11 – 25 September 2026
At the centre of Claude Chabrol's finest films is a simple proposition: beneath the surface of ordinary life, something has already begun to unravel. Patient, precise and laced with mordant humour, his thrillers reveal the tensions that shape relationships, families and communities with an unsparing clarity.
Presented alongside the BFI's retrospective, this season brings together a defining group of works from one of French cinema's most incisive filmmakers.
At the centre of Claude Chabrol's finest films is a simple proposition: beneath the surface of ordinary life, something has already begun to unravel. Patient, precise and laced with mordant humour, his thrillers reveal the tensions that shape relationships, families and communities with an unsparing clarity.
Presented alongside the BFI's retrospective, this season brings together a defining group of works from one of French cinema's most incisive filmmakers.
Programme
Friday 11 September, 6.30pm
Repeat screening on Tue 15 Sep
Les Biches
Two women fall into a dangerously tangled relationship over a winter in Saint-Tropez, in Chabrol’s seductive riff on Patricia Highsmith.
From 11 September
La Femme infidèle
The first of Chabrol’s great run of bourgeois psychological thrillers follows the fall-out from a husband discovering his wife’s affair.
Saturday 12 September, 4pm
Repeat screening on Thu 17 Sep
The Beast Must Die
A grieving father sets out to murder his son’s killer, only to find the moral ground constantly shifting beneath him.
Saturday 19 September, 2pm
Repeat screening on Tue 22 Sep
Le Boucher
Chabrol’s most celebrated and sinister film sees a tender friendship between a schoolteacher and local butcher darken as a series of murders unsettles life in their village.
Saturday 19 September, 4pm
Repeat screening on Wed 23 Sep
La Rupture
A woman attempting to escape her volatile husband finds herself ensnared in a conspiracy that grows steadily, sickeningly out of control.
Sunday 20 September 1pm
Repeat screening on Thu 24 Sep
Juste avant la nuite
A man is driven mad with guilt after he accidentally kills his mistress, but his wife has good reason for wanting him to remain quiet.
Sunday 20 September, 3.30pm
Repeat screening on Fri 25 Sep
Wedding in Blood
Two married lovers plot to murder their respective spouses in this caustic, briefly-banned portrait of provincial suffocation and the twisted logic of desire.
Friday 11 September, 6.30pm
Repeat screening on Tue 15 Sep
Les Biches
Two women fall into a dangerously tangled relationship over a winter in Saint-Tropez, in Chabrol’s seductive riff on Patricia Highsmith.
From 11 September
La Femme infidèle
The first of Chabrol’s great run of bourgeois psychological thrillers follows the fall-out from a husband discovering his wife’s affair.
Saturday 12 September, 4pm
Repeat screening on Thu 17 Sep
The Beast Must Die
A grieving father sets out to murder his son’s killer, only to find the moral ground constantly shifting beneath him.
Saturday 19 September, 2pm
Repeat screening on Tue 22 Sep
Le Boucher
Chabrol’s most celebrated and sinister film sees a tender friendship between a schoolteacher and local butcher darken as a series of murders unsettles life in their village.
Saturday 19 September, 4pm
Repeat screening on Wed 23 Sep
La Rupture
A woman attempting to escape her volatile husband finds herself ensnared in a conspiracy that grows steadily, sickeningly out of control.
Sunday 20 September 1pm
Repeat screening on Thu 24 Sep
Juste avant la nuite
A man is driven mad with guilt after he accidentally kills his mistress, but his wife has good reason for wanting him to remain quiet.
Sunday 20 September, 3.30pm
Repeat screening on Fri 25 Sep
Wedding in Blood
Two married lovers plot to murder their respective spouses in this caustic, briefly-banned portrait of provincial suffocation and the twisted logic of desire.
