BRIDPORT hosts the country’s only film festival which celebrates the art of adapting the written word for the silver screen. This year, From Page to Screen runs at the arts centre, with more than 20 films, from 24th to 28th April.

The guest curator is Rebecca Lenkiewicz, who wrote the screenplay for She Said and for the forthcoming film of Raynor Winn’s The Salt Path.

This year’s programme ranges from some of the most famous films of the past to not-yet-released movies. Historic screenings include the 1979 Tarkovsky masterpiece Stalker, the super-camp Barbarella from 1968, Ken Loach’s utterly wonderful Kes, from 1969, Polanski’s 1971 The Tragedy of Macbeth, and The Innocents, the unnerving 1961 adaptation of Henry James’s The Turn of the Screw, starring a magnificent Deborah Kerr.

Among new and more recent films are Tish (2023), a documentary about photographer Tish Murtha, and a preview of the 2024 release, The Beast, starring Lea Seydoux.

For fans of early cinema, the festival also has two of the finest silent films, Fritz Lang’s dystopian Metropolis (1927) with a live score by Palooka 5, and the terrifying Carl Theodor Dreyer masterpiece, The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928), based on the actual record of the trial of St Joan.

It starred Renee Jeanne Falconetti, who never made another film. If you have seen it, you understand why. If you haven’t, this is arguably one of the greatest films ever made, unforgettable and shocking. It too has a new live score, played by Andrew Goldberg (piano) and Ricky Romain (sitar).

For tickets visit Bridport Arts Centre website, www.bridport-arts.com, or in person at Bridport Tourist Information Centre.

Pictured: Renee Jeanne Falconetti as Joan of Arc and Barbarella.