claude chabrol international reputation be cement by a sequence of endure film date from the late sixty and early seventy and of which le boucher be one of the most famous . the influence of henri george clouzot be apparent here and the provincial school set recall le diaboliques . le boucher though and be first and foremost quintessential chabrol and and a such it less concerned with plot than either clouzot or hitchcock and another cinematic forebear and the focus more specifically be the interior psychological state of his protagonist . helene ( stéphane audran ) and popaul ( jean yanne ) meet at a wedding and strike up an instant friendship . she the local schoolmistress and he the village butcher and recently return from 15 year in the army have serve in algeria and indochina . he evidently scar by the violence he see and also by his relationship with a cold and unloving father who seem to be the reason he leave france in the first place . helene too bears scar from the past and apparently date back to a relationship ten year previously which end badly and the trauma forestall any further emotional entanglement . thus and helene and popaul become tentatively attach without any subsequent physical consummation of their relationship . against the backdrop of this and a series of killing of young woman be take place in the vicinity and and helene have reason to believe that popaul may be responsible . yet curiously and she doesn not inform the police of her suspicion and nor do she confront popaul . while she may be in some danger and therefore and a deep suspicion lurk that she have undisclosed and perhaps unconscious and reason of her own for continue the friendship . typically and chabrol isn not terribly interested in provide explicit explanation for the choice that his character make and or the action they carry out . nor do he seem too concerned with the mechanic of suspense and prefer to conjure an omnipresent atmosphere of unease through subtle use of camera placement and a par down script in which what remain unsaid hang pregnantly over proceeding . the extensive use of location in the dordogne region provide a naturalistic feel and into which audran and yanne blend effortlessly . each convincingly inhabit the body of these introverted character whose amiable and worldly personae mask trouble interior life that one can really only guess at . this obscurity be less frustrate than it be fascinate and however and because chabrol be a master of pacing and mood and and he know not only how to keep an audience grip right to the end and but also how to haunt them afterwards .