I love the sense of uneasiness that permeates throughout this entire film. Even from the opening scene, a wedding - a joyous occasion with people singing and drinking and dancing - you just know some bad shit is about to happen. The "thriller" aspect of this film is irrelevant. Chabrol makes it obvious from the off who the murderer is. What's clever is the way we're asked to think about what made him into a murderer, and what the hell is going on in the head of Audran's character.

86.875

Doesn't seem fully realized, but maybe it's not supposed to be. Many moments to admire (specifically in its finale).

#934

For some reason the film felt rather unremarkable to me all the way through (mind you, I was mildly drunk at the time), but at the end it feels totally sublime.

It doesn't "go full thriller" before the tense end scenes but the rest of the film is carefully crafted. It holds your attention but maybe a bit more mystery about the identity of the perpetrator and a couple of suspenseful scenes earlier on would've supplied the experience which the intro titles seemed to promise. Definitely recommended, though.

Wasn't as blown away by this film, though the storyline and the murder mysteries at some point made me thought I would be so. But there is a wonderful professionalism about a film like this; every single second of film stock seems thought of, which in the end just makes it a pleasure to watch. Stylistically very pure.

It's another strikingly composed moral and psychological inquiry from Chabrol, pronounced almost to the point of his earlier Bad Girls in its compelling portrait of life disrupted by contrasting affection and illness. Headlining again, Stephane Audran provides an almost regal, but still interestingly complex lead, becoming arguably the most enthralling aspect of The Butcher -- an accessible work of suspense and photography.

This rich, ambiguous film uses the structure of a thriller to explore the sources of violence and desire, the consequences of knowledge and surrender. Meaning reveals itself in the subtle, enigmatic performances of Audran and Yanne and the relationship their two characters establish with each other; the thriller-structure--although technically well-executed--is merely the framework for psychological exploration. Great camera work, great music, superb village atmosphere.

Though Chabrol has been called the French Hitchcock, and the film is structured as a whodunnit suspense film, who did it doesn't really matter all that much. Indeed we pretty much know early on who did it, what's more fascinating is the central relationship and how it shifts and changes. Does our leading lady know? Is she attracted to the danger? Yes the final 15 minutes or so feature some stonkingly tense stuff but it is the psychology of the characters that makes this one fascinating.

Dealing with ambivalent, distressed and repressed human emotions, Chabrol insistently let the film's focus lie on the (unsteady) psychological states of his protagonists; stylish, illusive and at the same time interested in the (psychologically) real. Tantalizingly allusive rather than explicative, this is a self-controlled film fascinatingly painting characters with desires for what they can't get and a destructive lack of self-control.

As a suspense film it's decent but not especially remarkable, and while there are some tense moments and good reveals there are also some really clumsy ones. What makes this a good film is the way it ties in its commentary on the dehumanization of war. It's not very subtle but its not in your face about it and all the references are pretty organic. Overall it's a flawed but interesting film.

Decent but not great French New Wave thriller. Hitchcockian, yes, but with about half the suspense.

Nicely harrowing final sequence (especially the view out the windshield).

# 813

853

I don't know what it is, but Chabrol's films so far have fascinated me even if there's not much I could actually say about it. It's fascinating to see it flit between two odd genres with such subtlety. Something about it just sits with me.

893

Someone called this Hitchcockian. Chabrol's visual aesthetic is almost as refined as Hitch's, but most Hitch films were stagy and suffered from contrived, often schmaltzy writing. Apart from great atmosphere and music, The Butcher's strength as a thriller lies in its strength as a drama, its astute realism, its psychological subtlety (compare with Psycho's hit-you-over-the-head diagnoses). The film has few formal "thrills" but is suspenseful primarily because it's convincing.