Film Event Highlights – January 2013

What better way to kick off the new year than with one of the worst films ever made, Showgirls (14 Jan, GFT)? Paul Verhoeven's 1995 tale of a girl's rise to stripping stardom in Las Vegas picked up a whopping seven Razzies on initial release, with lead Elizabeth Berkley's breasts even winning the Worst Screen Couple award – to be fair, they feature in almost every scene. Also starring Kyle MacLachlan and Gina Gershon, today this naked disaster is a camp, cult classic.

The DCA in Dundee is screening What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? on 20 Jan, starring Joan Crawford and Bette Davis. What starts as a twisted melodrama turns into an over-the-top psychological thriller, as the two veteran actors valiantly try to out-act each other. On paper, Davis may appear to be victorious – she gained her eleventh Oscar nomination for her portrayal of former child star ‘Baby’ Jane Hudson – but Crawford refuses to go down quietly as her sister Blanche, a Hollywood star now crippled after an accident.

The Introduction to European Cinema season returns this month, with an entirely new line-up. Working with the University of Edinburgh's Film Studies department, this programme of eight films, running from 16 Jan-6 Mar, are part of various courses at the university, but are also open to the public. Carl Theodor Dreyer's Day of Wrath begins the season, followed by Nicolas Roeg's directorial debut, Performance (23 Jan), and François Truffaut's romantic classic, Jules et Jim (30 Jan). Each screening is introduced by one of the University's lecturers.

The Art School Union in Glasgow is hosting the latest Trashkino event on 16 Jan. Screening an eclectic selection of underground, arthouse, and experimental movies, this month's pick is Bad Boy Bubby, a black comedy featuring incest, abuse, and murder, that has been compared to works by David Lynch and John Waters. The event is free, so don't miss this opportunity to see this bizarre, disturbing, yet oddly poignant film.

One of the most influential American films of the 1990s, Pulp Fiction revitalised John Travolta's flagging career, brought together one of the finest ensemble casts to date, created an iconic new dance routine, and answered that age old question: what do the French call a quarter pounder with cheese? With Quentin Tarantino's latest film, Django Unchained, released this month, head to the Filmhouse on 29 Jan to see how it compares to this, his second and, arguably, best directorial effort. [Becky Bartlett]