The late Claude Chabrol was the most prolific filmmaker to emerge from the French New Wave of the late 1950s. He was also the first of that group of critics-turned-directors to make a feature (1958’s Le Beau Serge), and entered a golden period during the late 1960s and early 1970s when he produced a string of masterpieces. The most celebrated of all his films, The Butcher is a magnificent thriller that is also a tragic love story. Set in an attractive French village where the local butcher (Jean Yanne), a war veteran and tortured soul, shyly courts the beautiful yet sexually repressed schoolmistress (Stephane Audran), it is both a celebration of civilised values and a subtle expose of the menace lurking beneath the calm façade. There’s a series of brutal killings and tension mounts as the teacher suspects the butcher she is drawn to may be responsible for the crimes. – Peter Walsh

Peter Walsh will introduce the screening.