Purbeck Film Festval 2008 has just over a week to run so make sure you catch one of the many celluloid classics showing in a variety of venues around Purbeck. 

Sat 18th October

Cinema Paradiso Mowlem, Swanage, 7.30pm
Happy Go Lucky Briantspuddle Village Hall, 7.30pm
La Regle du Jeu The Rex, 8pm
Le Placard Lighthouse, 8.30pm
Ninotchka Lighthouse, 6pm
Rogue Male Stoborough Village Hall, 7.30pm
The Little Foxes The Rex, 6pm

Sun 19th

Lawrence Of Arabia The Rex, Wareham, 7.15pm
The Riddle of the Sands Swanage Sailing Club, 7.30pm

Mon 20th

Ashes & Diamonds (with introduction) Poole Lighthouse, 8pm
Les Chansons D’amour The Rex, 7.15pm

Tue 21st 

Kanal Lighthouse, 8pm
Man on Wire The Lookout, Durlston, 7.30pm
Persepolis Bournemouth University, 7.30pm
The Butterfly’s Tongue The Rex, 7.15pm

Wed 22nd

Comrades (with Introduction) The Rex, 7.15pm
The Counterfeiters Lighthouse, 8pm

Thur 23rd

Camille The Rex, 6pm
Juno Bournemouth University, 7.30pm
La Haine (with Introduction) Lighthouse, 8.15pm
Persepolis (with Introduction) Lighthouse, 6pm
The Counterfeiters The Rex, 8pm
The Kite Runner The Lookout 7.30pm

Fri 24th

Caramel Lighthouse, 6pm
Man on the Wire and Jab Corfe Castle Village Hall, 7.30pm
Ninontchka The Rex, 8.30pm
Our Hospitality The Rex, 6pm
Paris Je T’aime Lighthouse, 8.10pm

Sat 25th

How To Lose Friends And Alienate People The Rex, 8pm
The Band Wagon The Rex, 6pm

Purbeck Film Festival is now underway and runs until Saturday 25th October.

The festival is the biggest and longest running rural film festival in the UK with over 80 films at a myriad of venues across Purbeck.  This week’s films are listed below:

Monday 13th

Cinema Paradiso The Rex, 7.15pm
Jamaica Inn Square & Compass, 7pm & 9.15pm
Le Doulos Lighthouse, 8pm
The Kite Runner Studland Village Hall, £5

Tuesday 14th

Au Hasard Balthazar Lighthouse, 8pm
La Vien en Rose Bournemouth University, 7.30pm
Le Placard The Rex, 8pm
The Kite RunnerHarmans Cross Village Hall, 7.30pm
The Lady with the Little Dog The Rex, 6pm
The Painted Veil The Lookout, 7.30pm

Wed 15th

Fear and Trembling Lighthouse, 8pm
The Go Between The Rex, 7.15pm

Thur 16th

Anna Kerenina The Rex 6pm
La Vien en Rose The Lookout 7,15pm
Queen Christina Lighthouse, 8.30pm
Red Lights The Rex, 8pm
The Kite Runner Bournemouth University, 7.30pm
The Long Day Closes Lighthouse, 6pm

Fri 17th

Atonement Worth Matravers Village Hall, 7pm
Breaking and Entering Lighthouse, 8.20pm
La Haine The Rex, 8pm
The Age of the Train Swanage Catholic Hall, 7.30pm
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly Lighthouse, 6pm
The Lodger The Rex, 6pm

Sat 18th

Cinema Paradiso Mowlem, 7.30pm
Happy Go Lucky Briantspuddle Village Hall, 7.30pm
La Regle du Jeu The Rex, 8pm
Le Placard Lighthouse, 8.30pm
Ninotchka Lighthouse, 6pm
Rogue Male Stoborough Village Hall, 7.30pm
The Little Foxes The Rex, 6pm

This year’s Purbeck Film Festival kicks off on Friday (10th October).

The opening gala film at Wareham’s The Rex cinema will be the late Anthony Minghella’s ‘Breaking and Entering’, starring Jude Law, Juliette Binoche and Vera Farmiga.

The film will be introduced by Roger Laughton, Chair of SW Screen and friend of Minghella.

The Lighthouse in Poole will also be showing the French films ‘Flight of The Red Balloon’ (6pm) and the film noir classic ‘La Quai des Brumes’ (8pm)

The Rex: Fri 10 Oct 7.15pm, £6

Screen Bites, a celebration of food and film at 19 venues across Dorset started on Saturday (4th October) and runs until Saturday 8 November.

Screen Bites teams up with the Purbeck Film Festival to show Milou en Mai at the Rex in Wareham on Saturday 11 October.

Milou en Mai is set on a French rural estate during the student uprising in Paris in 1968 and one of the film’s stars, Harriet Walter, will be at the Rex to reminisce about it. 

Tastings start at 7:00pm followed by the short film at 7:30pm, a break for tea, coffee and ice-cream and then the feature film at 8:10pm.

The Rex: Saturday 11 October 7pm

This year’s Purbeck Film Festival runs from the 10th to 25th of October.

The festival is the biggest and longest running rural film festival in the UK with over 80 films at a myriad of venues across Purbeck.  The festival is dedicated to the memory of Sir Bill Cotton, who was its President until he sadly passed away earlier this month.

Local film maker Keith Lawes has produced a fantastic animated short trailer for the festival that you can view below or at the Purbeck Film Festival website and which contains a full list of the films on show. You’ll never view the Sandbanks ferry in the same light again!

The owners of Wareham’s historic Rex cinema have put it up for sale after running it for over 20 years.

The 9 volunteer directors have been running the Rex since 1987 and purchased the building in 2000, but they are now looking to sell the cinema to like-minded film enthusiasts.

The good news is that the Rex will be sold with a restrictive covenant meaning any buyer would have to continue running it as a cinema.

The cinema opened in 1920 and until a recent refurbishment it was the last gas-lit cinema in the country.

Purbeck Film Festival presents three nights of open-air cinema at Corfe Castle from Friday 22 to Sunday 24 August.

The ‘Stars under the Stars’ films this year are:

• Friday 22: GRAND DAY OUT and THE RAILWAY CHILDREN
• Saturday 23: Wallace & Gromit Double Bill THE WRONG TROUSERS and A CLOSE SHAVE
• Sunday 24: THE GOLDEN COMPASS

Gates open 7.30pm Film starts 9pm. Remember to wrap up warm!

Corfe Castle: Tickets: £5 adult, £3 child, £14 family

Sigur Rós’s first ever film, ‘Heima’ receives a rare public showing at Dorchester Arts Centre on Friday 2 May.

The film was shot over two weeks last summer when they undertook a series of free, unannounced concerts in Iceland.

Last year, in the endless magic hour of the Icelandic summer, Sigur Rós played a series of concerts around their homeland. Combining both the biggest and smallest shows of their career, the entire tour was filmed, and now provides a unique insight into one of the world’s shyest and least understood bands captured live in their natural habitat.

Dorchester Arts Centre: Fri 2 May 8pm: £11 advance, £12 door

The Oscar winning director Ang Lee’s latest film, Lust Caution, plays at Wareham’s Rex cinema for 4 nights from Friday 28 March.

Following on from the success of Brokeback Mountain and Crouching Tiger Hidden, Lust Caution is a beautiful tale of passion and espionage in war-time Shanghai. 

The Rex: Fri 28-Mon 31 March, 7.15pm

Wareham’s The Rex cinema is showing Daniel Day-Lewis’ Oscar winning performance in ’There Will be Blood’ from Friday 21 - Thursday 27 March.

Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, ‘There Will be Blood’ is a story about family, greed, religion, and oil, centered around a turn-of-the-century prospector in the early days of the business.

The Coen brothers Oscar winning ‘No Country for Old Men’ is showing at Wareham’s The Rex cinema from 9-13 March.

Starring Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin, and Javier Bardem, it tells the story of a drug deal gone wrong and the ensuing cat-and-mouse drama as three men crisscross each other’s paths in the desert landscape of 1980 West Texas.

The Rex: 7.15pm (Tue 6pm)

If you missed it first time round there’s another chance to see Atonement at The Rex next week.

Starring Kiera Knightly and James McAvoy it tells the story of the devastating consequences of a young girl’s misguided imagination.

The Rex:  Tue 29th 6.15pm, Wed 30th 7.15pm

Anton Corbijn’s film biopic of Joy Division’s Ian Curtis is showing at Poole’s Lighthouse from Friday 7 December.

Based on the biography of Curtis’s widow, Deborah, Control tells the tale of the tragic singer’s life and suicide at the age of 23 on the eve of Joy Division’s American tour.

Starring Sam Riley and Samantha Moreton, Control has been praised by Curtis’ former band members (now New Order) for its realistic portrayal of the band and the bleak but inspiring atmosphere of Manchester in the late 1970’s/early 80s.

A new DVD about the history of Dorset towns and villages has been released by Wareham wildlife photographer/filmmaker Rob Goodhand.

The DVD focuses on Wareham, Tolpuddle, Lulworth, Corfe, Kingston and Worth Matravers.

Dorset Towns and Villages Volume 1 is available from Waterstones Poole; Farwells, Wareham; Swanage bookshop or online at http://www.rmgwildlife.com/

The 11th Purbeck Film Festival kicks off on Friday and runs for the next 2 weeks.

The festival opens at The Rex cinema in Wareham with True North, a thriller about fishermen smuggling illegal chinese immigrants across the North Sea.

Over at the Lighthouse in Poole you can catch London to Brighton, a gangland thiller described as the best British thriller of 2006.

This year’s chosen theme is India and on Saturday there is the chance to work up an appetite whilst watching the classic Monsoon Wedding at Winfrith Village Hall, with a curry meal available after the film!