It’s an ordinary school trip when Hélène guides her class to Cougnac Caves above the Dordogne River. The cave paintings are thirty thousand years old, but lunch is more important for the children. They chatter when Hélène has the children safely settled on the edge of a steep hillside with an overhanging ledge. There is a short-lived moment of enjoyment until fresh blood drips on a youngster’s sandwich. The picnic turns unexpectedly grisly.
When the class is safely settled on the edge of a precipitous hillside with an overhanging ledge, they chatter among themselves. There is a short-lived moment of enjoyment until fresh blood drips on a youngster’s sandwich. Investigation reveals the body of a dead woman on the ledge above them. Hélène also finds a cigarette lighter she had gifted to Popaul, the butcher, whom she was dating. Curiously, Hélène does not inform the police, but she is frightened enough to keep her distance and lock the doors and windows of her house. Eventually, Popaul realizes that Hélène knows he is the murderer. They have a confrontation in her house, where he corners Hélène but does not kill her; instead, he inexplicably stabs himself.
See Claude Chabrol. Le boucher. The screenplay is by Claude Chabrol(1970)
The cast: Stéphane Audran as Hélène; Jean Yanne as Paul Thomas or Popaul, the butcher