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LE BOUCHER

Comedy - Development 2023

In a quaint southern French village during the late 1950s, the arrival of the charming new butcher empowers the slighted wives of the men of the local pétanque team with the women ending up getting far more than exquisite cuts of meat from the enlightened shopkeeper.

- Year of production
- 2023
- Genres
- Comedy, Drama
- Countries
- FRANCE
- Languages
- ENGLISH-UNITED STATES
- Duration
- 120 mn
- Synopsis
- Le Boucher is based on a true story. In late 1959, Cheval-Blanc was no different than any other small French village. In some senses, time moved forward as villages re-built following World War II. But when it came to husband and wife, time stood still, mirroring the world at large.
  
  The catalyst for change in Cheval-Blanc, propelling it into the next decade in both time and thought, occurs when the village’s all-important butcher dies. Sure, HENRI FARON, the absent-minded, laconic town constable, had heard the rumors that the old butcher rigged his scale, but the old butcher was a known quantity and provided the time for the late middle-aged men of the village to engage in their favorite pastimes – pétanque and drinking. Indeed, the members of Cheval-Blanc’s championship pétanque team – Henri, the town mailman THIERRY BOYER (with an affinity for his dog over his wife), ALFRED GROSSO (the droll bar owner) and the ever dour, suspicious vineyard owner BRUNO MANGUIN – consider pétanque such a priority that they overlook the work ethic of their town’s part-time town mayor, ego-inflated war hero, and team captain, RÉMY GOURIAN. Now though, given their collective inability to hunt, meat would be scarce in no time without a butcher.
  
  Enter the young, handsome, sexy, and enlightened butcher MICHEL DAUDET, who arrives to fill all of Cheval-Blanc’s needs. Michel's appearance causes quite a stir among the women of the village, particularly the married women, including Bruno’s heavy drinking, younger wife per a quasi-arranged marriage, GIGI, Alfred’s wife and the brains behind his bar, THÉRÈSE, Rémy’s wealthy wife, EDITH, Thierry’s practical and tightly wound wife, MARTHE, and Henri’s wife, the always inquisitive SOPHIE. Within no time, Michel begins delivering his prime cuts of meat to the married women of the village.
  
  Suddenly, this little sleepy village isn’t so anemic anymore. Surprisingly, with this rampant infidelity, the marriages actually begin to improve as the women rediscover themselves – renew themselves – as they become alive and find meaning beyond merely being wives. Meanwhile, Michel cannot deny these inspired women, and the multiple affairs and duties as the butcher gradually take their toll. But this charming, understanding and nurturing man feels damned no matter which path he takes, in part, because of his hidden past, a past that is always one step away from catching up with him.
  
  As for the husbands, they know nothing except they’re happy. They’re happy at the bar, happy at the dinner table, and happy with Michel (who, aside from now being their extraordinary butcher, they recruit to play pétanque after Bruno is injured). They have it good … perhaps, too good? Indeed, soon enough, the source of this well-being is revealed prompting the men to begrudgingly reach the conclusion that a man’s got to do what a man’s got to do. But now who will be the one to do it? Who will slay the butcher?