Chabrol's triumph and also Stephane Audran's finest performance;only "le festin de Babette" will give her a part as strong as this one.She plays a luminous radiant beaming schoolteacher ,teaching her pupils spelling with a little help from Honore de Balzac and dance with "le menuet du Bourgeois Gentilhomme",a Molière-Lully collaboration.She epitomizes honesty,loyalty,innocence and devotion to her work.In direct contrast to her,we have Popaul,the butcher,masterfully played by Jean Yanne (He's never been as good as with Chabrol:please,please,do see "que la bête meure" (The beast must die)):He's obviously in love with Hélène /Audran but he realizes the gap between them.He's a crude uneducated brute,but his clumsiness is so touching you side with him.But we know from the start that won't be a happy story:the first scene,dealing with Cro-Magnon in dark caves heralds a story of blood and bestiality.Popaul is Cro-Magnon ,but he's also a victim of the war they waged with his blood.Chabrol 's camera insists on the war memorial,this inhuman piece of stone surrounded by four shells.LOOKS are more important than words between Popaul and Hélène,and as she begins to comprehend the horror of the situation,we know ,that in spite of what Popaul has done,she feels for him.Chabrol excels in depicting a small village ,French critics often compare him to an entomologist."Le boucher" remains his finest work to date.