Bridport's film festival, From Page to Screen, will get underway next week and the programme will include a special selection of adaptations from the groundbreaking cinema of the 1960s and 1970s.

Known as the 'European New Wave' and subsequent 'New Hollywood' eras, these shaped modern movie-making, and movie fans will be able to hear what it was like to be part of this creative revolution from one of its producers. 

These films have been chosen by this year's guest curator Christopher Hampton and festival sponsor Bridport Film Society, to chime with the start of Christopher's five-decade screenwriting career (his first film, A Doll's House starring Antony Hopkins was in 1973) as well as the 50th anniversary of Bridport Arts Centre and its international writing competition The Bridport Prize.

Film Society chair, Bridport Arts Centre trustee and festival committee member, Chris Pike, said these screenings form an unmissable theme to From Page To Screen 2023.

"Something wild and beautiful happened to European cinema in the late 1950s/early 60s as a post-war generation of young filmmakers including Truffaut, Godard and Polanski exploded all the old conventions," he explained.

"The camera moved freely, edits fizzed and popped, the fourth wall crumbled and new life was breathed into the medium. Some call it the new wave, but it was punk too. And like a contagion it spread across the pond to rip into the tired old Hollywood studios as Bonnie and Clyde - 1967's fun-loving criminals - blasted a hole in the California summer of love. 

"During From Page To Screen 2023 we revel in the classics - from The 400 Blows to A Kind Of Loving to The Parallax View - and also explore outlier gems such as John Frankenheimer's Seconds, which totally freaked the 1966 Cannes festival jury and Robert Bresson's Au Hasard Balthazar, lovingly described by Godard as 'the world in an hour and a half'. 

"This exciting, free-form era defined modern cinema. Come celebrate its brilliance with us."

The Tenant (1976), which followed Repulsion (1965) and Rosemary's Baby (1968) in Roman Polanski's 'Apartment Trilogy', will be shown as part of the New Wave & New Hollywood screenings by its producer Andrew Braunsberg. 

After the film, starring Isabelle Adjani and Shelley Winters, Braunsberg will be in conversation with Christopher Hampton to explore a career that provides a window on the film industry in a time of transformation. 

Other acclaimed productions by Braunsberg include Being There (with Peter Sellers) and the 1981 remake of The Postman Always Rings Twice (with Jack Nicholson). 

Braunsberg says of the original release with Polanski: "It was a film the pundits dismissed but The Tenant went on to become a Cult Classic."

For more immersion in this iconic period of cinema, there is the 'Memento' exhibition in Birdport Arts Centre's Allsop Gallery to accompany the festival. 

Using access to the archive of London's Cinema Museum, film Production Designer Caroline Greville-Morris is installing a collection of film stills, props and sets to capture the powerful memories evoked by particular cinematic moments.

Cinephiles should also look out for the festival fundraiser, Fabulous Film Quiz, on Thursday, April 20 at 8pm in Bridport Arts Centre. Tickets cost £10 with cocktail on arrival, lots of prizes and request to "dress for the red carpet".

The From Page To Screen film festival will be held in Bridport from Wednesday, April 26 till Sunday, April 30.

The Tenant is screening at 2pm at Bridport Arts Centre on Thursday, April 27 and the Memento 'Film and Memory' exhibition is in the Bridport Arts Centre's Allsop Gallery, 10am to 4pm Tuesdays to Saturdays, April 18 to 30 and entry is free.

Full festival details are available at www.frompagetoscreen.info, and booking can be made online at www.bridport-arts.com, by calling 01308 424901 or in person at Bridport Tourist Information Centre, complete festival details at www.frompagetoscreen.info