11 - 26 October 2013

On Friday, 10th June, the Rex Cinema rolled out the red carpet to welcome Denise Coffey (actress) and Pauline Melville (author, actress and stand up comedienne) to a screening of Far From The Madding Crowd (1967), followed by a Q&A.  This screening formed part of a Dorset themed evening to raise money towards the installation of the Rex’s new digital projection equipment, which is due to arrive on 5th July.

With almost a full house, the evening was a spectacular success with a fantastic atmosphere - not least because it was hosted so eloquently by local Journalist and author of ‘Dorset in Film’ (Dorset Books) Anwar Brett, but because of the overwhelming community support for the Rex and for the local links.  Special guests included Duncan Kenworthy (Producer of Four Weddings & A Funeral, Notting Hill and Love Actually) and Quentin Falk (author) and Lady Kate Cotton, President of the Purbeck Film Charitable Trust Ltd.

Whilst filming Far From the Madding Crowd, Denise and the crew spent six months in Dorset, and in that time they also made their own short film ‘This Is My Land’ which features many well known Dorset locations.  Denise kindly gave permission for a UK premiere of this short film at the Rex which was wonderfully humorous and poignant.

Sponsors of the event included The Priory Hotel, Summer Lodge (Evershott), Purbeck Ice Cream, Corfe Castle Model Village, Portesham Vineyard, County Products, DIVA popcorn and Optimum Releasing, whose generous support made this evening such a great success.

The Trust hopes that this will be the first of many special celebrity red carpet events at the Rex and would like to thank everyone for their huge support.
 

For most of us Greece is the land of a thousand islands, of idyllic calm and quiet contemplation. There are, however, darker truths hidden behind this tourist patina of which the films, Girl in black and Z provide very good examples.

The former comes from the era considered to be the golden age of Greek cinema and with its Golden Globe award, was one of the first Greek films to achieve international recognition.

The 2011 festival will include a retrospective of the works of Hitchcock; Oscar, Golden Globe and other prize winners; and a collection of Greek films; plus the usual range of over 50 films from many cultures, to be screened in over 20 venues across Dorset, Bournemouth and Poole. Full details will be made available on the website as soon as the programme is confirmed.  Film Festival programmes should be available as usual at the Corfe Castle Stars Under the Stars open air  family event during the August 2011 bank holiday weekend.  The Corfe Castle bank holiday titles and dates will be announced shortly.