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Features p2

Movie monsters have to have a hint of human to give you the creeps, like in Splice

From Mickey Mouse to The Fly, animal-human hybrids are truly glimpses of hell
F&M playlist

Our music team pick the songs or albums, old or new, they just can't turn off

Catherine Breillat: 'I love blood. It's in all my films'

She has a love-hate relationship with her home country and specialises in sex and scandal. What made the French director opt for a fairytale, Cath Clarke asks

Pop's undersung heroes: artists with big influence but small reputation

Everyone knows the rock and pop canon – the Beatles and the Stones, James Brown, Marvin Gaye and so on. But what about the artists who changed the face of pop, but never pop on those lists of all-time greats?

Little Axe: from blues to hip-hop and back

How Skip McDonald played on Grandmaster Flash's groundbreaking The Message before revolutionising his first musical love. By Dave Simpson
My new film policy: random fandom

Just ask the cashier to pick a ticket, any ticket. By Joe Queenan
Readers recommend: Songs with handclaps – the results

From Motown to Miles – and not forgetting OutKast – handclapping's greatest hits. By Paul MacInnes

Inception

Christopher Nolan's typically tricky brain-twister casts Leonardo DiCaprio as head of an industrial espionage crew. Peter Bradshaw admires the film's dizzying flourishes
Toy Story 3

Tom Hanks and Tim Allen return in a thoroughly adult third part in Pixar's blockbusting, groundbreaking trilogy. By Peter Bradshaw

Bluebeard

Catherine Breillat's meditation on the Perrault folk-tale is elegant and erotic, but not especially resonant, writes Peter Bradshaw
The Concert

There's nothing but lame stereotypes to be found in this duff but well-meaning comedy about a one-time conductor hoping to relive past glories, says Peter Bradshaw
Rough Aunties

Kim Longinotto's hard-hitting film about child abuse in South Africa is almost unbearably painful, says Peter Bradshaw
Rapt

A kidnapping drama from Belgian director Lucas Belvaux that is an intriguing, unusual take on the genre, writes Peter Bradshaw
Mega Piranha

So bad it's good? This cynical attempt to try for Ed Wood-style uselessness is just plain awful, writes Peter Bradshaw

Click to download: Amoeba Music online

California's mighty indie record store Amoeba has a rapidly evolving website, writes Chris Salmon
The Teardrop Explodes: Kilimanjaro: Deluxe Edition

LSD lover and Princess Di eulogiser Julian Cope was once almost sunshine pop's golden boy. Alexis Petridis rewinds to a superb debut
Wolf Parade: Expo 86

Three album in, and Will Dean finds Canadian indie collective Wolf Parade sounding better than ever
Tired Pony: The Place We Ran From

Gary Lightbody forms an Americana supergroup and guess what? It sounds like Snow Patrol. By Dave Simpson
RPA & the United Nations of Sound: United Nations of Sound

So Richard Ashcroft's like "a fish with legs"? Then throw him back in the water, says Michael Cragg
Martina Topley Bird: Some Place Simple

Paring back her old songs into these delicious new forms was a masterstroke by Martina Topley Bird, reckons Caroline Sullivan
Professor Green: Alive Till I'm Dead

The latest attempt at a crosover from grime to pop is a pretty much unqualified success, says Paul MacInnes
Sheryl Crow: 100 Miles from Memphis

No matter the vicissitudes of her life, Shery Crow doesn't pull off her attempt at a soul album. By Maddy Costa

Schlippenbach Trio: Bauhaus Dessau

It might be a little grizzled now, but one of the great free-jazz ensembles still throbs with life, writes John Fordham
Lee Konitz/Warne Marsh: Lee Konitz With Warne Marsh

These sessions from the late 1940s and mid-50s are low-key, timeless classics, writes John Fordham
Jane Weaver: The Fallen By Watch Bird

Psych folk is back, and the result here is not as twee and pretentious as one might fear, writes Robin Denselow
Phronesis: Alive

This is a compelling session, recorded at Camden's Forge last year, writes John Fordham
Scott Hamilton/Alan Barnes: Hi-Ya

For this album, saxist Alan Barnes chooses favourites associated with the late Duke Ellington altoist Johnny Hodges, writes John Fordham
Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso in London

In 1969, Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso were exiled by their country's military dictatorship. Their years in London influenced Brazilian – and British – music for ever, says John Lewis
Loudon Wainwright III: 10 Songs for the New Depression

This quirky concept set includes a couple of reworked songs from the 1930s depression, writes Robin Denselow

Schmidt: Symphony No 3; Chaconne

It's supposed to be in the spirit of Schubert, but Schmidt's odd, ungainly Third is more Wagnerian at times. Either way, the performers play it for all its worth, writes Andrew Clements
Couperin: Suites

Played on a harpsichord made in 1658, Christophe Rousset's performances of Louis Couperin's relatively little-known French keyboard music are beautifully realised, writes Andrew Clements
Rihm: Vigilia

Wolfgang Rihm's 2006 meditation on the Passion story, comprising seven motets and a series of sonatas, is a strange piece - fascinating, but hard work, says Andrew Clements
Smetana; Martinu; Eben; Piano Trios

The Florestans' performance of Smetana is wonderful from start to finish, but the following pieces on this disc can't help but seem disappointing, writes Andrew Clements
Beethoven: Violin Sonatas Opp 47 & 96

Violinist Edward Dusinberre and pianist David Korevaar work together beautifully and sympathetically on these two Beethoven sonatas, writes Andrew Clements
Schumann: Symphonies Nos 1 & 2

Sakari Oramo's accounts of Schumann's first two symphonies are dramatic and exhilarating, and bode well for the forthcoming Third and Fourth, too, writes Andrew Clements
Mahler's total eclipse of the heart

Symphonies don't come any bigger than Mahler's Eighth, which opens this year's Proms. But, writes Tom Service, his ode to the universe was rooted in the most private of passions

Hail, Hail, Rock 'n' Roll

'Certain songs can seem like home the first time you hear them. When you reach the second verse, you want to kiss them'
First sight: Jacob Auzanneau

A French teenager who trained as an acrobat at circus school, whose feet don't touch the ground in his first acting role, almost literally