Women on the Verge: Psychotic spinsters, possessed housewives, troubled temptresses

This month is dominated by fraught females, from the homicidal young professional in Dream Home and the desperate Serbian spinsters of Tears for Sale to Isabelle Adjani’s unhinged demon lover in Possession and the murderous sister in Czech extravaganza Morgiana. Plus our Reel Sounds column focuses on The Innocents‘ soundtrack to a governess’s unravelling.

Possession was banned as a ‘video nasty’ and new documentary Video Nasties: The Definitive Guide provides a timely context for its UK DVD debut. Another notorious film vilified on its release is celebrating its 50th anniversary: Michael Powell’s seminal Peeping Tom.

Thai reverie Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives is on UK screens this month – read our interview with director Apitchatpong Weerasethakul. We also review intriguing Mexican cannibal tale We Are What We Are and we talk to Michael Rowe, director of the Mexico-set psycho-sexual drama Leap Year.

In the DVDs, we have a Comic Strip Review of Big Tits Zombie while Hammer and Tongs discuss their work. Short Cuts focuses on collage artist Lewis Klahr while writer Rebecca Hunt’s Alter Ego is Ferris Bueller. The blog has previews, including onedotzero, and reports on Raindance and the 7th Chinese Independent Film Festival – read the interview with director Zhao Dayong.

PODCAST:
Dangerous Women and Foxy Heroes: To complement this month’s theme, we present a pair of Q&As recorded at Electric Sheep film club screenings. Alex Fitch talks to Zoe Baxter, the presenter of Resonance FM’s radio show about Asian culture in the UK, and they discuss the epic ‘wuxia’ film Hero, which featured memorable roles for female action heroes Maggie Cheung and Ziyi Zhang. In the main interview, Electric Sheep editor Virginie S&#233lavy talks to Brixton-based filmmaker Rebecca Johnson, director of Top Girl, about the classic ‘blaxploitation’ film Foxy Brown, starring Pam Grier.