Film This article is more than 23 years oldRape Me passed uncut in FranceThis article is more than 23 years oldThose on the look-out for the next big movie controversy would be well advised keep close tabs on the explicit French movie Rape Me, which has just been passed for cinematic release by the French censors. The latest word from those connected with the film is that negotiations are currently underway to distribute the film in the UK at some point later this year.

Science and nature booksReviewMark Cocker on an inspiring and affectionate tale of British POW ornithologistsIn September 1942 German forces had just established their suicidal hold over Stalingrad, while Rommel's Afrika Korps had made its last-gasp conquests in the Western Desert. As the whole second world war turned on its creaking pivot, several English POWs faced changes of a more parochial nature. They had just exchanged the site of their incarceration to a Bavarian town called Eichstätt, where the prison camp was set among sunlit limestone bluffs and forest-smothered hills.

US newsObituaryBobby PickettSinger and songwriter, he did the mash, the monster mashIn the United States, Halloween is one of the most intensively celebrated annual events. And one of the season's most hallowed components is the 1962 novelty hit record Monster Mash, co-written and performed in the style of horror film star Boris Karloff by Bobby "Boris" Pickett, who has died of leukaemia aged 69. Pickett was born in Somerville, Massachusetts. His father was the manager of a cinema, where Bobby began his love affair with the horror genre.

Abortion rights supporters protest the supreme court's decision in the Dobbs v Jackson Women's Health case in Driggs, Idaho, on 2 July 2022. Photograph: Natalie Behring/Getty ImagesAbortion rights supporters protest the supreme court's decision in the Dobbs v Jackson Women's Health case in Driggs, Idaho, on 2 July 2022. Photograph: Natalie Behring/Getty ImagesAbortionLaw protecting women seeking emergency abortions is target in US supreme court caseEmergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act is at the heart of the court’s latest blockbuster abortion case, which comes out of Idaho

TheatreReviewMenier Chocolate Factory, London Co-production with Osaka company brings 1976 study of American imperialism arriving in Japan to subtle, funny life When Stephen Sondheim’s 1976 musical premiered on Broadway, it was staged in grand kabuki style. By contrast, this Umeda Arts Theater co-production, already mounted in Tokyo and Osaka, goes small – and beautiful. Directed by Matthew White, the story of four 19th-century American warships that appear on the coast of Japan and open it up to westernising forces is performed straight through in under two hours.