| 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 |
| Distributed by | Cinema International Corporation |
Release date |
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Running time | 95 minutes |
| Country | France |
| Language | French |
Wedding in Blood (French:Les Noces rouges), also known asRed Wedding in the UK,[1] is a 1973 Frenchcrime drama film written and directed byClaude Chabrol.[2]
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 filmed in thecommune ofValençay.[2] The story is based on a real event in the commune ofBourganeuf in 1970.[3]
Wedding in Blood was released on April 12, 1973 in France.[2] It was entered into the23rd Berlin International Film Festival.[4][better source needed]
Paris-based Tamasa Distribution is set to release "Première Vague" a collection of blu-ray discs of seven early films by Chabrol. The box set is set for release in France on November 18, 2025.Variety reported that it would include films that were "long unavailable" to the public, includingWedding in Blood.[5]