"The Strangler" presents an unconventional murder narrative

French director Paul Vecchiali had a long career as producer, writer, and director of shorts and feature length films for cinema and television. Passing at ninety-two this past January, his 1970 “The Strangler” epitomizes his unconventional approach. In fact, no mystery surrounds the killer Émile, Inspector Simon Dangret tracking him, or Anna, who volunteers to be the next victim.

Involved in the cat-and-mouse events, a robber follows Émile to steal dead women’s valuables, angering Émile who repeatedly protests that he’s not a thief. If this isn’t sufficiently unusual, Émile has convinced himself that all his victims long for release from their lonely, depressed lives. Indeed, as visualized, this often looks accurate, as they calmly surrender to Émile winding his white knit scarf around their necks. Émile then returns to his apartment to bestow affection on his German Shepherd.

As a vegetable seller in a busy market, slightly baby-faced, Émile does not resemble the stereotypical villain. In fact, he isn’t presented as such here, especially in the calm performance of Jacques Perrin who played Prince Charming in French director Jacques Demy’s “Donkey Skin.” Is he projecting his own self-loathing? More enigmatic, opening titles read, “O, night, conceal my pain caused by being nothing and being alive.” In a bizarre musical number in a crowded cafe, a lonely woman sings, “I’ll make myself a sailor for you.” Also interjected at critical moments, the camera races down a deserted, lighted street with overhanging trees, across a nighttime cityscape, around empty street corners, perhaps metaphorically expressing an irresistible emotional rush. But the first killer isn’t Émile, and, therefore, how many are there?

In a film concerned with the psychological and emotional nature of the killer as well as his community, sensationalized newspaper coverage and a television interview offer critical social commentary. Relatively unknown here, writer/director Vecchiali offers a captivating, disturbing entry in the serial-killer/police procedural genre, one that illuminates those less complex, less intriguing typical entries contrasted with his study. In French with English subtitles, the excellent 2K restoration of “The Strangler” screens at Webster University’s Winifred Moore auditorium Thursday, December 14, and Tuesday, December 19, at 7:00 each of those evenings. For more information, you may visit the film series website.