Wedding in Blood

Wedding in Blood (French: Les Noces rouges), also known as Red Wedding in the UK,^[1] is a 1973 French crime drama film written and directed by Claude Chabrol.^[2]

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	12 April 1973 (1973-04-12) (France)
Running time	95 minutes
Country	France
Language	French

Plot

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.

Cast

• Stéphane Audran as Lucienne Delamare
• Michel Piccoli as Pierre Maury
• Claude Piéplu as Paul Delamare
• Clotilde Joano as Clotilde Maury
• Eliana De Santis as Hélène Chevalier, Lucienne's daughter
• François Robert as Auriol
• Daniel Lecourtois as prefect

Background

Wedding in Blood was filmed in the commune of Valençay.^[2] The story is based on a real event in the commune of Bourganeuf in 1970.^[3]

Release

Wedding in Blood was released on April 12, 1973 in France.^[2] It was entered into the 23rd 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, including Wedding in Blood.^[5]