One of the greatest movies about manhood

I think everyone above has absolutely nailed it.

My tuppence, for what it's worth:

Helene is attempting to become a modern, progressive woman, but she isn't quite the full package yet. This is illustrated by how she holidays in Paris whilst the Parisians are vacationing in rural villages like hers. She is intelligent and astute but remains in transition.

After a previous poor relationship, in which she got hurt, she's now acutely aware of how she is attracted to dominant, masculine types and how they bring out the submissive in her. So, like a recovering alcoholic avoids the drink, she intends to abstain from relationships with men as she feels they are unhealthy for her. Her schoolchildren will act as surrogate offspring; fulfilling her mothering instinct without the need for procreation, therefore negating the need for a man. Logical perhaps, but most human beings don't really run that well on logic alone...as Popaul and others keep reminding us throughout the film.

Popaul from the outset is constantly trying to impress her with offerings of meat and tales of his army exploits. He is at once embarrassed at how the bloodletting sickens him whilst at the same time proud of his proficiency and ability to overcome his anxiety in order to supposedly provide for and protect his woman. He too, in his own less intellectual way, is trying to become more progressive.

She takes the dominant position in almost every instance when they are together; smoking in the street; preparing the meat whilst he makes a salad; driving them to the cinema &c. He accepts this with good grace, but it bothers him. I think she might buy him the lighter so that he can light his, and maybe sometimes even her, cigarettes. A symbolic gesture perhaps.

Her decision to conceal the evidence in order to protect Popaul is borne part from her attraction to him but also from an intuition that it could be partly her fault. Her tears of relief when she discover's he still has her lighter arise from the guilty realisation that her reasoning was incorrect; he's not a violent man and more importantly she's not attracted to them. Turns out she was wrong, on both accounts.

Apart they would have led lonely lives in which no one got hurt. However, once together their inability to reconcile their respective roles in an uncertain and changing social landscape led to a violent outbreak of cognitive dissonance.

It would appear that whilst Chabrol admits that gender relations needed to progress, his take on the hardline feminist revolution that was in ascendence around 1970 is that it may not have been beneficial for either party. Or at least that it was perhaps not the ideal way for everyone to live. I think he also felt that if it were to have continued along this path, and men were to feel increasingly redundant and emasculated that it may have eventually resulted in increasing levels of violent misogyny.

In some ways he was right; hence, amongst other developments, the more moderate form of post-feminism that exists today and the realisation that men and women do have certain roles to play in relationships but they are in no way fixed.

Evolving above our base instincts is a tricky ol' business.

I'd also like to mention how Chabrol nails a kind of stylistic realism lacking in the somewhat over-composed shots of his contemporaries. The minimal economy (tautology?) deployed in every aspect of this movie belies it's beauty and depth.

Also, I'm assuming that the previous posts in this thread were from people who caught this fine flick on BBC4 the other night in light of Chabrol's recent death. La Femme Infidel was on Film4 last night but I missed it due to being out. I hope they show it again.

When Popaul produced the knife and flicked it open my first thought was of an erect penis. So I would agree there is something sexual ocurring between the two in that moment. After he had turned out the lights no less.

I'm a fountain of blood
In the shape of a girl

Thanks, Toucan Kid. That's what I was going for and I'm glad for all the responses.

"Under strengths... You just put 'Accounts.' That's just your job." ~David Brent, The Office

I frankly thought it was an unusually good IMDb post. Partly I think the quality of responses, generally lacking in the typical simple seething and desire to be profane, show that you made a strong point,