Strictly Ballroom is the final film in the Deal Film Club Australian Trilogy and is a 1992 Australian romantic comedy film directed and co-written by Baz Luhrmann in his feature directorial debut. The film is about the dreams of youth and tells the story of the love of two young dancers fighting for artistic freedom against a repressive regime. The film stars, Paul Mercurio, Tara Morice and Bill Hunter.

The film won many awards including the 1992 AFI Best Film Award and the Best Director Award. Also, at the Cannes Film Festival in1992 it won the Foreign Film Award and in 1993 the BAFTA award for Best Costume Design.

Venue: Cleary Hall, The Landmark Centre

Doors 6:20pm / 6:45pm.

£7 members / £9 non-members

There will be an interval during the screening, with a cash bar and refreshments.

Soylent Green (1973) is set in a dystopian future of dying oceans and a perpetual humidity caused by the greenhouse effect, with the resulting pollution, depleted resources, poverty and overpopulation. Directed by Richard Fleischer, the film stars Charlton Heston, Leigh Taylor-Young and Edward G Robinson in his final film role. The film is loosely based on the 1966 science fiction novel,” Make Room, Make Room”, by Harry Harrison, with a plot that combines elements of science fiction and a police procedural. In 1973, it won the Nebula Award for Best Dramatic Presentation and the Saturn Award for Best Science Fiction Film.

This screening is the Deal Film Club contribution to COP29 which will take place from November 11 to 22 in 2024 at Baku Stadium, in Baku, Azerbaijan. This film will also be DFC’s contribution to the Deal Climate Action Day on Saturday 16th November 2024.

Venue: Cleary Hall, The Landmark Centre

Doors 6:20pm / 6:45pm.

£7 members / £9 non-members

There will be an interval during the screening, with a cash bar and refreshments.

Deal Film Club and The Lighthouse presents … a ‘Whip-Round Cinema’ Screening of …

‘Braindead’

Released: 1992
Director: Peter Jackson

The delightfully gonzo tale of a lovestruck teen and his zombified mother, Dead Alive is extremely gory and exceedingly good fun, thanks to Peter Jackson’s affection for the tastelessly sublime.

A young man’s mother is bitten by a Sumatran rat-monkey. She gets sick and dies, at which time she comes back to life, killing and eating dogs, nurses, friends, and neighbours.

Bar is open from 5pm

Film starts 8pm

Donation of £5 suggested

The Sapphires (2012)

Set in Australia in 1968, a quartet of talented Yorta Yorta (Aboriginal Australian) girls are discovered and transformed by Dave, a kind-hearted talent scout with very little rhythm but a passion for soul music. Plucked from obscurity, The Sapphires’ career takes off, and their destiny lands them in Vietnam to sing for the American soldiers. The film is directed by Wayne Blair and written by Keith Thompson and Tony Briggs. The Sapphires is loosely based on a real-life 1960 girl group that included Briggs’ mother and aunt.

Venue: The Landmark Centre (Cleary Hall)

Doors 6.20pm / Film 6.45pm

£7 members / £9 non-members

There will be an interval during the screening, with a cash bar and refreshments.

Samson and Delilah is a 2009 Australian drama film, written and directed by Warwick Thornton and starring Rowan McNamara and Marissa Gibson, both young first-time actors.

The film depicts two Indigenous Australian 14-year-olds living in a remote Aboriginal community near Alice Springs. Samson is petrol-sniffing, mute boy living in a run-down shelter with his brother’s band who play ska music all day outside his bedroom. Samson is interested in Delilah who lives with her grandmother. When Delilah’s grandmother dies, she and Samson decide to steal a car and escape their difficult lives by going to Alice Springs.

There is a hard-hitting truthfulness to the film however its messages about racial inequality are never preachy or overt but a product of the unflinching bravery with which Thorton captures with his characters and their environment. At once a love story and a brutal portrait of poverty and addiction, this was a film only an indigenous filmmaker could have created. The film won many awards, including the Caméra d'Or at Cannes for best first feature.

Venue: Cleary Hall, The Landmark Centre

Doors 6:20pm / Film 6:45pm.

£7 members / £9 non-members

There will be an interval during the screening, with a cash bar and refreshments.

Our latest Members’ only FREE screening is a tribute to Donald Sutherland on what would have been his 89th birthday.

Sutherland became a countercultural icon with such films as The Dirty Dozen, Klute and Don’t Look Now, and subsequently enjoyed a prolific and wide-ranging career in films including Ordinary People, Pride And Prejudice and the Hunger Games films.

But it was his role in 1970’s comedy smash hit M*A*S*H, as anti-authoritarian, smart-alec surgeon Capt. “Hawkeye” Pierce turned the chameleonic Canadian actor into a major star.

Directed by Robert Altman and based on the novel by Richard Hooker, "M*A*S*H" follows a group of Mobile Army Surgical Hospital officers (led by Sutherland and Elliott Gould) as they pass the time with hilarity, pathos and chaos just miles from the front lines of the Korean Conflict.

Doors 6.30pm / Film 7.30pm

(there will be an interval / bar break)

FREE to Deal Film Club members

£10 annual membership available here or on the door

DARA ( Deal Area Refugee Aid ) in association with Deal Film Club will be screening The Old Oak as part of Refugee Week ( June 17-23)

This self-declared final film from 87-year-old British director Ken Loach (Kes; I, Daniel Blake), is a deeply moving drama about loss, fear, and finding hope.

The Old Oak is the last pub standing in a once thriving mining village in northern England. When a group of Syrian refugees move into the neighbourhood, a decisive rift fueled by prejudices develops between within the community. However, the unexpected friendship that forms between The Old Oak’s landlord and a young Syrian woman opens up new possibilities for healing divisions.

Friday 21 June, Landmark Centre (Hollingworth Room)

Doors open: 6.30 pm / Film starts : 7pm

Tickets : £12 - to include 1 x glass of wine / soft drink + Cash bar

There will be a raffle with prizes and all proceeds will be donated to Care4Calais.

A special film+dinner screening presented with Deal for Peace

All profits will be donated to Médicins Sans Frontières.

GAZA MON AMOUR (2022)

Life in Gaza may be a lot harsher since this award-winning romantic comedy-drama was shot, yet the hopeful spirit of resilience endures: that love and laughter will, ultimately, survive.

Recently BAFTA-nominated for portraying Mohamed Al-Fayed in The Crown, veteran actor Salim Daw is Issa, a 60-year-old fisherman who develops a mid-life crush on a local seamstress (Hiam Abbass, best known as Marcia Roy in Succession). Effortlessly well-acted by the two charismatic leads, this gentle comedy packs some unexpected surprises

Twin Palestinian directors Arab and Tarzan Nasser give us an enlightening and authentic glimpse into their hometown and the Hamas-controlled strictures upon its inhabitants.

Given the war now raging, Gaza Mon Amour has become a poignant love letter to the city itself.

In Arabic with English subtitles.

Wednesday 22 May

Landmark, Hollingworth Room (NOTE - lift out of order. Stair-only access)

Doors (and dinner from): 6.15pm / Screening: 7.30pm

** Ticket price includes Mejadera (Middle Eastern pulse dish, WF) and one soft drink, served before the film. All profits will be donated to Médicins Sans Frontières. **

To celebrate Shakespeare’s anniversary on 23 April, we present this rarely-screened adaptation of Hamlet, directed by Akira Kurosawa (Rashamon, The Seven Samurai, Ran).

This masterful 1960 mystery noir sees ambitious illegitimate son Kôichi Nishi (Toshirô Mifune) climb to a high position within a Japanese corporation. He marries the daughter (Kyôko Kagawa) of the company’s vice president Iwabuchi (Masayuki Mori), but at the wedding reception (later an inspiration for The Godfather), the party are reminded of the hushed-up death of Nishi's father and Nishi unleashes a plan to avenge his father's death.

Japanese themed refreshments will be available in the interval… plus a cash only bar

Doors 6.30pm / Film 7pm

Venue: The Landmark Centre (Cleary Hall - ground floor)

A compelling historical adventure starring Klaus Kinski as Don Lope de Aguirre, a ruthless 16th century Spanish conquistador, on an expedition into darkest Peru to find El Dorado, the mythical cities of gold. Accompanied by his daughter, Flores (Cecilia Rivera), a volatile Aguirre faces off against his superior, Don Pedro de Ursua (Ruy Guerra) as he attempts to seize control of the group. As Aguirre presses deeper into the Amazonian jungle, he spirals further into madness.

Werner Herzog directs Klaus Kinski in the first of their five, legendary, tempestuous, collaborations together. Definitely one to watch, or rewatch, on a big screen. [German with English subtitles]

‘Magnificent and mad’ - Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

Doors 6.30pm / Film 7pm

Venue: The Landmark Centre

A crowd-pleasing, Oscar-winning tribute to the magic of silent cinema, The Artist (2011) is a clever, joyous film with delightful performances and visual style to spare.

In the 1920s, actor George Valentin (Jean Dujardin) is a bona fide matinee idol with many adoring fans. While working on his latest film, George finds himself falling in love with an ingenue named Peppy Miller (Bérénice Bejo) and, what's more, it seems Peppy feels the same way. But George is reluctant to cheat on his wife with the beautiful young actress. The growing popularity of sound in movies further separates the potential lovers, as George's career begins to fade while Peppy's star rises.

Doors 6.30pm

Film 7pm

Venue: The Landmark Centre

Deal Film Club and The Lighthouse (and Alfred Hitchcock) present … a ‘Whip-Round Cinema’ Screening of Rope

Brilliantly shot as if in one take, Rope is Hitchcock’s darkly ingenious 1948 crime thriller.

Just before hosting a dinner party, Philip (Farley Granger) and Brandon (John Dall) strangle a mutual friend to death with a piece of rope. As you do. Hiding the body under the table, the pair welcome their guests, including the victim's oblivious fiancée (Joan Chandler) and the college professor (James Stewart) whose philosophical lectures inadvertently inspired the killing.

FREE entry - but a donation of £5 cash would be gratefully received

Doors 7pm / Film 8pm

A tribute to Georgian director Otar Iosseliani, who died in December 2023. ‘The true heir to Jean Renoir, Jacques Tati and Luis Buñuel’ - The Guardian

Monday Morning (2002) is a life-affirming comedy which won the Silver Bear in Berlin. Vincent (Jacques Bidou) provides for his family by working at an oppressive factory, finding escape only in painting. At home, his wife (Anne Kravz-Tarnavsky) constantly bothers him about chores, while his sons ignore him. One day Vincent decides to break free from his soulless nine-to-five life by spending a few days in Venice to visit his father's friend (Otar Iosseliani).

Doors 6.30pm

Film 7pm

Venue: The Landmark Centre

Our ‘alternative’ Christmas offering is Carol (2015) - ‘a must for sophisticated festive film fans’ [The Guardian]

Based on Patricia Highsmith’s 1952 novel, The Price of Salt, and set in a snowy 1950s New York, this multi-Oscar-nominated romance follows the forbidden romance between the mid-divorce Carol (played by Cate Blanchett) and Rooney Mara’s Therese, an aspiring photographer who works on the toy counter at a Manhattan department store.

Beautifully directed by Todd Haynes, Carol was named one of the greatest films of the 21st Century by the BBC.

Doors 6.30pm / Film 7pm

The Landmark Centre (Cleary Hall)

This feel-good 2013 Australian drama is set entirely in Northern Laos, and spoken in the Lao language.

Ahlo's family moves after his village is cleared to make way for a new dam. They come across a rocket festival and Ahlo takes the opportunity to build his own rocket and prove his worth.

Saturday 18 November

The Landmark Centre

129 High St, Deal CT14 6BB

Doors 6.30pm / Film 7pm - note: SPECIAL REDUCED PRICE as we had to reschedule this screening

Deal Pride Presents The Rocky Horror Picture Show movie night, in association with Deal Film Club

A screening of this cult classic plus live performances along the way…

🫦 Dress as your favourite character and come and join the fun for our Halloween extravaganza! You’ll be full of antici…………..pation 🫦

Tickets £10 (+booking fee) available by clicking here

As a special event in memory of our patron, Derek Malcolm, we're putting on a film from his list of 100 greatest films of the 21st century and a members' party.

The details are:

Where: The Landmark, Hollingworth

When: Friday 15 September, celebration party in memory of Derek, 6.30pm, film 7.15pm

Film: Boudu Saved from Drowning / Boudu Sauvé Des Eaux , Director: Jean Renoir, 1932, black&white, subtitles (run-time 83 minutes)

The evening is free to members. Membership, at £10 per year per person, is available at the door, or in advance by clicking here

The story of the dad from Deal who gave birth.

As a transgender man, Deal local Freddy McConnell’s decision to carry his own baby took years of soul searching, but nothing could prepare him for the reality of pregnancy and how it would challenge society's accepted norms of parenthood.

Filmed over 3 years, this acclaimed documentary charts Freddy’s remarkable journey as he draws strength from the friends and family who stand by him.

★★★★ ”An astonishing, unmissable story” — Financial Times

Freddy McConnell will give a live onstage Q&A following the screening

To celebrate International Women’s Day…

Beau Travail (‘Good Work’) is a 1999 masterwork by French director Claire Denis.

A Foreign Legion officer, called Galoup, recalls his once glorious life, leading troops in the Gulf of Djibouti. His existence was happy, strict and regimented, until the arrival of a promising young recruit, Sentain, plants the seeds of destructive jealousy in Galoup's mind.

In the 2022 Sight And Sound critics’ poll, Beau Travail was ranked the 7th best movie of all time.

It ‘is perhaps the best ending of any film, ever’ - Erika Balsom, Frieze

Wednesday 8 March

The Landmark Centre (Cleary Hall)

129 High St, Deal CT14 6BB

Doors 6.30pm / Film 7pm

Are you in the mood for love?

It’s impossible not to fall for the charms of Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung in this achingly intense romance. They are lonely lovers thrown together in early 1960s Hong Kong after they realise their respective partners are having an affair.

Mesmerisingly shot by director Wong Kar-Wai and cinematographer Christopher Doyle, it’s intoxicatingly beautiful.

Ranked 5th in Sight & Sound's ‘Greatest Films of All Time’

Doors 7pm / Film 7.30pm

Members £7 / non-members £9

Local interest alert!

Partly shot in Deal (see below), this is the extraordinary true story of eccentric English artist Louis Wain (Benedict Cumberbatch), famed for his playful, sometimes psychedelic pictures of cats. Moving from the late 1800s through to the 1930s, we follow the progression of Wain’s unique vision and his profound love for his equally unusual wife, Emily (Claire Foy).

We are delighted that Jo and Bernie Thomson are introducing tonight’s screening. Their beautiful seafront house was a key location in the film and they will recount what it was like to have a movie crew descend on them!

Doors 7.30pm - Intro 7.45pm, film 8pm

Members £7 / non-members £9

NOTE: tonight’s venue is the Richardson Room. A cash bar will be available.

As a Christmas gift to our loyal Deal Film Club members, we present you with a FREE screening of this loopy Finnish festive movie.

Buried deep in the near-Arctic mountains, two young boys believe they have uncovered the legendary secret tomb of Santa Claus. However, ‘Santa’ turns out to be not the beloved, ho-ho-ho Father Christmas with the jolly red suits, but the original malevolent creature of local folk lore.

An unexpectedly delightful crossbreed of deadpan comedy and horror/ fantasy.

It’s definitely an ‘alternative’ Christmas movie!

Doors 6.15pm / Film 6.45pm

Members, please email hello@dealfilm.club to reserve your FREE seat

Membership (£10) available on the door on the night or click here to join online

Love movies? Love dogs? This is the film for you!

Even cat-lovers will fall for the charms of this 2005 Argentine shaggy dog story.

In Patagonia, a mechanic who dreams of a different life starts to think big after his hulking adopted pup wins first prize at a local dog show.

Doors 6.15pm / Film 6.45pm

Tickets £7 Deal Film Club members / £9 non-members

The Lighthouse and Deal Film Club present…. Breathless / À Bout De Souffle

A super cool 1960 classic fizzing with joie de vivre.

Jean-Paul Belmondo is the smouldering tough guy and Bogart admirer who has killed a cop; Jean Seberg is the gamine American wannabe writer who may be in love with him.

‘The whole movie is one continuous, inspired cine-jazz solo. There is simply no other film which demonstrates so perfectly what it feels like to be young and in love.’ Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

Our tribute screening to late great French auteur Jean Luc Godard, founder of the New Wave, who has died, aged 91.

Film starts 8pm

NOTE - this is a ‘whip-round’ screening, so pay what you can. A donation of £5 is suggested to cover the £100 license fee.

After the national success of his long-running show NEIL BRAND PRESENTS BUSTER KEATON, acclaimed composer/writer/broadcaster/musician Neil Brand returns with an all-new show about Laurel & Hardy.

From their earliest days on opposite sides of the Atlantic in Music Hall and on the stage, to their individual comedy films before they were paired up by Hal Roach, and on to their silent masterpieces before the arrival of sound, Neil will tell the touching story of the world’s greatest comedy team, who could not have been two more different men!

Fully illustrated with stills, clips (both silent and sound) and Neil’s superlative piano accompaniment and culminating in two of the Boys’ best silent short films, Big Business and Liberty, this is a show that promises gales of laughter throughout, as well as getting under the skin of two warm, funny men who continue to make the world laugh when it needs it most.

Tickets: SPECIAL PRICE!! for Deal Film Club Members £18 / Full price £20

Click HERE to book

Please note that online sales will close at 6.30pm on the day of the show. If you wish to purchase tickets after this time then you will need to do so at the theatre Box Office.

Women are banned from soccer matches in Iran and arrested if they’re caught there. Offside is a high spirited comedy that sees young female footie fans disguise themselves as males so they can slip into Tehran's stadium to watch a World Cup qualifier.

Inspired by director Jafar Panahi’s own daughter, this 2006 film was shot in Iran but never shown there. It’s still banned in Iran today.

Tickets £10 includes a drink (beer / wine/ soft) and a 'special knocker pasty' made by the award-winning Jill Martin of The Town Kitchen.

Doors & refreshments from 7pm. Film starts 7.30pm

With thanks to Deal Town Council for its continued support, and for its sponsorship of this film.

The Lighthouse and Deal Film Club present…. Sightseers

A British couple's road trip takes a deadly turn when they decide to start killing everyone who annoys them.

A bit like Mike Leigh’s Nuts In May, with a side order of murder.

Director Ben Wheatley and writer-stars Alice Lowe and Steve Oram deliver a wicked road trip movie that successfully walks the line between dark comedy and horror.

Free entry - but donations gratefully received to pay towards the license fee

Film starts 8.30pm

Deal Film Club Young Film Programmers and The Lighthouse present … a ‘Whip-Round Cinema’ Screening of Coffee and Cigarettes

‘Coffee and Cigarettes’ is a comic series of short vignettes that build on one another to create a cumulative effect as the characters discuss things as diverse as caffeine popsicles, Paris in the twenties, and the use of nicotine as an insecticide, all the while sitting around sipping coffee and smoking cigarettes. As writer and director Jim Jarmusch delves into the normal pace of our world from an extraordinary angle, he shows just how absorbing the obsessions, joys, and addictions of life can be.

A sprawling cast includes Tom Waits, Cate Blanchett, Iggy Pop, Bill Murray, Steve Coogan, Alfred Molina and The White Stripes

FREE ENTRY - Donations gratefully accepted on the night to pay towards the licence.

Film starts 8.30pm

Charming romcom inspired by Maeve Binchy’s bestselling novel, Evening Class.

A group of Danish misfits find their lives intertwined through their Italian classes.

Beautiful performances and an improvised script create this fresh, moving and uplifting portrait of people finding love, friendship and community far away from traditional family ties.

This is a rare chance to enjoy this warm-hearted 2000 romcom on a big screen.

FREE ice cream provided by Penny Licks

The Landmark bar will be open until 8pm for the purchase of drinks

Doors 7pm / Film 7.30pm

It’s International Jazz Day on 30 April. To celebrate we’re screening one of the ultimate jazz movies.

In the 1950s, Dale Turner (Dexter Gordon), a gifted black saxophonist with a drinking problem, leaves behind New York and his estranged family and relocates to Paris to play. Here he encounters a French fan (François Cluzet) who tries to help Dale fight his demons, ultimately re-kindling his spirit and his music.

“You do not need to know a lot about jazz to appreciate what is going on because, in a certain sense, this movie teaches you everything about jazz that you really need to know.'“ Roger Ebert, film critic.

Live introduction by music expert Adam Sieff from Deal Radio’s Jazz On The Beach.

Tickets £7 members / £9 non-members

Doors 7pm / Intro + Film 7.30pm