A tragic beauty and the beast love story set in a French village with a schoolmistress, a loner, finding herself drawn to an ex-army butcher she suspects of being a child-murderer. This ‘human beast’ is viewed with sympathy - he is deeply aware of the destructiveness within him. Helene is unable to give Popaul the love that he requires if the beast is to be cured. The controlled grace and fluency of Chabrol’s mise-en-scene concentrates everything on the relationship set in an autumnal provincial atmosphere. Cast includes Stephane Audran, Jean Yanne and Antonio Passalia. In French with English subtitles.
Content notification
Our collection comprises over 40,000 moving image works, acquired and catalogued between the 1940s and early 2000s. As a result, some items may reflect outdated, offensive and possibly harmful views and opinions. ACMI is working to identify and redress such usages.
Learn more about our collection and our collection policy here. If you come across harmful content on our website that you would like to report, let us know.
How to watch
Collection
In ACMI's collection
Credits
Collection metadata
ACMI Identifier
315658
Language
French
Audience classification
MA
Subject categories
Advertising, Film, Journalism, Mass Media & TV → Foreign language films
Courtroom, Crime, Espionage & Thrillers
Courtroom, Crime, Espionage & Thrillers → Thrillers
Crime, Espionage, Justice, Police & Prisons → Serial murderers
Sound/audio
Sound
Colour
Colour
Holdings
VHS; Access Print (Section 1)