BRIDPORT’S FILM FESTIVAL
CELEBRATING THE ADAPTATION OF BOOKS TO FILM
WEDNESDAY 23 RD - SUNDAY 27 TH APRIL 2025
WELCOME TO BRIDPORT’S FILM FESTIVAL FROM PAGE TO SCREEN 2025
MEET OUR CURATOR | ANDREW CHATER
Andrew Chater is a Professor in the Faculty of English at the University of Southern California and a passionate enthusiast for the American novel. He describes himself as “a contemporary educator who creates inspiring journeys through past and present cultures”. Andrew is also a distinguished producer, director and presenter of historical documentaries, and the winner of six BAFTA awards.
‘‘The From Page to Screen festival feels like a great way to combine my deep interest in the American novel and enduring love of all things film.
At this moment in time, it also feels particularly vital to explore American culture and writing and examine how these have been expressed in cinematic form. To what extent has the way that America portrays itself on film become the America that we see today? Does fiction express reality, or have fictional tropes expressed in American books and films evolved into a kind of ‘fictional’ version of America, but now playing out in real life? American Fictions is therefore my theme for this year’s festival.
It will be a journey that takes in stories of rugged individuals, of the American Dream and corporate dystopia, of politics and power, but also of alternative narratives, gentler and more subtle. We might not fully get to the bottom of things, but let’s unpack the box and explore things a little and of course, watch some great films adapted from great American writing.”
Andrew Chater
| From Page To Screen 2025 Curator
SATURDAY 22 ND MARCH | 7.30PM
Put your film knowledge to the test at our From Page To Screen film festival quiz night
Join us for another fun-filled evening of movie trivia, where you’ll answer questions about classic adaptations, unforgettable characters, and iconic scenes. Whether you’re a seasoned cinephile or a casual film fan, there’s something for everyone! Hosted in the Bridport Arts Centre’s theatre this is the perfect way to get ready for April’s film festival.
The bar will be open from 6:30pm so grab your friends, form a team, don your best American inspired outfits if you dare and see if you have what it takes to win Bridport’s ultimate film quiz and take home some fantastic prizes!
SUPPORT BRIDPORT ARTS CENTRE EVERY CONTRIBUTION COUNTS!
“IN
A UNIQUE WAY, BRIDPORT’S FESTIVAL OFFERS US THE CHANCE TO THINK ABOUT THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LITERATURE AND CINEMA, WITH AN ALWAYS WELL-CHOSEN MIX OF NEW AND CLASSIC FILMS. ONE OF THE MOST DISTINCTIVE AND DELIGHTFUL FESTIVALS IN THE CALENDAR”
Sir Christopher Hampton | Bridport Arts Centre Patron
Did you know Bridport Arts Centre is a charity? We we rely on your support to be able to provide all the arts for everyone in this community, including our fabulous film festival. There are so many ways you can help:
Make a donation online or in our foyer
Become a Supporter or a Festival Friend
Sponsor the Allsop Gallery
Buy tickets to our exciting events
Every little helps us bring inspiring performances, exhibitions, and festivals to Bridport. Thank you for being part of our creative community!
EXHIBITION | CARLETON E. WATKINS PHOTOGRAPHING THE
AMERICAN WEST
WEDNESDAY 23 RD APRIL - SATURDAY 3 RD MAY | 10AM - 4 PM TUESDAY - SATURDAY
THE ALLSOP GALLERY | FREE ENTRY
Accompanying the From Page to Screen film festival will be an exhibition in the Allsop Gallery exploring the work of Carleton E. Watkins (1829-1916), one of America’s best-known landscape photographers. Watkins travelled thousands of miles documenting the American landscape and, in particular, the changing fortunes of the American West.
The exhibition will include a selection of reproduced photographs capturing the awe-inspiring scenery of Yosemite, California. Venturing deep into the land, Watkins took highly detailed images using a specially designed large format camera ideally suited to capturing the vast scenic views and towering geological formations. His photographs portrayed Yosemite as an untouched wilderness, despite the land having been occupied for centuries by the Ahwahnechee people, and laid the foundations for Yosemite becoming America’s first National Park in 1864.
As the United States expanded its territory westwards, Watkins documented the newly-built railways, the mining and lumbering industries and a burgeoning tourist trade. He captured a landscape in transition and helped shape an image of the American West as a land of opportunity that was central to the idea of the American Dream.
Image credit: Carleton E. Watkins, Yosemite, California: the Valley from Mariposa Trail, around 1860-1880, photograph. Wellcome Collection, London
EXTRA EVENT FIRST BLOOD
THURSDAY 10 TH APRIL | 7:30 pm
15 | 1982 | 1h33 | £6, £5
DIRECTOR | Ted Kotcheff
STARS | Sylvester Stallone, Brian Dennehy & Richard Crenna
SOURCE TEXT | First Blood by David Morrell
SCREENWRITER | Michael Kozoll & William Sackheim
Ripe for reappraisal, the first and best outing for Sylvester Stallone’s rugged Vietnam War veteran, John Rambo. Described by the New York Times as a “fierce, agile, hollow-eyed hero” and a “tormented, misunderstood, amazingly resourceful victim of the Vietnam War”, Stallone’s creation rapidly became an icon for Reagan-era America. Indeed, Rambo continues to influence all kinds of populist political imagery to this day.
“STALLONE
BROUGHT INTENSE PHYSICALITY, OBVIOUSLY, BUT ALSO HANGDOG VULNERABILITY TO A CHARACTER WHO TAKES REVENGE ON A CRUEL, UNFEELING ESTABLISHMENT AND UTTERS SOME OF THE MOST ICONIC LINES IN SHOOT ‘EM UP HISTORY”
Kevin Maher | The Times
EXTRA EVENT PRAYERS FOR THE STOLEN
DIRECTOR | Tatiana Huezo
STARS | Memo Villegas, Mayra Batalla & Teresa Sánchez
SOURCE TEXT | Prayers for the Stolen by Jennifer Clement
SCREENWRITER | Tatiana Huezo
A deeply moving coming of age story about three girls in a rural Mexican village dominated by the drug trade, human trafficking and US dollar flows from across the border. Based on the novel by American-Mexican author, Jennifer Clement this is a film about the power of female friendship, but also of lives lived under the daily shadow of fear and external threats.
“HUEZO TAPS INTO THE INTENSE VIBRATION BETWEEN YOUNG FEMALE FRIENDS WHO TREASURE EACH OTHER ABOVE ALL ELSE”
Wendy Ide | The Observer
“… ANCHORED BY THE TENDER AND WOUNDED PERFORMANCES BY ITS ADOLESCENT CAST”
Beatrice Loayza | New York Times
THE GRAPES OF WRATH
INTRODUCTION BY ANDREW CHATER
(PG) | 1940 | 2h09
BAC | 11am | £6.50
DIRECTOR | John Ford
STARS | Henry Fonda, Jane Darwell & John Carradine
SOURCE TEXT | The Grapes Of Wrath by John Steinbeck
SCREENWRITER | Nunnally Johnson
Director John Ford, the filmmaker who immortalised the Wild West, turns his attention in The Grapes of Wrath to the plight of the Joads, a simple farming family forced into exodus as the dust bowl settles over Kansas. Shot with the rugged poetry of classic Hollywood’s greatest cameraman, Gregg Toland, and led by Henry Fonda in his most touching performance, Ford gracefully adapts John Steinbeck’s titanic novel, capturing both the epic canvas of the land of plenty in starvation, and the gorgeous interplay of the family dynamic. A true American classic.
SPONSORED BY
“WITH A MAJESTY NEVER BEFORE SO CONSTANTLY SUSTAINED ON ANY SCREEN, THE FILM NEVER FOR AN INSTANT FALTERS”
John Mosher | The New Yorker
THE DAY OF THE LOCUST
INTRODUCTION BY ANDREW CHATER
(18) | 1975 | 2h24
BAC | 2pm | £6.50
DIRECTOR | John Schlesinger
STARS | Donald Sutherland, Karen Black, William Atherton & Burgess Meredith
SOURCE TEXT | Nathanael West
SCREENWRITER | The Day Of The Locust by Waldo Salt
John Schlesinger’s adaptation of Nathanael West’s 1939 novel, The Day of the Locust is a hallucinatory critique of the wide-eyed dreamers caught in the uncompromising gears of the Hollywood dream factory. Tod Hackett (Atherton) is an aspiring artist recently arrived in the world of dazzling 1930s Tinseltown who finds himself entangled in the lives of oddballs like wannabe starlet Faye (Black) and tragic loner Homer Simpson (Sutherland). With stunning sun-bleached cinematography by Conrad Hall, haunting performances from an iconic cast, John Schlesinger’s visionary adaptation is both grotesque and mesmerising, culminating in an utterly unhinged apocalyptic climax that is hard to watch but impossible to look away from.
“A DARING, EPIC FILM... A BRILLIANT ONE AT TIMES, AND WITH A WEALTH OF SHARP-EDGED PERFORMANCES”
“DONALD SUTHERLAND IS ONE OF THE MOVIE’S WONDERS” Roger Ebert | Chicago Sun-Times
THE HATE U GIVE
INTRODUCTION BY ANDREW CHATER
(12) | 2018 | 2h13
BAC | 5pm | £6.50
DIRECTOR | George Tillman Jr.
STARS | Amandla Stenberg, Regina Hall & Russell Hornsby
SOURCE TEXT | The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
SCREENWRITER | Audrey Wells
Exquisite Amandla Stenberg delivers a magnetic performance as Starr, the bright young teen switching with confidence between her black neighbourhood and preppy white high school - until a policeman shoots her friend during a traffic stop, and those worlds collide. Russell Hornsby and Regina Hall excel as the parents attempting to shield their daughter from life in the hood, while preparing her for its grim realities.
George Tillman Jr directs with style and verve, bringing the humour and tragedy of Angie Thomas’s powerful best-selling novel to the screen in one of the most urgent movies of recent times. The film’s fast, funny dialogue, charismatic young cast, and sensitive handling of clashing perspectives keep the personal and political in play.
“A SCINTILLATING, ANGRY ROAR OF A FILM THAT REWIRES THE POSSIBILITIES OF WHAT A TEEN MOVIE CAN SAY AND DO”
GALA SCREENING
THE PENGUIN LESSONS
INTRODUCTION BY ANDREW CHATER (12A) | 2025 | 1h51
EP | 8pm | £13* (*includes £1 booking fee)
DIRECTOR | Peter Cattaneo
STARS | Steve Coogan, Björn Gustafsson, David Herrero & Jonathan Pryce
SOURCE TEXT | The Penguin Lessons A True Story by Tom Michell
SCREENWRITER | Jeff Pope
Steve Coogan plays a British teacher who takes a job in Argentina in 1976 during a brutal period in the country’s history, He finds his life transformed both personally and politically when he rescues an orphaned penguin from the beach. Adapted from Cornish teacher Tom Michell’s memoir the comedy-drama was written by Jeff Pope, Coogan’s frequent collaborator and directed by Peter Cattaneo (The Full Monty) and co-stars Jonathan Pryce.
“THOROUGHLY ENGAGING, AMUSING AND ENDEARING”
Matt Neglia | Letterboxd.com
“COOGAN DISPLAYS PRECISION COMIC TIMING… HIS SCENES WITH THE WONDERFUL BJÖRN GUSTAFSSON, AS AN INGENUOUS COLLEAGUE BAFFLED BY IRONY AND SARCASM, ARE A DELIGHT”
Ryan Gilbey | The Guardian
ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST
LIGULA
(15) | 1975 | 2h13
BAC | 11am | £6.50
001
INTRODUCTION BY ANDREW CHATER
DIRECTOR | Milos Forman
STARS | Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher, Michael Berryman & Will Sampson
SOURCE TEXT | One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
SCREENWRITER | Lawrence Hauben & Bo Goldman
Winner of Academy Awards for best picture, director, actor, actress and adapted screenplay, Miloš Forman’s film of Ken Kesey’s countercultural novel is an essential American classic. Jack Nicholson excels as rebellious new patient, Randle McMurphy who cockily challenges the chilly control of Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher) on the ward of an Oregon psychiatric hospital. As a ferocious battle of wills plays out, solid presence is provided by Will Sampson Jr.’s “Chief” Bromden, silently observing, patiently waiting for the sun.
“IT
IS A POLITICAL FILM … I MEAN POLITICAL IN THE SENSE THAT IT IS ABOUT POWER, ABOUT IDEOLOGICAL TYRANNY, AND BEHIND ITS FAÇADE ARE ALL THE SOLZHENITSYNS WHO DIDN’T GET OUT”
Dilys Powell | The Sunday Times
“… A POWERFUL, SMASHINGLY EFFECTIVE MOVIE”
Pauline Kael | The New Yorker
THEATRE FILM SPOKEN WORD COMEDY EXHIBITIONS MUSIC DANCE
CERTAIN WOMEN
INTRODUCTION BY ANDREW CHATER
LIGULA MANGA No. 001
(12) | 2016 | 1h47
BAC | 2pm | £6.50
DIRECTOR | Kelly Reichardt
STARS | Michelle Williams, Kristen Stewart, Lily Gladstone & Laura Dern
SOURCE TEXT | Stories by Maile Meloy
SCREENWRITER | Kelly Reichardt
Director Kelly Reichardt (First Cow, Wendy and Lucy) sets her subtle triptych against Montana’s mountains and plains (poetically captured by cinematographer Christopher Blauvelt) - an empty, isolated landscape that reflects glimpses of loneliness and longing in the lives of the four women whose stories we follow. Laura Dern is a lawyer whose calm professionalism masks a simmering resentment of the clients, colleagues and cops comprising her workload in small-town America; Michelle Williams is a high-achieving control freak focused on building a perfect rural retreat whilst her family is slipping away from her. But it’s the final strand, where Kristen Stewart’s harassed and exhausted night-school teacher encounters pensive horse-rancher Lily Gladstone (Oscar-nominated for Killers of the Flower Moon), that will stay with you…
Fun fact: Raised on the Blackfeet Reservation, Lily Gladstone is descended from both British Prime Minister William Gladstone and U.S. treaty signatory, chief Red Crow.
“IT’S
THIS FINAL SEGMENT, WITH ITS MELANCHOLIC RHYTHMS AND LOVELY, TEXTURED PERFORMANCES FROM STEWART AND GLADSTONE, THAT ELEVATES THE FILM INTO THE UNASSUMING MASTERPIECE THAT IT IS… A MINOR MIRACLE”
Wendy Ide | The Guardian
“POWERFUL, FOCUSED, NERVY, LEAN. CERTAIN WOMEN IS A WORK OF ART PRODUCED BY A DIRECTOR IN FULL CONTROL OF HER MATERIAL. IT LEAVES YOU REELING”
Catherine Wheatley | Sight & Sound
WINTER’S BONE
INTRODUCTION BY ANDREW CHATER
(15) | 2010 | 1h40
BAC | 5pm | £6.50
DIRECTOR | Debra Granik
STARS | Jennifer Lawrence, John Hawkes & Garret Dillahunt
SOURCE TEXT | Winter’s Bone by Daniel Woodrell
SCREENWRITER | Debra Granik & Anne Rosellini
Winter’s Bone catapulted a young Jennifer Lawrence to stardom with this vividly naturalistic Ozark thriller. Granik’s starkly beautiful film ratchets up the tension of Daniel Woodrell’s backwoods whodunnit, and delivers some genuinely heartstopping moments. Lawrence’s unflinching Ree faces the vicissitudes of her impoverished mountain community with dignity and grit in a mesmerising performance that secured her first Oscar nomination, alongside John Hawkes’s Best Supporting Actor nomination as her drug-dealing uncle - Granik and Rosselini were also up for best adapted screenplay, and the film itself for Best Motion Picture.
“EVERY ONCE IN A RARE WHILE A MOVIE GETS INSIDE YOUR HEAD AND HEART, RUBBING YOUR EMOTIONS RAW”
Peter Travers | Rolling Stone
“HAUNTING AUTHENTICITY, REINFORCING OUR FAITH IN THE WONDERFULLY TRANSPORTING POWER OF CINEMATIC STORYTELLING. WINTER’S BONE IS UNQUESTIONABLY THAT FILM”
Claudia Puig | USA Today
THE ROOM NEXT DOOR
LIGULA MANGA No. 001
(12) | 2024 | 1h46
BAC | 8pm | £8.50
DIRECTOR | Pedro Almodóvar
STARS | Julianne Moore, Tilda Swinton & John Turturro
SOURCE TEXT | What Are You Going Through by Sigrid Nuñez
SCREENWRITER | Pedro Almodóvar
Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton star as old friends in Almodóvar’s ravishing English language debut, which won the Golden Lion (Best Film) at last year’s Venice film festival.
At a book signing, best-selling author Ingrid (Moore) learns that war correspondent Martha (Swinton) is gravely ill in hospital. As her health declines, Martha persuades her reluctant friend to accompany her on her final journey to a remote woodland retreat. The director explores themes of friendship and alienation, life and death, honesty and deception in an austere yet moving meditation. Sumptuous interiors, a brooding score and echoes of Hitchcock and Sirk provide the backdrop to the enigmatic narrative.
“THE COLOURS OF THE ROOM NEXT DOOR ARE ITS SECRET MESSAGE, A LANGUAGE
OF
PLEASURE
AND
BEAUTY THAT REMINDS
US HOW GREAT
IT
IS TO BE
ALIVE. IF IT’S POSSIBLE TO MAKE A JOYFUL MOVIE ABOUT DEATH, ALMODÓVAR HAS JUST DONE IT”
Stephanie Zacharek | TIME Magazine
TURNING CAREERS INTO CREATIVITY
Image: Heather EmeryBA (Hons) Commercial Photography
IN COLD BLOOD
INTRODUCTION BY XAN BROOKS
LIGULA MANGA No. 001
(15) | 1967 | 2h14
BAC | 11am | £6.50
DIRECTOR | Richard Brooks
STARS | Robert Blake, Scott Wilson & John Forsythe
SOURCE TEXT | In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
SCREENWRITER | Richard Books
Arkansas 1959. Perry Smith and Dick Hickock, two ex-convicts, hatch a plan to rob a wealthy farmer’s family – the Cutters. The robbery goes wrong and they end up killing the entire family. Truman Capote wrote his celebrated non-fiction novel based on the Cutters’ fate and created a whole new literary genre. Director Richard Brooks adapted the book and aspiring to a documentary aesthetic cast two unknown actors, Robert Blake and Scott Wilson, in the lead roles. Filmed on location in Arkansas and partly in the Cutters’ actual house the film is a dark, menacing and gripping narrative enhanced by the remarkable performances of Blake and Wison.
“EXCELLENT QUASI-DOCUMENTARY,
WHICH
“IN ITS DARK SHADOWS, THE FILM REEKS AUTHENTICITY, BECAUSE IT WAS SHOT IN THE HOUSE, COURTROOM AND PRISON WHERE THE EVENTS TOOK PLACE. THE CAMERA POKES DEEP INTO THE PSYCHE OF THE TWO KILLERS: STRANGE , DISTURBED, WAR DAMAGED”
Kate Muir | The Times
SENDS
SHIVERS DOWN THE SPINE WHILE MOVING THE VIEWER TO PONDER”
Bosley Crowther | New York Times
DELIVERANCE
INCLUDING POST SHOW Q&A WITH XAN BROOKS
(18) | 1972 | 1h49
BAC | 2pm | £8.50
DIRECTOR | John Boorman
STARS | Jon Voight, Burt Reynolds & Ned Beatty
SOURCE TEXT | Deliverance by James Dickey
SCREENWRITER | James Dickey
John Boorman’s notorious Deliverance is gruelling and gripping in equal measure: an elemental experience that gazes unflinchingly at the nature of cultural divides, class and masculinity.
Deliverance follows four ‘city boys’ (including Burt Reynolds and Jon Voight) who head into the northern Georgian wilderness for a canoeing expedition that goes horribly wrong when they find themselves in a brutal confrontation with the local people. Packed with uneasily handsome photography of the Georgia countryside and heart-stopping stunt work; the film is a propulsive, white knuckle ride and a shockingly sharp exploration of America’s divisions. For all its queasy grotesquerie, Deliverance is a ‘cracking good story’ and ‘a finely structured allegory’ (Derek Malcolm).
After the screening, writer and broadcaster Xan Brooks will explore the film in depth. A founding editorial team member at The Big Issue magazine, Xan then spent 15 years at The Guardian. He is still a regular film writer for them, and most recently, talked politics with Robert De Niro when they discussed the star’s new thriller ‘Zero Day’ in which he plays ‘a leader that people can actually trust’.
ALL THE KING’S MEN
INTRODUCTION BY ANDREW CHATER
(U) | 1949 | 1h50
BAC | 5pm | £6.50
DIRECTOR | Robert Rossen
STARS | Broderick Crawford, John Ireland & Joanne Dru
SOURCE TEXT | All The King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren
SCREENWRITER | Robert Rossen
Robert Rossen directs one of cinema’s greatest and most terrifying transformations as Willie Stark (Broderick Crawford) evolves from softly-spoken rural candidate into a barking, rabble-rousing juggernaut who burns the rule book and watches the embers spark a raging populist fire. Written with acidic cynicism and edited with an electrifying ferocity, All The King’s Men is as daring today as when it was uncaged in 1949 and, perhaps, asks the most important political questions for us today: Can we learn from history? And is it too late?
“ALL THE KINGS MEN IS MOVIEMAKING AT ITS BEST. IT MOVES BOTH ON THE PHYSICAL AND MENTAL PLANES. IT HAS SOMETHING TO SAY AND SAYS IT WITH THE KIND OF TECHNIQUE THE SCREEN HAS NOT SEEN SINCE CITIZEN KANE”
Ezra Goodman | LA Illustrated Daily New
SPONSORED BY Jenifer and Martin Roddy
THE APPRENTICE
(15) | 2024 | 2h02
| 8pm | £8.50
DIRECTOR | Ali Abbasi
STARS | Sebastian Stan, Jeremy Strong & Martin Donovan
SOURCE TEXT | Based on numerous biographies
SCREENWRITER | Gabriel Sherman
In this independent dramatised biopic, a young Donald Trump (Sebastian Stan) endeavours to build his real estate empire under the mentoring of Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong) an attorney and “quintessential fixer” in 1970s and 1980s New York City. In Trump, Cohn sees an ideal protégé, someone ambitious, hungry for results and driven by the “Art of the Deal”, but also someone insensitive to the influence of his first wife, Ivana (Maria Bakalova) on Trump Organization business success.This film received an eight minute standing ovation at its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival and Stan’s performance has been nominated for Leading Actor at this years BAFTAs, Oscars and Golden Globes.
“THREE RULES FOR SUCCESS: NO 1. ATTACK, ATTACK, ATTACK. NO 2: ADMIT NOTHING, DENY EVERYTHING. NO 3: ALWAYS CLAIM VICTORY, NEVER ADMIT DEFEAT”
Roy Cohn | The Apprentice
“IT’S AN ORIGIN STORY, IF YOU LIKE, AND I WAS GRIPPED THROUGHOUT. IT’S BRILLIANTLY ACTED AND CONCEIVED, AND IT TAKES ITS SUBJECT SERIOUSLY”
Deborah Ross | The Spectator
“A DEFAMATORY, POLITICALLY DISGUSTING HATCHET JOB”
Donald Trump | X
ARE YOU THERE GOD? IT’S ME, MARGARET
INTRODUCTION BY ANDREW CHATER
(PG) | 2023 | 1h46
BAC | 11am | £6.50
DIRECTOR | Kelly Fremon Craig
STARS | Abby Ryder Fortson, Rachel McAdams & Kathy Bates
SOURCE TEXT | Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. by Judy Blume
SCREENWRITER | Kelly Fremon Craig
Rated 99% on film review site Rotten Tomatoes, Kelly Fremon Craig’s tender adaptation of Judy Blume’s young adult classic transports us back to 1973, where 11 year old New Yorker Margaret (Abby Ryder Fortson - terrific) is uprooted from her home thanks to her father’s new job. Margaret has to start over in a cliquey New Jersey middle school where her schoolmates bewilderingly obsess over boys and teen bras, and long for their periods to start. Lacking a confidante, Margaret endearingly entrusts her fears, trials and yearnings to a secret journal. Her doting grandmother, a hilariously extrovert, overbearing Kathy Bates - and art teacher mother Barbara - a wonderfully warm and expressive Rachel McAdams - also struggle to adapt to the move, and the film charts all their familial conflicts and tensions with much humour and empathy. With note-perfect production design and costume, Margaret offers a real treat with cross-generational appeal, perfect for Saturday morning cinema!
“A WARM, EMOTIONALLY AGILE ADAPTATION OF JUDY BLUME’S MUCH-LOVED 1970 NOVEL”
“THE JUDY BLUME BOOK RECEIVES THE AGELESS TREATMENT IT DESERVES IN A MOVIE THAT CAPTURES THE 1970 VIBE (STARTING WITH THE SOUNDTRACK) WHILE COMPLETELY TRANSCENDING IT”
Brian Lowry | CNN
BABOO LOGO SPONSORED BY
WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT?
LIGULA MANGA No. 001
POST FILM Q&A WITH IMOGEN SUTTON
(PG) | 1988 | 1h43 | Family Film
BAC | 2pm | Adult £8.50, Child £6
DIRECTOR | Robert Zemeckis
STARS | Bob Hoskins, Christopher Lloyd & Joanna Cassidy
SOURCE TEXT | Who Censored Roger Rabbit? by Gary K. Wolf
SCREENWRITER | Jeffrey Price & Peter S. Seaman
Toon Town meets film noir in a fantastical version of 1940s Hollywood, where humans and animated characters uneasily coexist in a world where the ‘toons’ are exploited and mistreated. A dazzling combination of animation and live action, Bob Hoskins’ grumpy private investigator Eddie Valiant is propelled into a mission to exonerate Roger Rabbit and save Toon Town with the help of Roger’s wily femme fatale wife Jessica (voiced by an uncredited Kathleen Turner). Animation director Richard Williams won Academy Awards for Best Visual Effects and a Special Achievement Academy Award.
Join us after the screening when producer, director and author Imogen Sutton will discuss her late husband Richard Williams’ work on the 1988 film and their book - Adventures in Animation: How I Learned, Who I Learned From and What I Did With It - which she completed after he died in 2019. As well as exploring Williams’ career, the book charts how the film was the visionary bridge between the golden age of Disney and the current wave of beloved digital animated features like ‘Toy Story’ and ‘The Incredibles’.
“A JOYOUS, GIDDY, GOOFY CELEBRATION OF THE KIND OF FUN YOU CAN HAVE WITH A MOVIE CAMERA”
Roger Ebert | Chicago Sun-Times
“A
FILM WHOSE BEST MOMENTS ARE SO NOVEL, SO DELIRIOUSLY FUNNY AND SO CRAZILY UNEXPECTED THAT THEY TRULY MUST BE SEEN TO BE BELIEVED”
Janet Maslin | The New York Times
NICKEL BOYS
LIGULA MANGA No. 001
(12A) | 2024 | 2h19
BAC | 5pm | £6.50
DIRECTOR | RaMell Ross
STARS | Ethan Herisse, Brandon Wilson & Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor
SOURCE TEXT | The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
SCREENWRITER | RaMell Ross & Joslyn Barnes
Adapted from Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel, the film follows two young African American boys at a segregated reform school in the 1960s. Elwood’s (Ethan Herisse) dreams of going to college are shattered when he is unjustly arrested and sentenced to Nickel Academy, a brutal reformatory in Florida. Clinging to his optimistic worldview, Elwood strikes up a friendship with a fellow Black teen who dispenses fundamental tips on survival. It is a story of friendship in the face of racism, injustice, abuse and even murder. Highly praised for the technical virtuosity of the sound design and cinematography, director Ramell Ross made the radical stylistic decision to allow viewers to see the plot unfold directly through the eyes of the two protagonists by shooting the film using POV - a point of view shooting style. On release the film garnered many awards and nominations, including both Oscar and BAFTA nominations for Best Film, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay.
“THIS IS MEDIUM-DEFINING WORK - AESTHETICALLY, SPIRITUALLY - A RICH AND OVERWHELMING CINEMA WHERE THE CAMERA IS ALWAYS CURIOUS AND WHAT IT FINDS IS ALWAYS ARRESTING”
Barry Jenkins | Film Director
“A MASTERPIECE’’ Wendy Ide | The Guardian
THE WIND
WITH LIVE SCORE BY DORSET
(TBC) | 1928 | 1h35
BAC | 8pm | £12
DIRECTOR | Victor Sjöström
MUSICIAN
ELIZABETH HORNBY
STARS | Lillian Gish, Lars Hanson & Montagu Love
SOURCE TEXT | The Wind by Dorothy Scarborough SCREENWRITER | Frances Marion
Lillian Gish gives one of silent cinema’s greatest performances in her role as Letty, a young woman who leaves the cultivated East for the untamed Texas plains to forge a new life for herself, but finds herself battling predatory men, misogyny and the elements. One of the late, great pictures made during the rapidly vanishing silent era, The Wind is an exciting phychological thriller told with striking visual imagination and a unique Western villain, the ceaseless whipping winds that drive our heroine to the brink of madness.
The screening will be accompanied by the performance of a new live score composed for ‘The Wind’ by West Dorset musician Elizabeth Hornby (married name Harley). Elizabeth has been composing for over 15 years, performing here at the BAC and Electric Palace as well as Exeter Cathedral and touring the West Coast of America and Canada. She has produced stirring, cinematic albums like ‘Lady of Lewesdon Hill’, and more recently 2017’s ‘Betrothal’. She is relishing the prospect of this new musical work;
“PREPARING FOR THIS SPECIAL EVENT FOR THE FAMOUS FROM PAGE TO SCREEN FESTIVAL IS UNLIKE ANY CHALLENGE I’VE SET FOR MYSELF PREVIOUSLYI AM IN LOVE WITH THE LARGER-THAN-LIFE CHARACTERS AND THEIR EMOTIONAL WORLDS. CREATING MUSIC TO SUIT THE MANY MOODS OF THIS FILM IS A BEAUTIFUL EXPERIENCE.”
SPONSORED
Small is bountiful
THE AGE OF INNOCENCE
INTRODUCTION BY ANDREW CHATER
(12A) | 1993 | 2h19
BAC | 11am | £6.50
DIRECTOR | Martin Scorsese
STARS | Daniel Day-Lewis, Michelle Pfeiffer & Winona Ryder
SOURCE TEXT | The Age Of Innocence by Edith Wharton
SCREENWRITER | Jay Cocks & Martin Scorsese
SPONSORED BY Sarah & Ray Earwicker
Set in New York’s gilded age, Scorsese’s lush period drama The Age of Innocence follows Newland Archer (Day-Lewis) as he is caught between two women: his socialite fiancée, May (Ryder), and her cousin, Ellen (Pfeiffer), who has recently returned to the city following a scandalous divorce.
Scorsese stages Newland’s unbearable passion and conflict within an opulent, meticulously detailed rendering of late 1800s New York - where social codes are constantly policed and cruelly enforced. The film acts as an illumination of what truly fascinates perhaps America’s greatest auteur: mechanisms of quiet cultural repression, the heartless ways in which we treat each other, and damaged, lonely people.
“THE AGE OF INNOCENCE IS A LUSH, HEART WRENCHING STUDY OF FRUSTRATED DESIRES: A ‘LUXURIOUS WORK OF ART… (WITH) MICHELLE PFEIFFER IN THE ROLE OF A LIFETIME”
Peter Bradshaw
THE ICE STORM
INTRODUCTION BY REBECCA LENKIEWICZ
(15) | 1997 | 1h47
BAC | 2pm | £6.50
DIRECTOR | Ang Lee
SPONSORED BY Margery Bone and Colin Teague
STARS | Kevin Kline, Joan Allen, Sigourney Weaver, Christina Ricci, Elijah Wood & Tobey Maguire
SOURCE TEXT | The Ice Storm by Rick Moody
SCREENWRITER | James Schamus
It’s 1973 in New Canaan, Connecticut - a time of waterbeds, Watergate and wife-swapping. Janey Carver (Weaver) is preparing a racy Thanksgiving party in her split-level modernist home - she’s also conducting a half-hearted affair with neighbour Ben Hood (Kline), while his wife - repressed and depressed Joan Allen - kills time shoplifting. Outside, an ice storm is brewing - magnificently captured by cinematographer Frederick Elmes (Blue Velvet) and the great Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain, Sense & Sensibility).
A rare outing for James Schamus’s sophisticated adaptation of Rick Moody’s satirical novel (“one of the wittiest books about family life ever written” - The Guardian), The Ice Storm is bleak and painfully funny, harrowing at times. Its dazzling ensemble cast includes teenage stars Elijah Wood, Tobey Maguire and an unforgettably cynical Christina Ricci as the pubescent adolescents mirroring their parents’ joyless experimentation with drink, drugs and sex.
“NOTHING LESS THAN ONE OF THE YEAR’S BEST PICTURES, A PORTRAIT OF WEALTHY CONNECTICUT
SUBURBANITES IN THE 1970S WHOSE LIVES HAVE NO EMOTIONAL OR SPIRITUAL RUDDER”
Gene Siskel | Chicago Tribune
“LEE DARINGLY CHOOSES TO KEEP HIS STORY’S MOTIVATIONAL MYSTERIES UNEXPLAINED, LEAVING THIS RICHLY OBSERVED FILM OPEN TO THE VIEWER’S ASSESSMENT”
Janet Maslin | New York Times
THE ROAD TO PERDITION
INTRODUCTION BY ANDREW CHATER
(15) | 2002 | 1h56
BAC | 5pm | £6.50
DIRECTOR | Sam Mendes
STARS | Tom Hanks, Tyler Hoechlin & Paul Newman
SOURCE TEXT | Based on the comic Road To Perdition by Max Allan Collins
SCREENWRITER | David Self
Soon after a bloody double-cross by fearsome mob boss John Rooney (Newman), hitman Sullivan (Hanks) and his son Michael, begin a long and dangerous road to revenge. This adaptation of the pulp graphic novel by director Sam Mendes is a classic tale of the gangster genre, luxuriating in the iconography of neon-lit roadside diners, mob banks ready to be looted, and rain-drenched 1930s Chicago. But at the heart of this thrilling tale of vengeance is a tender journey to reconciliation between fathers and sons, punctuated by Thomas Newman’s heart-wrenching and beautiful score.
“MENDES’ WORK IS GRATIFYINGLY OLD-SCHOOL IN ITS REJECTION OF MODERN-DAY STYLISTIC AGITATION, THE BETTER TO ACHIEVE A SLOW BUT INEXORABLE BUILD TO ITS CLIMAX”
Tod McCarthy | Variety
HOT MILK
EXCLUSIVE UK PREVIEW WITH INTRODUCTION BY REBECCA LENKIEWICZ
(TBC) | 2025 | 1h33
EP | 8pm | £13* (*includes £1 booking fee)
DIRECTOR | Rebecca Lenkiewicz
STARS | Emma Mackey, Vicky Krieps & Fiona Shaw
SOURCE TEXT | Hot Milk by Deborah Levy
SCREENWRITER | Deborah Levy
The festival closes with an exclusive UK preview of ‘Hot Milk’ after its world premiere in the main competition at the Berlin International Film Festival. This darkly humoured adaptation of Deborah Levy’s award-winning 2016 novel is the directorial debut of last year’s From Page To Screen curator, Rebecca Lenkiewicz.
Staring Fiona Shaw (Killing Eve) and Emma Mackey (Sex Education) as a mother and daughter - Rose and Sophia - claustrophobically bound together in a quest to the small Spanish seaside town where an alternative health clinic promises miracles. Rose has mortgaged her house to pay for the healing talents of attentive Dr. Gomez (Vincent Perez) who seems more interested in probing her traumatic past than examining her erratic bouts of disability. Released from the role of carer and her university deadlines, Sofia is drawn to the sensual heat haze of the beach where mysterious Ingrid (Krieps)
seduces her and promises love - but also more secrets and mind games. Sophia’s anthropology expertise can’t help her understand or resolve all the bizarre behaviour of everyone around her, and simmering resentments build to a shocking finale that will fire debates long after the end of the film.
“I’M REALLY EXCITED TO RETURN TO BRIDPORT’S FILM FESTIVAL AND ITS DYNAMIC TEAM WITH ‘HOT MILK’. THE FILMS ARE FANTASTIC AND THE SURROUNDING EVENTS ARE WONDERFUL. FILM FESTIVALS ARE ESSENTIAL FOR THE LIFEBLOOD OF INDEPENDENT FILM AND THIS ONE IS JUST BRILLIANT. THEN THERE’S THE SEA AND CLIFFS AND KUBRICK’S COTTAGE. FILM HEAVEN”
“SHAW GIVES AN EXCELLENT PERFORMANCE –QUERULOUS, CANTANKEROUS, WITTY” The Guardian
“SLIPPERY, SUBVERSIVE STORYTELLING... EXCEPTIONAL...
The Independent
SCREENING AT
Rebecca Lenkiewicz | Hot Milk Director
“ A masterclass whodunnit from the creator of Broadchurch”
“Literally unputdownable… a huge treat”
MARIAN KEYES
GILLIAN MCALLISTER
“Authentic, pacy, rich and extremely satisfying”
ANDREA
MARA
“ Death at the White Hart is everything I love in a crime novel
”
JENNIE GODFREY
“A searing debut ”
JANICE HALLETT
“Layered, human, suspenseful and surprising - t his guy knows how to tell a story ” LEE CHILD
MEET OUR 2025
Our special thanks go to; Andrew Chater, Caroline Greville-Morris, Chris Pike, Claire Tudge, Dee Fenton, Elizabeth Hornby, Ellie Pole, George Earwicker, Honor Beddard, Imogen Sutton, Ines Cavill, Jack Wightman, Jason Foote, Jon Hazell, Jonty Gray, Paul Marshall, Rebecca Lenkiewicz, Robert Burch, Robin Baker, Steph Thomsen, Xan Brooks, Ziggy Gray Margery Bone & Colin Teague Sarah & Ray Earwicker Jenifer & Martin Roddy
WED 23RD THU 24TH
THE GRAPES OF WRATH
(PG) | 1940 | 2h09 BAC | £6.50 | 11am
THE DAY OF THE LOCUST
(18) | 1976 | 2h24 BAC | £6.50 | 2pm
ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST
(15) | 1975 | 2h13 BAC | £6.50 | 11am
CERTAIN WOMEN
(12) | 2010 | 1h47
| £6.50 | 2pm
IN COLD BLOOD INTRODUCTION BY XAN BROOKS
(15) | 1967 | 2h14 BAC | £6.50 | 11am
DELIVERANCE POST-FILM Q&A WITH XAN BROOKS (18) | 1972 | 1h49
| £8.50 | 2pm
ARE YOU THERE GOD? IT’S ME, MARGARET
(PG) | 2023 | 1h46 BAC | £6.50 | 11am
WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT? Q&A WITH IMOGEN SUTTON
(PG) | 1988 | 1h43
| £6, £8.50 | 2pm
AGE OF INNOCENCE
| 1993 | 2h19
| £6.50 | 11am
Venue Key: BAC - Bridport Arts Centre | EP - Electric Palace
TICKETS
BAC TICKETS.......... www.bridport-arts.com/fpts EP TICKETS............. www.electricpalace.org.uk/film VISIT......................... Bridport Tourist Information Centre CALL......................... 01308 424 204
BAC Supporters 10% discount applies to all films showing at BAC only
*Includes the Electric Palace’s £1 booking fee
FESTIVAL TICKET OFFER
| £5, £6 | 7:30pm THURSDAY 1ST MAY EXTRA EVENT FIRST BLOOD (15) | 1982 | 1h33 BAC | £5, £6 | 7:30pm THURSDAY 10TH APRIL
Purchase tickets for all our morning and early afternoon films and get them for £34.50 - That’s a 50% discount!
