Behind the Couch

‘Some men take a beautiful girl and hide her away from the rest of the world’ - Cyndi Lauper With its uncomfortable, grim subject matter – a man so obsessed with a beautiful woman that he abducts and dismembers her to contain and possess her - Boxing Helena (1993) is a dark, twisted fairy tale exploring themes of obsession, control, objectification, free will and bodily autonomy. Written and directed by Jennifer Lynch, who was 19 when she wrote the screenplay (based on a story by Philippe Caland) and in her early twenties when she agreed to direct it, Boxing Helena sparked controversy and tabloid fixation as soon as it went into production (Madonna and Kim Basinger were infamously attached to it before eventually backing out). Upon its release it experienced a savage critical mauling with many lambasting it, and its director, as misogynistic. Lynch maintains it was always meant to be seen as a macabre fairy tale, stating: ‘To me, if you look at the film, the woman is always in contr...