Directed by Paul Vecchiali • 1970 • France
Starring Jacques Perrin, Julien Guiomar, Eva Simonet

A singularly strange and haunting French giallo released before directors like Dario Argento and Lucio Fulci brought the subgenre to international prominence, Paul Vecchiali’s THE STRANGLER equally subverts and indulges in the conventions of the style with unexpected beauty and refinement. Émile (Jacques Perrin), a handsome young man tormented by a traumatic childhood memory, targets women he believes are too depressed to go on living. As multiple women fall to Émile’s suffocating white scarf, inspector Simon Dangret, the detective assigned to track down the killer, resorts to seriously unorthodox and even unethical methods to get his man, with the assistance of Anna, a beautiful woman who believes herself to be a potential victim.