The Film World of Jean Paul Gaultier, Barbican

The Barbican is a wonderful poly-cultural space that plays with and combines different facets of its output. This season, its critically acclaimed exhibition The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier (From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk) has inspired a cinematic offshoot that fans of the show, the designer, or even just fans of great film, will not want to miss.

Accompanying the Barbican's smash-hit The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier (From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk)  exhibition is a cinematic offshoot.  The Film World of Jean Paul Gaultier is curated by the famous Frenchman himself - and the films range from black and white classics A Streetcar named Desire (1951), ( starring  Vivien Leigh and Marlon Brando), and Best Picture Oscar winner All About Eve (1951), to 2013  Cannes success Behind the Candelabra and 2011 psychological thriller The Skin I live in ( which Gaultier collaborated on) . The showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show on the 24th of May is bound to be fun; this is one of Gaultier’s  favourite films, and its surreal but gritty aesthetic has clearly influenced some of his designs.

Themes of sexuality and homosexuality also run through Jean Paul’s other choices, including the seminal My Beautiful Laundrette (1985) starring Daniel Day-Lewis and the simply extraordinary Pink Flamingos (1972),from director John Waters, starring the gorgeous drag artist Divine. Produced with a budget of only $10,000, this film was recently voted 29th on a list of 50 Films to See Before You Die in the UK, and if you're a fan of black comedy, the 26th of May will be an unmissable opportunity to see it on the big screen. 

Gaultier’s Parisian origins reveal themselves in his selection of the undeniable Les Enfants du Paradis (1945), a theatrical romance, about which director François Truffaut once said: 'I would give up all my films to have directed Children of Paradise'.

Whichever film you choose to see, we can promise that this colourful, sexy and vibrant selection won’t disappoint.