Episode 121. Close Quarters: Single White Female (1992)

What kind of person could you live with? Barbet Shroeder’s paranoid erotic thriller seeks to answer that question and more as it delves into queer fear, sexual conservatism, property rights and female intimacy. 

 

Class of 2023 merch

Artwork by @thelastjohnyontheleft 

 

If you’re Toronto, catch Alex’s lecture on Brexit in the modern British horror film on October 17 at the Revue Cinema – get your tickets here. 

 

REQUIRED READING

Single White Female. Dir. Barbet Schroeder, 1992. 

 

EXTRA CREDIT

You Must Remember This. Katrina Longworth’s in-depth look at Hollywood, including the last two seasons on the Erotic ’80s and ’90s

 

The Rise and Fall of the Erotic Thriller. An overview of the complicated sub-genre. 

 

‘Single White Female’ at Thirty: The Legacy of the Women Stalkers of the 1990s – Lesbianophobia in SWF.

 

A Room Of One’s Own. Virginia Woolfe’s treatise on women and access to private spaces. 

 

Revolting Doubles: Radical Narcissism and the Trope of the Lesbian Double by Olu Jenzen 

 

Queersighted: The Gay Best Friend Criterion Collections video discussion of the problematic trope

 

Barbet Schroeder’s quite a character.

 

LISTEN

Right click or option-click here and choose “Save Target As”