Film Review
The transference of guilt is a well-known psychological phenomenon
which features heavily in the work of Alfred Hitchcock. It is
also the main unifying theme in a remarkable series of films that
director Claude Chabrol made in the late 1960s, arguably as a homage to
the great master of suspense.
La
Femme infidèle (1969),
Que
la bête meure (1969) and
Le Boucher (1970) form a loose
trilogy, each film revolving around the notion of shared guilt for a
murder. In each case, the identity of the killer is initially
apparent but becomes blurred when another party assumes responsibility
for the crime.
Le Boucher
is the most interesting of the three films and is arguably Chabrol's
nearest approximation to Hitchcock, both in its subject matter and
quality.
Whilst
Le Boucher is best
remembered for its chilling psycho-thriller denouement, it is actually
a far more complex and disturbing piece than this would suggest.
Beneath the deceptive simplicity of the conventional thriller narrative
there lies a profound and deeply unsettling study in the perversity of
human nature. From the outset, we know who the murderer is,
but Chabrol is so effective in getting us to align our sympathies with
the heroine that this certainty becomes lost in a haze of ambiguity. As
a consequence of her inability to commit herself to the man she is
drawn to, Hélène assumes his burden of guilt. If
only she had loved Popaul, if only she had managed to get him to open
up to her, a gruesome tragedy might have been averted. By taking the
blame for failing to tame the savage, Hélène makes
herself complicit in his crimes. She becomes the butcher.
The film's twisted irony is magnificently underscored by the arresting
and carefully nuanced performances of the two lead actors,
Stéphane Audran and Jean Yanne. The tough self-reliance of
Audran's portrayal of Hélène is perfectly complemented by
Yanne's apparent puppy-like vulnerability, so even from their first
scene their mutual dependency is established. The ever virtuous
schoolteacher, Hélène sees Popaul not as a future lover
but as someone she must take under her wing. The film begins as
it should have ended, amidst the joyful celebrations of a wedding
feast. When we first see them, we might easily mistake
Hélène and Popaul as the newly married couple. Yet
these first impressions are misleading and we soon realise that there
is a side to both characters which will prevent them from finding
shared happiness. They have both seen Hell and, unable to move
on from a traumatic past, to Hell they are bound to return.
As Pierre Jansen's discordant music intimates, there are dark forces at
work in the background, forces which make it impossible for
Hélène and Popaul to go beyond mere friendship and which
cause thwarted desire to seek relief through other forms of carnal
indulgence. Even when there can be no doubt as to the identity of
the serial killer, Hélène still deludes herself into
believing that Popaul is innocent. How could such an amiable soul
who keeps offering her parcels of meat as presents possibly be the
fiend who goes around slicing up young women? Even when the
last veil has fallen and the killer stands before her, knife in hand,
Hélène still cannot acknowledge his guilt. It
is not fear of a brutal death that takes her over in these harrowing
moments of realisation, but an awareness that she herself is the
killer. Her frantic efforts to save Popaul in the film's
nervewracking conclusion are as pathetic and they are tragic. By
the time she is ready to surrender her love to him, it is too
late. The climax passes in a catharsis of blood-soaked horror, and
as her lover's guilt floods through her veins Hélène
appears almost gratified. The butcher has done his work.
© James Travers 2011
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Next Claude Chabrol film:
Les Novices (1970)
Film Synopsis
After serving in both the Indochina and Algerian wars, Paul Thomas returns
to his home village in a provincial backwater of France and takes over his
father's butcher's shop. He soon becomes a respected member of the
community and no one has the slightest inkling of the agonies he suffered
during the war and which continue to haunt him. At the wedding of a
teacher, Marie-Jeanne, Paul makes the acquaintance of Hélène,
the likeable but aloof headmistress of the local school. The two soon
become good friends but Hélène makes it clear she is not interested
in starting a relationship as she still hasn't recovered from her last love
affair, which ended badly ten years ago. Like Paul, it seems that Hélène
is unable to put the past behind her.
The peace of this seemingly idyllic community is suddenly torn asunder when
the mutilated body of a young girl is found in the woods. The shock
of this atrocity has barely sunk in before Hélène stumbles
across another dead body during a school outing. This time the unfortunate
victim is her colleague, the young woman who only recently got married.
Beside the savagely carved up corpse Hélène is surprised to
find a lighter - the exact same lighter that she gave to the butcher Paul
as a birthday present. She keeps this discovery to herself as the police
proceed with their investigation.
Whilst he is busy painting Hélène's living room, Paul is taken
by surprise when he chances upon the lighter she gave him in a drawer.
On finding that the lighter has been taken from the drawer, Hélène
begins to fear for her safety. Seized by panic, she hastily locks all
the windows and doors to the school building, just before Paul turns up under
the cover of darkness and begs to be admitted so that he can explain himself.
The butcher finds a way into the building and confronts Hélène,
a knife gripped tightly in his hands. The terrified woman is sure she
will be the butcher's next victim...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.