Top Image: Still, ‘Le Mepris’ 1963. © Les Films Concordia

We bring you our guide to living well in the world’s capitals, from exhibitions to cinema, food, drink, fashion, music and beyond. Just call it culture and take it, it’s yours.

LONDON, FRIDAY 8th JANUARY – SUNDAY 10th JANUARY 2016

How’re those post-holidays sore heads and bulging bellies? The Christmas and New Year holidays are over, meaning it’s no longer acceptable to start the day with yesterday’s Turkey leftovers and a swig of whiskey. Welcome to reality.

Here’s to a sweet ’16. Start as you mean to go on and dive right in to all that london has to offer. 

“Totally, tenderly, tragically”
At the BFI they’re celebrating all things Jean-Luc Godard – the godfather of French New Wave and an unparalleled auteur – with three months worth of events and screenings dedicated to the ‘Nouvelle Vague’ director.

This weekend it all kicks off with a screening of Godard’s landmark film Le Mépris (1963), his first leap into technicolor. With Brigitte Bardot and Michel Piccoli cast as a troubled, lovestruck couple – in sync with Godard’s own tempestuous relationship with his then wife/muse Anna Karina – the film is suitably stylish and showcases that ‘bon chic’ mise en scene French New Wave directors pioneered in the 60s.

If you’re a Godard virgin and wondering where to begin, Le Mépris is a perfectly dazzling way to get into the groove.

Le Mépris is being screened at BFI Southbank on Saturday 16 Jan 17:50 with an introduced by Anna Karina.

Rebel Rebel
Christmas might be over but David Bowie has a delayed present for us all, his new album★.

This is a no-brainer, money well spent buy to distort you into the new year. As this is Bowie, there’s no way to anticipate just what he’s put together for his 25th studio record, but the advance releases of title track Blackstar and Lazarus have adequately whet our appetite.

Celebrate the release – and Bowie’s 69th birthday – at The Gun, where they will be playing the album in its entirety.

Let’s dance, Bowie’s back.

Blackstar by David Bowie, out on Friday 8th. 

Ice cold killers
What better way to welcome in 2016 then with a good ol’ fashioned Tarantino Western stand off.

For his 8th directorial feature Tarantino aims his barrel at snowy Wyoming, introducing us to his eight protagonists; the bounty hunter (Samuel L Jackson), the prisoner (Jennifer Jason Leigh), the hangman (Kurt Russell), the sheriff (Walton Goggins), the little man (Tim Roth), the cow puncher (Michael Madsen) and the Confederate (Bruce Dern).

Over the course of 3 tense hours – trust us, it zooms by – we witness the eight characters – all big beards and bigger furs – taking shelter at a roadhouse called Minnie’s Haberdashery, all with one eye on each other and the other on their weapons – throwback to the Reservoir Dogs narrative? Tarantino does love an inter-connected body of work.

The Hateful Eight reaffirms Tarantino’s incessant output, swaggering, gritty and with an fully loaded script packing laughs and punches in equal measure.

The Hateful Eight, out now.

You’re so vain
Portraiture art can often provoke the greatest response, just look at Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, or Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe. The V&A’s latest exhibition taps into this format, featuring a variety of portraits by contemporary artists and photographers, from Julian Opie, Grayson Perry and Ellen Heck to Maud Sulter, Gavin Turk and Bettina von Zwehl

Tracing the way artists have adapted historical or conventional modes of portraiture such as silhouettes, portrait miniatures, medals, Old Master paintings, and death masks, as well as passport photographs, ID cards and election campaign posters for their artwork, Facing History offers an alternative view on an historical format.

Facing History: Contemporary Portraiture runs at the V&A until 24 April 2016.

“That’s the way I like it baby/I don’t wanna live for ever”
Last week Ian Fraser “Lemmy” Kilmister sadly passed away at the age of 70, leaving a Jack Daniels-guzzling, axe-wielding void.

If you can’t make this weekend’s pilgrimage to LA’s Rainbow Bar, one of the star’s favourite hangouts on the city’s infamous Sunset Strip, don’t despair. Tune into a live stream of the memorial and head to The Star by Hackney Downs, where they are throwing their own London bash to commemorate the late, great Motorhead frontman (LA? London? Same same, right?).

So head down this Saturday for a night of rock ‘n’ roll hedonism and raise your Jack Daniels and Coke (Lemmy’s drink of choice, although he did recently swap it for vodka and orange juice, as a ‘healthy’ alternative) to the hellraiser, himself.

“Death is an inevitability, isn’t it? You become more aware of that when you get to my age. I don’t worry about it. I’m ready for it. When I go, I want to go doing what I do best. If I died tomorrow, I couldn’t complain. It’s been good.” Lemmy once claimed, and, uncompromising as always, stayed true to his word.

Waiting around to die: born to raise hell takes place at The Star by Hackney Downs, E5 8NN on Saturday 9th. 

Rum and ting
Within the arches beneath Deptford station is a little taste of Jamaica. Buster Mantis – named after Sir Alexander Bustamante, the British born MP who became Jamaica’s first Prime Minister – is a multi-disciplinary arts and creative space, with bar and restaurant serving up a range of iconic and unexpected Jamaican food.

Here’s our tip; try the rum punch, Mandeville style – the part of Jamaica where Gordon grew up –, it’ll blow your socks off.

Buster Mantis, 3-4 Resolution Way, SE8 4NT