10 - 25 October 2014

Mussolini met his death dangling from a lamppost, an ignominious end for Italy’s pompous modern ‘emperor’. Fascism was meant to herald a new age of vigour, strength and direction instead it bred a moral cancer.  This national emptiness and lack of spirit was profoundly felt, amongst others, by a number of filmmakers who, over a decade, developed a movement which became known as Neo-Realism, arguably the most profound change in style and theme that had ever influenced cinema.  It was in essence a moral movement, that hoped to rejuvenate Italy, a renaissance which has continued to influence, partly through the Italian diaspora, filmmakers all over the world.  There probably isn’t a film course which does not give prominence to its celebration and dramatisation of normal life.  The decade of neo-realism, which followed fascism’s collapse lasted until the mid/late 1950s and launched the directorial careers of Luchino Visconti, Roberto Rossellini and Vittorio De Sica.

The theme of this year’s Purbeck Film Festival is Italian Film and with good reason. Italian films have won 14 Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film more than any other country as well as 12 Palme d’Ors, the second most of any country.

In celebration of Italy’s film heritage the festival will be screening Vittorio  De Sica’s The Garden of Finzi-Continis,  Fellini’s 8½ and Bertolucci’s The Conformist.  There will be approximately 17 Italian films, which show Italy’s continuing presence in world cinema: Golden Door (Emanuella Crialese), Bread and Tulips ( Sylvio Soldini) and two great films by Sorrentino (The Consequences of Love and The Great Beauty). Hollywood’s Italian connection is represented by William Wyler’s Roman Holiday and Billy Wilder’s Avanti!

A film festival should of course aim to satisfy a variety of needs and desires.  This, we hope to achieve by screening films of differing genres and cinematic styles.  For the family we are showing Ernest and Celestine at the Lighthouse, Poole and Pinocchio at the Rex.  We are particularly pleased to screen Allegro Non Troppo, a wonderful parody of Fantasia.  It is an unusually successful mix of different animation styles, great classical music and quirky comedy so different  from the conservativism of Disney’s Fantasia.

The innovative Screen-bites evening is this year filled with The Lunchbox, an Indian love story between two total strangers depicting the encouraging moral that regardless of differences in age and separations in space it is never too late to start again.

For those who wish to connect with film’s archive The Rex will be showing A Night at the Cinema an irreplaceable gem of cinema history which has lost none of its power to move an audience.

Once again the Festival is proud to use the display facilities of the World Heritage Centre at Durlston to curate an exhibition of Italian cinema and, on loan from Aardman, the characters from Creature Comforts. There will be an opportunity to discover how the characters are made.  In addition we are very pleased to announce that on Thursday 16th October at 3pm there will be an illustrated talk about the work of Ray Harryhaussen.

We all hope that 2014 will be as successful as previous years and that our chosen films will be as emotionally, intellectually and aesthetically appealing as always.

STOP  PRESS:  A new venue in Bournemouth
This year we are particularly pleased to announce a new venue at Pavilion Dance, Bournemouth where 4 films will be screened. Pavilion Dance, Bournemouth has a wonderful auditorium with great seating and projection.  Purbeck Film Festival is working with the programmer to create an exciting programme of events in the centre of Bournemouth.

We are pleased to announce that the 2013 Festival was able to support 3 charities.  This was made possible when distributors allowed us to screen films free of charge, in this instance, Prayers for Bobby at the Winchester Bar, Bournemouth and Yellow Submarine at the Rex Cinema in Wareham.  The charities which benefitted were, the Marie Curie Foundation, Dorset Action on Abuse and the Terrence Higgins Trust.

We should like to thank the audience members who made these donations possible.

Thanks also go to the Co-operative Membership for sponsoring the screening of Chasing Ice at Durlston Castle in Swanage and to PEAT for supporting this very successful evening on an environmental theme.