Paul Vecchiali’s ‘The Strangler’ Restoration Sets Fall Theatrical Release From Altered Innocence (EXCLUSIVE)

Altered Innocence has acquired distribution rights for a new 2K restoration of the late French director Paul Vecchialis 1972 giallo The Strangler (Ltrangleur).

The company will release the film in the United States for the first time this fall following screenings at the Austin genre event Fantastic Fest and the New York Film Festival. The restoration will then have a VOD and physical media release. The National Centre of Cinematography and Animated Pictures (CNC) in France assisted in the restoration of The Strangler.

The film follows a murderer named mile (Jacques Perrin) who targets women he believes are too depressed to keep living. Inspector Simon Dangret (Julien Guiomar) goes to great lengths, both unusual and unethical, to catch Emile. He is assisted by a woman named Anna (Eva Simonet) who is a potential target of the killer. The New York Film Festival describes the film as a complex, melancholic meditation on isolation as well as a portrait of collective hysteria.

Vecchiali, who died in January of this year, was an influential filmmaker in France; his production company Diagonale concentrated on female and queer filmmakers. Le Monde has called Vecchiali a icon of a rebellious, reflexive, and emotionally excessive cinema. Among his other films are Les ruses du diable, Femmes femmes, and Encore.

The Strangler first debuted in the Directors Fortnight program at the 23rd Cannes Film Festival and was released in France two years later, and re-released in 2015. However, the film has never been released in the United States until now.