| Wedding in Blood | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Claude Chabrol |
| Written by | Claude Chabrol |
| Produced by | André Génovès |
| Starring | Stéphane Audran Michel Piccoli |
| Cinematography | Jean Rabier |
| Edited by | Jacques Gaillard Monique Gaillard |
| Music by | Pierre Jansen |
Release date |
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Running time | 95 minutes |
| Country | France |
| Language | French |
Wedding in Blood (French: Les Noces rouges), also known as Red Wedding in the UK,[2] is a 1973 French crime drama film written and directed by Claude Chabrol.[1]
In a small French town, the deputy mayor Pierre is having an affair with Lucienne, the mayor's wife. So that they can be together more often, Pierre poisons his sickly wife without anybody suspecting, and Lucienne starts visiting his house at night. Her husband Paul, aware of the goings-on, blackmails Pierre into supporting a dubious land deal. To escape this, the two lovers decide to get rid of Paul. Pierre kills Paul on a lonely road and sets fire to his car, making his death appear as an accident, while Lucienne pretends that she was hurled out of the car before it caught fire. Under orders from Paris, the police treat the incident as a traffic accident. Hélène, Lucienne's teenage daughter from a previous relationship, asks for a follow-up investigation to clear her mother of any suspicion. The new investigation uncovers the crime, and Paul and Lucienne do not deny their deeds when arrested. Asked by the police inspector why they hadn't left to live somewhere else, they reply that they had never thought of that.
Wedding in Blood was entered into the 23rd Berlin International Film Festival.[3]
Wedding in Blood was filmed in the commune of Valençay.[1] The story is based on a real event in the commune of Bourganeuf in 1970.[4] René Balaire, a heating engineer, was found burned to death in his car, from which his wife Yvette had escaped unharmed. The police investigation found that he had died from a revolver bullet fired by her lover Bernard Cousty, who had previously killed his own wife.
