Film screenings “So British” at Institut Vigo, Perpignan

The Institut Jean Vigo in Perpignan is a vertiable museum for the 7th art form. Born from a simple cine-club of passionate film lovers in the 1960s, today the Institute houses one of France’s largest collections of cinematography.

With just one room of around 50 seats, audiences are treated to a uniquely intimate experience. The Institute mostly celebrates the golden oldies and ALWAYS screens the original version, meaning there’s usually a lot for Anglophones.

In fact, in May, they’re celebrating an all-British affair.

Vigo says:

“There is always a tendency, somewhat caricaturist, to divide English cinema into two contradictory trends. On the one hand, social cinema illustrated in particular by the Free Cinema movement and, subsequently, by filmmakers, of which the most emblematic is surely Ken Loach, and on the other hand, a very “cup of tea” cinema, which adapts the great works of Jane Austen, Oscar Wilde, George Bernard Shaw and many others and whose most worthy representative is surely filmmaker, James Ivory.

But are these two ‘trends’ really irreconcilable?

Doesn’t this cinema of wigs, corseted dresses, castles, stuffy London bourgeoisie and subservient house staff often express a more or less veiled criticism of a society that lives in its own bubble, buoyed by its belief of world domination?

The two films programmed are good examples of this.

Pygmalion (1938), Tuesday 16th May, 7pm

George Bernard Shaw’s very funny Pygmalion is a social variation on the Frankenstein myth. Professor Higgins, who considers himself above his fellow men, a kind of mad scientist, determines to turn a poor flower seller into a princess in less than three months.

Adapted from the theatre to the big screen by Shaw himself, this little gem brings together avant-garde feminism, side-splitting comedy and cutting derision of the puritanism of the dominant classes.

In fact, Pygmalion earned Shaw and director, Anthony Asquith, the Oscar for Best Screenplay!

Book your tickets here.

The Draughtman’s Contract (1984), Tuesday 26th May, 7pm

Peter Greenaway tells the sumptuous, saucy, cruel tale of Mrs Herbert, English nobility, and her manipulation and ultimate humiliation of a commoner who foolishly believes he has become her equal.

Beyond the social critiques, this film is bursting with literary and artistic references. Greenaway makes clear visual references to Caravaggio and Georges de la Tour in his choice of colour, frame and lighting, accompanied with the virtuoso musical score, inspired by Purcell and Mozart.

Book your tickets here.