Film Event Highlights – September 2012

In Glasgow the GFT's Out of Bounds season celebrates five notorious films, all of which were banned on release. First is Freaks (4 Sep), the film that ended Dracula director Tod Browning's career. Unseen for over thirty years in Britain, this superb, horrific tale of love, jealousy and murder, starring real sideshow performers, remains the stuff of nightmares. Also showing is Salo, or 120 Days of Sodom (11 Sep), Pasolini's adaptation of works by the Marquis de Sade (perfect for all you Fifty Shades of Grey fans), Titicut Follies (18 Sep), a documentary set in an American asylum, Marlon Brando's erotic Last Tango in Paris (25 Sep) and cult classic A Clockwork Orange (28 Sep). Unmissable.

Bad film fans should head to the Cameo in Edinburgh on 1 Sep for a special screening of The Room, a film by Tommy Wiseau that has gained a cult following for being completely and utterly awful. Audience participation is now encouraged, much like for Rocky Horror, so go, laugh, throw plastic spoons and decide for yourself whether this really is the “Citizen Kane of bad movies.” Ed Wood who?

Orson Welles' final film is showing at the DCA on 15 Sep. Less well known than his ground-breaking debut, F For Fake, partly adapted from an unfinished documentary about two con-men, including Clifford Irving, who later forged Howard Hughes' diaries, is a thoughtful investigation into the art of deception and one of the director's most personal films.

Several cinemas, including the Cameo, Belmont (Aberdeen), Grosvenor (Glasgow), and DCA (Dundee) are screening Shut Up and Play the Hits (4 Sep), a documentary about LCD Soundsystem, who decided to disband while at the peak of their popularity. Their final performance at Madison Square Garden in April 2011 was an instant sell-out gig and an emotional event for all involved. Directors Will Lovelace and Dylan Southern provide footage of the concert as well as an intimate portrait of the band's frontman, James Murphy. The film is followed by a special satellite Q&A with Murphy.

Filmhouse in Edinburgh continues its celebration of legendary director Alfred Hitchcock this month, with eight more of his films showing between 1-13 Sep. Included in the selection is spy thriller Torn Curtain, starring Paul Newman and Julie Andrews, featuring one of the most realistic and harrowing murder attempts ever committed to celluloid, and Blackmail, Hitch's first talkie. See Filmhouse website for more details.