1. Seul Contre Tous (1998)
The Butcher is a very bitter man. Abused by priests in his childhood. Left alone to raise his autistic daughter for whom he has incestuous feelings. Upon his daughter's first menstruation, he thinks that she has been raped and stabs an innocent man. His horse meat butcher shop is sold to Muslims. After being in prison, he is released and is living with his common law wife and her bitch of a mother. His lover is an obese pub land lady whom he has impregnated. Unable to stop the woman's continual nagging, he launches a brutal attack on her and the unborn baby. He flees with a pistol and heads to Paris, his old stomping ground where he rings up all his old contacts but cannot get a job. After raging against the world for some time, the Butcher shoots an abattoir manager, gets his daughter and there is a disturbing, extended sequence in which he contemplates raping her, and shooting himself. We are left with the Butcher fondling his daughter and saying that the world doesn't understand their love as it is too pure. In the movie, the narrative is driven by the Butcher's hate filled interior monologues about death, love, violence and many other topics. His is a fairly repugnant world view which will shock and appal casual viewers. Despite Gaspar Noe's directorial quirks - for example the use of title cards, the film has a strong air of realism about it. It is highly confrontational and provocative about such matters as incest, domestic violence, poverty and murder. The Butcher may be a despicable person, but he is also a victim of circumstance which forces him to do such dreadful deeds. The man is a rage filled powerhouse - deadly because of his seething anger. Noe takes that anger and builds the film around it - creating a pustular, misanthropic masterpiece.