The Strangler

media release: UK | 1970 | DCP | 96 min. | French with English subtitles

Director: Paul Vecchiali

Cast: Jacques Perrin, Julien Guiomar, Eva Simonet

Perrin stars as Émile, a handsome and disturbed young man targeting women he believes are too depressed to go on living. As multiple women fall to Émile’s suffocating white scarf, a police inspector (Guiomar) resorts to dangerous and unethical methods to track down the killer with the assistance of Anna (Simonet), who believes herself to be a potential victim. Filmmaker Vecchiali’s strange, hypnotic, and wildly stylish tale of murder was mostly unknown in the U.S. until this restored version screened to rapturously enthusiastic audiences at the 2023 New York Film Festival and Fantastic Fest.

Admission free for all screenings, seating limited. No admission 15 minutes after scheduled start times. Please visit our website for a complete listing of programs and descriptions.

NEW FRENCH RESTORATIONS: Beginning with the Lumieres and the origins of motion pictures more than 130 years ago, France has remained one of the world’s leading contributors to the art of cinema. From January through April, the Cinematheque will present six French feature films, all shown in new digital restorations, that cover nearly sixty years of French cinema history, from the 1930s to the 1990s. The lineup begins with a weird and fascinating psychological thriller unknown to most American audiences, Paul Vecchiali’s The Strangler. Plus, Manon, an Henri-Georges Clouzot masterpiece made before the director’s The Wages of Fear and Diabolique; Jeunet and Caro’s cult classic, Delicatessen; Godard’s futuristic mind-melter Alphaville; and Lady Killer & The Strange Mr. Victor, two late 1930s gems by the great Jean Grémillon, subject of a 2015 Cinematheque series.