a means of getting away from his father, of whom he speaks disdainfully. During the next few weeks, the two repeatedly meet and spend time together, but always on a strictly platonic level. While gathering mushrooms together, Popaul asks Hélène why she is not in a relationship, to which she explains an unhappy love affair years ago that took her months to recover from. In return, Popaul tells her about the awful things he witnessed in Indochina and the Algerian war.

Soon after the news of the murder of a young woman reaches the town, a second victim, the assistant teacher's wife, is discovered by Hélène and her pupils during a school excursion. At the murder site, Hélène finds a conspicuous cigarette lighter that she had given to Popaul as a present. Instead of informing the police, she hides it in a drawer in her home. When she meets Popaul the next time, he lights her cigarette with a lighter that looks exactly like the one she had given him. Relieved, Hélène believes that the lighter she found was not his.