Le Boucher

Le Boucher
(The Butcher)
Claude Chabrol | France, Italy | 1970 | 93m | 15 | In French with English subtitlesA leading member of the French New Wave, who came to be regarded as the 'French Hitchcock', for many years Claude Chabrol's classic thrillers have been missing from UK screens. Chabrols most celebrated and sinister film sees a tender friendship between a schoolteacher and local butcher darken as a series of murders unsettles life in their village.In French with English subtitles.Le Boucher is part of the Power, Corruption and Lies on Screen Season, a themed run of films exploring how power can be misused, how corruption develops, and how truth can be manipulated. Alongside classics like The Big Sleep and All the President's Men the season brings together three of Chabrols most disturbing works, from 1969's La Femme infidle and 1995's La Crmonie (based on Ruth Rendell's novel A Judgement in Stone ), these are thrillers which explore moral, rather than political, corruption and where polite society and dark secrets entwine to murderous effect.