Rating: 
Summary: "BEAST DE JOUR"
Review: A Poetic study of lonely people [the schoolteacher and the village butcher] recognizing each other's needs, and dealing with darker impulses along their way ...... with an almost pedantic and analytical lens, M. Chabrol guides you through this maze with deliberate intent.Deliberately paced and quite terrifying it is well worthwhile. The utter bleakness and isolation of the characters communicates directly to you. You are also clearly reminded of primitive urges briefly veneered by "current society", all too willing to ermerge, when an opportunity presents itself, and conditions apply..........! You are left with a chilly vision of "what lies beneath" Country airs, without being unnecessarily graphic. Unsettling "chemistry" between Jean Yanne and Stephanie Audren. SHE is especially terrifying during the final moments of the movie. Disturbing/Contemporary.
Rating: 
Summary: A poor version of a great movie
Review: According to the packaging this DVD is meant to be letter-boxed (enhanced for 16X9 televisions). Yes and no. On my up-scale DVD player the DVD projects in full-screen mode. Like most DVD players in the U.S. there is no X-Y feature to correct this. My odd ball brand region-free DVD player does, however, play the DVD in letterbox (though it needed quite a lot of correcting using the X-Y feature). Go figure. Since the film is a wide aspect ratio (the packaging doesn't state the ratio but I'm guessing somewhere around 2.7:1) it is very important that it be viewed letterbox. The DVD has an audio commentary delivered by a couple film school teachers who spend a little too much time entertaining each other, though I've heard much worse commentaries on much more expensive DVDs. The only other special feature is a trailer. Obviously I'm rating the DVD high on the basis of the film alone. Le Boucher is a great film. Chabrol's films frequently have a plot arch that is virtually flat. Everybody compares Chabrol to Hitchcock, and there are certainly plenty of visual references to Hitchcock, but Hitchcock would never tell stories this way, without melodrama, about people this irredeemably emotionally blunted. (IMDB has some reviews of this film that miss the point that the teach Helene is every bit as evil as the butcher.) Not every Chabrol film works for me every viewing but I've never been able to turn away when watching this film.
Rating:
Summary: DVD info
Review: According to the packaging this DVD is meant to be letter-boxed (enhanced for 16X9 televisions). Yes and no. On my up-scale DVD player the DVD projects in full-screen mode. Like most DVD players in the U.S. there is no X-Y feature to correct this. My odd ball brand region-free DVD player does, however, play the DVD in letterbox (though it needed quite a lot of correcting using the X-Y feature). Go figure. Since the film is a wide aspect ratio (the packaging doesn't state the ratio but I'm guessing somewhere around 2.7:1) it is very important that it be viewed letterbox. The DVD has an audio commentary delivered by a couple film school teachers who spend a little too much time entertaining each other, though I've heard much worse commentaries on much more expensive DVDs. The only other special feature is a trailer. Obviously I'm rating the DVD high on the basis of the film alone. Le Boucher is a great film. Chabrol's films frequently have a plot arch that is virtually flat. Everybody compares Chabrol to Hitchcock, and there are certainly plenty of visual references to Hitchcock, but Hitchcock would never tell stories this way, without melodrama, about people this irredeemably emotionally blunted. (IMDB has some reviews of this film that miss the point that the teach Helene is every bit as evil as the butcher.) Not every Chabrol film works for me every viewing but I've never been able to turn away when watching this film.
Rating:
Summary: A poor version of a great movie
Review: As an earlier reviewer has observed this film needs to be seen letterboxed. Despite saying 'letterboxed' on the DVD box, this version (from Patherfinder Home Entertainment) could not be viewed by my standard DVD player in letterbox form.
Rating:
Summary: "BEAST DE JOUR"
Review: I remember after watching this film for the first time last year and the first thoughts that came to my head was, "how ironic." Sounds simple, yet when you watch "Le Boucher" the simple dramatic device of irony is used to such a disturbing force, that it really transcends anything that has been done with the suspense genre. "Le Boucher" is a simple, yet complex story of the relationship between a school teacher, played by Chabrol's wife, Stephane Aubran, and a meat butcher, Jean Yanne, which explores one of the most universal themes: "how do two people express their love for one another when it remains unclear, indifferent." This theme doesn't entirely carry the film, but when it takes it effect, it does so, surprisingly, with an intense emotional impact. The film is also a disturbing suspense film in which the simple, banal circumstance often becomes a vicissitude of the psychosomatic. This is where the device of irony is used to a riveting degree, where each character faced with each of their particular incongruity are forced with utter compassion to reveal their essential, emotional feelings for one another. The result: a complete expression of love, tragedy, loneliness, and a disturbing psychological masterpiece. And of course, one of the most brilliant use of the "macguffin" ever. Who would've known lighting a cigarette can be so suspenseful.
Rating:
Summary: a challenging suspense film
Review: I remember after watching this film for the first time last year and the first thoughts that came to my head was, "how ironic." Sounds simple, yet when you watch "Le Boucher" the simple dramatic device of irony is used to such a disturbing force, that it really transcends anything that has been done with the suspense genre. "Le Boucher" is a simple, yet complex story of the relationship between a school teacher, played by Chabrol's wife, Stephane Aubran, and a meat butcher, Jean Yanne, which explores one of the most universal themes: "how do two people express their love for one another when it remains unclear, indifferent." This theme doesn't entirely carry the film, but when it takes it effect, it does so, surprisingly, with an intense emotional impact. The film is also a disturbing suspense film in which the simple, banal circumstance often becomes a vicissitude of the psychosomatic. This is where the device of irony is used to a riveting degree, where each character faced with each of their particular incongruity are forced with utter compassion to reveal their essential, emotional feelings for one another. The result: a complete expression of love, tragedy, loneliness, and a disturbing psychological masterpiece. And of course, one of the most brilliant use of the "macguffin" ever. Who would've known lighting a cigarette can be so suspenseful.
Rating:
Summary: ...a passionate story in the backdrop of murder...
Review: Le Boucher is a passionate story about the French countryside butcher, Popaul (Jean Yanne) falling in love with the town's head teacher, Helene (Stéphane Audran), which is set in a backdrop of a series of grisly murders. Helene is hesitant on entrusting Popaul, as she has been burnt before in a previous relationship, but Popaul remains devoted on pursuing Helene's trust and affection. Slowly, Helene opens up to Popaul's devotion to find herself in a troubling situation. La Boucher is slow paced and this is done through tedious effects that provide a strong idea of Popaul's determination to gain Helene's affection. This leaves the viewer with an outstanding cinematic experience that offers much thought of the psychology behind the ending.
Rating:
Summary: ...a passionate story in the backdrop of murder...
Review: Le Boucher is a passionate story about the French countryside butcher, Popaul (Jean Yanne) falling in love with the town's head teacher, Helene (Stéphane Audran), which is set in a backdrop of a series of grisly murders. Helene is hesitant on entrusting Popaul, as she has been burnt before in a previous relationship, but Popaul remains devoted on pursuing Helene's trust and affection. Slowly, Helene opens up to Popaul's devotion to find herself in a troubling situation. La Boucher is slow paced and this is done through tedious effects that provide a strong idea of Popaul's determination to gain Helene's affection. This leaves the viewer with an outstanding cinematic experience that offers much thought of the psychology behind the ending.
Rating:
Summary: a great french film, far from Hollywood
Review: Le Boucher is a smartly paced, ethereal film- eerie and suspensful, but also very tender and insightful. A stark realism permeates the work, which intensifies the suspense, the longing and the ending- once again not within the confines of typical Hollywood storytelling. The film is set in the Dorgdogne, in the southwest of France- very much a less modern, traditional, savage France circa 1969. There is an undercurrent thematic struggle present throughout, between the savage and the civilized, between instinct and intelligence. It is a work of fine artistry and understatement.
Rating:
Summary: a great french film, far from Hollywood
Review: Le Boucher is a smartly paced, ethereal film- eerie and suspensful, but also very tender and insightful. A stark realism permeates the work, which intensifies the suspense, the longing and the ending- once again not within the confines of typical Hollywood storytelling. The film is set in the Dorgdogne, in the southwest of France- very much a less modern, traditional, savage France circa 1969. There is an undercurrent thematic struggle present throughout, between the savage and the civilized, between instinct and intelligence. It is a work of fine artistry and understatement.
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