English title: The Butcher
In a small town, a butcher meets a schoolteacher (and headmistress) and they start a friendship. Concurrently to that, a series of grisly murders of women terrorize the town, and the police doesn't have a clue as to who is committing them.
I can't say I find all, or even most, of this film's plot and characters very plausible, but somehow it manages to engage the viewer's attention and even produce an emotional response to it. The film might appear to some to be primarily concerned about the titular character, but is it really? It is left for the viewer to decide (or not) about some more obscure aspects of his psyche, e.g., what role, if any, his war experience had in his present psychological affliction. I think, however, that the moral point of the film is made through the character of Hélène, the schoolteacher. Her ordeal is ironic: she had been scarred by a first relationship in which she was abandoned, and got wary of men subsequently. Hers is a dead end, though: even if she comes to be loved, she will not feel loved, because she lost her faith in men. Unless, of course, the man proves it to her, but then she will learn that one cannot eat one's cake and have it too.
Rating: 60
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