Not so crazy: Cannes film upends Hitchcock`s `hysterical` women
(Artdaily.org)

Jessica Hausner, one of four female directors vying for the Cannes top prize, remembers watching `crazy women` in movies by the great Hollywood masters and sensing something was off. `I mean `Vertigo` -- it was clear he was the one who was crazy,` she said of Hitchcock`s film noir classic in which a traumatised policeman (James Stewart) tracks a `hysterical` woman (Kim Novak). For Hausner`s feminist sci-fi thriller `Little Joe`, which is premiering at the world`s top film festival, she said she wanted to explore how `crazy` becomes a label used to keep women down. `I was always fascinated by the films about crazy women. I felt that male perspective and I thought `Yeah, but what`s so crazy about them?`` she said. `The `craziness` of women is actually the very interesting point about them because I think it`s also about being sensitive and intelligent.` `Little Joe`, the Austrian director`s first English-language feature, tells the story of Alice (British actress Emily Beecham), a sen