{ "id": "epcktpwxgz", "slug": "le-boucher", "title": "Le Boucher", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": 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"api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery", "label": "Crime, thriller, and mystery films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.1970s-films", "label": "1970s films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.1970s-films" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Le Boucher (The Butcher) is a 1970 French-Italian thriller by Claude Chabrol, starring Stéphane Audran and Jean Yanne, about a Périgord schoolmistress and a butcher-veteran linked to village knife murders.", "snippet": "Le Boucher (The Butcher) is a 1970 French-Italian thriller by Claude Chabrol, starring Stéphane Audran and Jean Yanne, about a Périgord schoolmistress and a butcher-veteran linked to village knife murders.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.1970s-films", "markdown": "# Le Boucher\n\n**Le Boucher** (The Butcher) is a 1970 French-Italian drama-thriller written and directed by Claude Chabrol, starring Stéphane Audran as a village schoolmistress and Jean Yanne as the butcher whose friendship with her coincides with a series of knife murders in rural Périgord.[1](https://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/film/le_Boucher/1457) • [2](https://www.cnc.fr/professionnels/visas-et-classification/36218) It is widely regarded as one of the central works of Chabrol's early-1970s period, and Roger Ebert included it in his Great Movies series.[3](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-le-boucher-the-butcher-2003)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Director and screenwriter | Claude Chabrol (1930–2010), who also wrote the dialogue[1](https://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/film/le_Boucher/1457) |\n| Principal cast | Stéphane Audran (Hélène), Jean Yanne (Popaul), Roger Rudel (the police inspector), Antonio Passalia (Angelo)[1](https://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/film/le_Boucher/1457) • [4](https://www.viennale.at/en/films/boucher) |\n| Country and release | France and Italy; French censor visa dated 18 February 1970, French release 8 February 1970, US release 12 September 1970[2](https://www.cnc.fr/professionnels/visas-et-classification/36218) • [5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/le-boucher) |\n| Running time | 95 minutes per the CNC visa record; other listings give 93 to 100 minutes[2](https://www.cnc.fr/professionnels/visas-et-classification/36218) • [4](https://www.viennale.at/en/films/boucher) |\n| Key crew | Cinematography Jean Rabier, music Pierre Jansen, editing Jacques Gaillard, decor Guy Littaye, producer André Génovès[6](https://www.encyclopedia.com/movies/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/le-boucher) |\n| Setting | The village of Trémolat in the Périgord, southwestern France[7](https://theses.ncl.ac.uk/jspui/bitstream/10443/2744/1/Sharpe%20M.%202014.pdf) |\n| Recognition | Audran won best actress for the role of Hélène at the 18th San Sebastián Festival in 1970[8](https://www.garance-patrimoine.fr/l/9275540) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Plot\n\nAt a wedding banquet in a village in the Périgord, the school headmistress Hélène meets Popaul Thomas, the local butcher, a veteran of the Indochina and Algeria wars who has returned to take over his late father's shop.[9](https://www.cinema-francais.fr/les_films/films_c/films_chabrol_claude/le_boucher.htm) • [10](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm_gen_cfilm%3D4599.html) The two become close friends, though each holds back from love.[9](https://www.cinema-francais.fr/les_films/films_c/films_chabrol_claude/le_boucher.htm)\n\nA young woman from a neighboring village is found stabbed to death, and further murders follow.[9](https://www.cinema-francais.fr/les_films/films_c/films_chabrol_claude/le_boucher.htm) • [5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/le-boucher) Hélène discovers the mutilated body of the bride, Marie-Jeanne, and beside it the cigarette lighter she had given to Popaul; she takes the lighter and says nothing during the police inquiry.[9](https://www.cinema-francais.fr/les_films/films_c/films_chabrol_claude/le_boucher.htm) Popaul, repainting her apartment, finds the lighter by chance and removes it, and Hélène, realizing he knows she knows, barricades the school. He enters with a knife, but instead of attacking her he stabs himself; she carries him to her car, he confesses his love, and he dies at the hospital.[9](https://www.cinema-francais.fr/les_films/films_c/films_chabrol_claude/le_boucher.htm)\n\n## Production and setting\n\nThe film was produced by André Génovès, with whom Chabrol made fourteen films, and was shot in color by Jean Rabier, Chabrol's regular cinematographer, with a score by Pierre Jansen and editing by Jacques Gaillard.[6](https://www.encyclopedia.com/movies/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/le-boucher) • [11](https://www.lemonde.fr/culture/article/2025/07/30/derriere-la-retrospective-claude-chabrol-un-long-combat-juridique_6625540_3246.html) The production companies were Les Films de la Boétie and Euro International Film.[4](https://www.viennale.at/en/films/boucher) Audran was Chabrol's wife at the time, and the film belongs to the run of features with her that includes *Les Biches* (1968) and *La Femme infidèle* (1969).[12](https://www.classicartfilms.com/le-boucher-1970)\n\n**Trémolat and the caves.** Chabrol shot the film in and around the village of Trémolat. In interviews he explained the choice as a way of using the prehistoric caves near the village as a metaphor for the unconscious savage impulses that haunt Popaul.[7](https://theses.ncl.ac.uk/jspui/bitstream/10443/2744/1/Sharpe%20M.%202014.pdf) Both the opening titles and a mid-film scene, in which Hélène shows her pupils Cro-Magnon cave paintings, were filmed inside the Grottes de Cougnac in southwestern France.[13](https://www.the-cinematograph.com/movies/le-boucher/) A scholarly reading of the setting sees the apparently idyllic village, drained of the political and racial tensions of urban France at the end of the colonial era, as a way of emphasizing the horror of Popaul's acts in a space associated with moral purity and the continuity of village life.[7](https://theses.ncl.ac.uk/jspui/bitstream/10443/2744/1/Sharpe%20M.%202014.pdf)\n\n## Style and interpretation\n\nThe Larousse film dictionary calls it, on the strength of its simple plot, restrained acting, and concrete classical style, the most fascinating of Chabrol's films, and reads it as a parable on civilization, nature and culture, body and mind: who is more guilty, the murderer whose lack of culture leaves him unable to master his murderous instinct, or the schoolteacher whose culture prevents her from accepting the love that might have saved him?[1](https://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/film/le_Boucher/1457) The critic Gavin Millar, writing in *Sight and Sound* in 1970/71, noted that the teacher is the one who ultimately turns butcher, and that Popaul's last words, \"Embrassez-moi\" (kiss me), are answered only when it is too late.[14](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/claude%20chabrol%3Cbr%3Eelements%20of%20crime/2026/09/09/boucher/) Vincent Canby described Chabrol as building suspense obliquely, using blood sparingly but with a sense of spectacle, and noted the film's conscious Hitchcockian details.[4](https://www.viennale.at/en/films/boucher) [The New Yorker](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-new-yorker) praised the consistency of tone with which Chabrol treats a wedding scene, a funeral in the rain, schoolchildren in a Cro-Magnon cave, and Rabier's Périgord landscapes on the same level of interest.[15](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1972/02/05/1972-02-05-076-tny-cards-000301983)\n\nThe film is frequently described as Chabrol's most overtly Hitchcockian work, and it closes the thematic circle back to his first feature, *Le Beau Serge* (1958), echoing both that film's detailed provincial landscape and its theme of redemption.[16](https://newwavefilm.com/french-new-wave-encyclopedia/le-boucher.shtml) • [17](https://www.timeout.com/movies/le-boucher-1) Chabrol's habit of staging key revelations around meals runs through the film, from the wedding banquet where the butcher carves beef served \"bleu\" to the scene in which Hélène eats cherries compulsively while suspecting him of murder.[14](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/claude%20chabrol%3Cbr%3Eelements%20of%20crime/2026/09/09/boucher/)\n\n## Reception and afterlife\n\nOn Rotten Tomatoes the film holds a 100% Tomatometer from 8 critics, with an average of rated reviews of 8.50/10, and an 84% audience score from more than 1,000 ratings; Ebert gave it four stars and added it to his Great Movies list.[5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/le-boucher) • [3](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-le-boucher-the-butcher-2003) AlloCiné users rate it 3.8 out of 5 from about 1,400 notes.[10](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm_gen_cfilm%3D4599.html)\n\n**Rights and restoration.** The exploitation rights to the Génovès-produced Chabrol films were bought at auction in 1980 by the distributor Pierre-Richard Muller. A 2016 premiere of a restored version of *Le Boucher* drew a public protest from Stéphane Audran, who called the restoration \"ni faite ni à faire\" (neither done nor to be done) in a letter to the Cinémathèque française programmer Jean-François Rauger. After a court ordered the rights transferred to a judicial administrator in 2023, the distributor Tamasa took over management of the films and launched a retrospective including *Le Boucher* in July 2025, with a re-release in French theaters on 9 July 2025.[11](https://www.lemonde.fr/culture/article/2025/07/30/derriere-la-retrospective-claude-chabrol-un-long-combat-juridique_6625540_3246.html) • [10](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm_gen_cfilm%3D4599.html)\n\n## References\n\n1. [le Boucher, Larousse, Dictionnaire mondial des films](https://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/film/le_Boucher/1457)\n2. [LE BOUCHER, fiche oeuvre, CNC, Visa n° 36218](https://www.cnc.fr/professionnels/visas-et-classification/36218)\n3. [Le Boucher / The Butcher movie review, RogerEbert.com](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-le-boucher-the-butcher-2003)\n4. [LE BOUCHER, Viennale festival page](https://www.viennale.at/en/films/boucher)\n5. [The Butcher (1970), Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/le-boucher)\n6. [Le Boucher, Encyclopedia.com](https://www.encyclopedia.com/movies/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/le-boucher)\n7. [Sharpe, M. (2014), PhD thesis, Newcastle University](https://theses.ncl.ac.uk/jspui/bitstream/10443/2744/1/Sharpe%20M.%202014.pdf)\n8. [Le Boucher, Garance (patrimoine cinématographique)](https://www.garance-patrimoine.fr/l/9275540)\n9. [LE BOUCHER, Cinéma-Français film file](https://www.cinema-francais.fr/les_films/films_c/films_chabrol_claude/le_boucher.htm)\n10. [Le Boucher, Film 1970, AlloCiné](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm_gen_cfilm%3D4599.html)\n11. [Derrière la rétrospective Claude Chabrol, un long combat juridique, Le Monde, 30 July 2025](https://www.lemonde.fr/culture/article/2025/07/30/derriere-la-retrospective-claude-chabrol-un-long-combat-juridique_6625540_3246.html)\n12. [Le Boucher (The Butcher), New Wave Film Encyclopedia](https://www.classicartfilms.com/le-boucher-1970)\n13. [Le boucher, The Cinematograph](https://www.the-cinematograph.com/movies/le-boucher/)\n14. [Le Boucher, BFI Southbank programme notes (Gavin Millar, Sight and Sound, Winter 1970/1)](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/claude%20chabrol%3Cbr%3Eelements%20of%20crime/2026/09/09/boucher/)\n15. [Killers and Thieves, The New Yorker, 5 February 1972](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1972/02/05/1972-02-05-076-tny-cards-000301983)\n16. [Le Boucher (The Butcher), New Wave Film Encyclopedia](https://newwavefilm.com/french-new-wave-encyclopedia/le-boucher.shtml)\n17. [Le Boucher film review, Time Out](https://www.timeout.com/movies/le-boucher-1)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Crime, thriller, and mystery films (individual works) › 1970s films*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/le-boucher", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/le-boucher.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Le Boucher\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/le-boucher. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Le Boucher](https://www.edgepedia.org/le-boucher)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/le-boucher](https://www.edgepedia.org/le-boucher). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Le Boucher\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/le-boucher. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Le Boucher is a 1970 French-Italian thriller by Claude Chabrol, starring Stéphane Audran and Jean Yanne, about a Périgord schoolmistress and a butcher-veteran linked to village knife murders." }