Do you like Spanish cinema? The Instituto Cervantes de Manila invites you to enjoy for free another Spanish classic film, El verdugo (The Executioner), within the program «Clásicos contigo / Classics with You», a film series shown online by Instituto Cervantes.
El verdugo (The Executioner), directed by Luis García Berlanga in 1963, is a black comedy about a young undertaker who marries an executioner’s daughter and reluctantly inherits her father’s gory job.
Reputed as one of García Berlanga’s masterpieces, this caustic farce is a strong statement against death penalty. According to Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar, “El verdugo is the best film ever made about the death penalty.” It caused the biggest international uproar when Franco’s government (having just carried out a number of public executions) unsuccessfully tried to stop the film from screening at the Venice Film Festival, where nonetheless received the Critics’ Award.
Although the fame of Luis García Berlanga (1921-2010) never reached the level to stand comparison with Luis Buñuel’s reputation, he is a major name of Spanish cinema and his work, very popular in Spain, carries a satirical wit that does have a universal appeal.
To access the link to the movie and password, please log on to Instituto Cervantes de Manila’s website: https://cultura.cervantes.es/manila/en/El-verdugo/133261. The movie, subtitled in English, will be available for the Filipino audience on May 30 & 31.
Movies you will not find in Netflix
The program “Classics with you” brings back eleven great feature films that connected with the public of their time and that today are considered reference films of Spanish cinematography. It is a commitment to quality Spanish cinema designed for cinephiles around the world. The eleven movies, subtitled in English, will be shown over eleven weekends –one film per weekend, being each title available only for 48 hours.
The film cycle started last May 9 with Death of a Cyclist (Juan Antonio Bardem, 1955), and continued the following weekends with Welcome, Mr. Marshall!, (Luis García Berlanga, 1953), and Luis Buñuel’s masterpiece Viridiana (1961).
The “Classics with You” program will continue in July with La vaquilla (1985), by Luis García Berlanga; The Spirit of the Beehive (1973) and The South (1983), directed by Víctor Erice; The good star (1997), by Ricardo Franco; The Holy Innocents, signed by Mario Camus in 1984; Tasio (1984), by Montxo Armendáriz; and Carol’s Journey, directed by Imanol Uribe in 2002.
The films are presented by Instituto Cervantes in collaboration with the Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences of Spain, AECID and the Embassy of Spain in the Philippines. The screenings will be in Spanish with English subtitles. Admission is free. For further information and updates on this film series, please check out http://manila.cervantes.es or Instituto Cervantes’ Facebook page: www.facebook.com/InstitutoCervantesManila.
