Purbeck Film Festival

From the Echo, first published Friday 17th Oct 2003.

FRIDAY 17 Oct 6pm, Brief Encounter (PG), Rex. Classic picture of English middle class life produced in 1946. Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard fall into a hopeless affair.

6pm, No Mans Land (15), Lighthouse. A story of a Serb and two Bosnians in a booby-trapped hole. A fascinating and exciting study of hatred and the possibility of redemption.

7.30pm, The Name Of The Rose (15), Allsebrook. An adaptation of the novel by Umberto Eco. Sean Connery, F Murray Abraham and Christian Slater star in an investigation into the goings on in an isolated Italian monastery.

7.30pm, The Philadelphia Story (U), Milborne Port village hall. Katherine Hepburn, Cary Grant and James Stewart in William Wyler's adaptation of Philip Barry's stageplay.

7.30pm, The Quince Tree Sun (U), Vistabar. Film portrait of Spanish painter Antonio Lopez Garcia as he paints the quince tree growing in his courtyard.

7.30pm, 84 Charing Cross Road (U), Stour Provost village hall. Anne Bancroft, and Judi Dench star in a love story developed from a book and then a radio play.

8pm, Staying On (PG), Rex. A couple refuse to leave or accommodate change in the new India of independence.

8pm, La Lectrice (15), Lighthouse. A story of a woman who reads aloud for a living and the effects her words have on her clients, starring Miou-Miou.

SATURDAY 18 Oct

2pm, The Mayor of Casterbridge (PG), Allsebrook. Full showing of the BBC's 1977 adaptation of Hardy's classic with a screenplay by Dennis Potter and starring Alan Bates and Anna Massey. The screening ends at 10pm.

3pm, To Kill a Mockingbird (PG), Lighthouse. Harper Lee's literary study of racism in the deep south made for a fine movie with Gregory Peck topping the cast list.

4pm, Safety Last (U), Rex. Rare chance to see the classic Harold Lloyd silent comedy in which the great stuntman clowns around on high buildings. Piano accompaniment by Andrew Youdell.

6pm, Dirty Pretty Things (15), Lighthouse. Stephen Frears' social commentary on the ordeals faced by immigrants in a seedy west London hotel packs a timely punch. Audrey Tautou and Chiwetel Ejifar star.

6pm, Wings (PG), Rex. Gary Cooper and Clara Bow in silent era tribute to the American air aces of World War One. Winner of the very first Best Picture Oscar.

7.30pm, My Big Fat Greek Wedding (PG), Corscombe village hall. Popular domestic comedy in which a lively Greek family is introduced to its latest member - a nice, quiet All-American boy.

7.30pm, La Spagnola (15), Broadwindsor village hall. Set in the 609s when a fiery Spanish immigrant to Australia is abandoned by her no-good husband.

7.30pm, Dark Blue World (12A), Chideock village hall. Utilising unused footage from the 1968 epic, Battle of Britain, this telling drama centres on two young Czech air aces who join the RAF in WW2.

8pm, Hoover St Revival (15), Lighthouse. Sophie (sister of Ralph and Joseph) Fiennes' new documentary juxtaposes the crime and grime of South Central LA with the religious fervour of charismatic Bishop Noel (brother of Grace) Jones.

8.30pm, Avanti! (15), Rex. Classic Billy Wilder romantic comedy with Jack Lemmon and Juliet Mills as strangers brought together by the deaths of their respective parents.

SUNDAY 19 Oct

5pm, WR: Mysteries of the Organism (18),Allsebrook. Incendiary yippie diatribe based on the writings of Wilhelm Reich, the psychologist whose books were burned by both the Nazis and the US government. Made in 1971 by Yugoslav director Dusan Makaveyev, it stands as a telling satire of both communism and capitalism.

6pm, Lagaan (PG), Rex. Much-lauded Bollywood crossover epic in which the people of a small village in Victorian India stake their future on a game of cricket with their ruthless British masters.

6pm, The Name of the Rose (15), Wareham Tourist Office. Staged in the former Holy Trinity Church, Sean Connery is the medieval sleuth investigating strange events in an Italian monastery.

7pm, The War Game (18), Allsebrook. The BBC banned Peter Watkins' 1966 film about a nuclear attack on Britain. Still a powerful piece of film making, nearly four decades later.

MONDAY 20 Oct

6pm, The Sound Barrier (U), Rex. Ralph Richardson, Ann Todd and Nigel Patrick in David Lean's 1952 gem about a ruthless plane maker's ambition to build a supersonic jet. It also serves as a true celebration of Britain's then lead in jet technology.

6pm, In This World (15), Lighthouse. Michael Winterbottom's telling docu-drama about two Afghan refugees who turn to people traffickers to get them to London.

7.30pm, Don't Look Now (18), Allsebrook. Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie in Nicolas Roeg's stunning version of Daphne Du Maurier's chilling novella set in Venice.

7.30pm, Lagaan (PG), Lighthouse. See Sunday.

7.30pm, La Lectrice (15), Vistabar. See Friday.

8pm, Hoover St Revival (15), Rex. See Saturday.

TUESDAY 21 Oct

6pm, The Whales of August (PG), Rex. Lillian Gish, Bette

Davis, Vincent Price and Ann Sothern all made their final screen outings in this gentle drama from director Lindsay Anderson, also making his last film.

6pm, In the Mood for Love (PG), Lighthouse. New film from Hong Kong in which a man and a woman form a special bond when they suspect their partners of infidelity.

7.30pm, In This World (15), Allsebrook. See Monday.

8pm, Night of the Hunter (PG), Rex. Charles Laughton's only film as a director captured Robert Mitchum in chilling form as a psychopathic preacher pursuing two orphans through Depression-era America.

8pm, The Leopard (PG), Lighthouse. New print of Visconti's epic film about an aristocratic Italian family coming to terms with the reunification of their land. Burt Lancaster and Lain Delon star.

WEDNESDAY 22 Oct

6pm, They Flew Alone (PG), Rex. Anna Neagle in classic 1942 biopic of pioneering flyer Amy Johnson and her record breaking solo flights of the 1930s.

6pm, Last Resort (15), Lighthouse. Sad but revealing film in which a Russian woman arrives in England with her 10-year-old son to meet her fiance. When he doesn't show up she is forced to apply for refugee status.

7.30pm, City of God (18), Vistabar. Brilliant Brazilian docu-drama tracing the history of one of Rio's most violent slums through the eyes of one of its street children. Without a doubt, one of the films of the year.

8pm, Day of Wrath (12A), Rex. Profoundly emotional Danish film from 1943 set in a small village in 1623 but actually an allegory of the Nazi occupation under which, incredibly, regime the film was made.

8pm, The Leopard (PG), Lighthouse. See Tuesday.

8pm, Broken Blossoms (PG), Russell Cotes Museum. DW Griffith directed Lillian Gish in this great tragedy about an alcoholic brute's fragile daughter and a Chinese neighbour's love for her.

THURSDAY 23 Oct

12.30pm, Brief Encounter (PG), Lighthouse. See Friday.

2.30pm, The Leopard (PG). See Tuesday.

6pm, To Kill a Mockingbird (PG). See Saturday.

6pm, Talk To Her (15), Lighthouse. Pedro Almodovar's masterful drama in which two men meet at a clinic as they care for two women who are lying in comas. We follow the four characters through the past, present and future.

7.30pm, City of God (18), Allsebrook. See Wednesday.

7.30pm, What's Cooking? (12A), Sherborne Catholic Church hall. Four ethnically-diverse contemporary families in LA celebrate Thanksgiving amid the domestic tensions.

7.30pm, My Big Fat Greek Wedding (PG), Cattistock village hall. See Saturday.

8.30pm, A Cottage on Dartmoor (PG), Rex. Silent British drama from 1929 in which a prisoner escapes from Dartmoor and holes up in a farm cottage where he is recognised.

# Further details and tickets available from the Festival office on 01929 556440; or e-mail purbeck.film@ntlworld.com

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