Un beau monstre (1971) directed by Sergio Gobbi

 I had the chance to see this on TV after reading about in relation to the death of Helmet Berger recently. He plays a sadist who drives his wife to suicide and then proceeds to do the same to his second wife. Police Officer Leroy (Charles Aznavour) begins to suspect the truth and is determined to save the unfortunate woman from Alain's clutches. The movie is filmed as an art film and moves pretty slowly. The sadism is sort of low key but cruel and they seemed to be holding back on getting too explicit with that while, even at 2 in the afternoon on Quebec TV, the film has some rare full frontal male nudity showing off Berger's talents as he was considered one of the most beautiful actors at the time. (Hence the name of the film.) 

I can't say I loved it or hated it. the Performances are very understated and the motivations of just about everyone but the inspector are nebulous at best. There is some interesting cinematography, maybe to interesting as I was sometimes not sure where the characters were or how their apartment was set up. I also am not a fan of watching people be cruel as entertainment and the film allows Berger to control his wife totally, including raping her while she is sick and given drugs. There is never really a passion between the man and his victims, they seem be be going through the motions most of the time. 

Spoiler: 

In the last scene of the movie, the police are shown investigating something that is revealed to be the bodies of Nathalie and Alain next to each other on the ground. The two spouses have most likely committed suicide together.