A FILM described as 'the best film ever made about filmmaking' is being shown at the Commodore Cinema in Ryde on Monday (29).

Directed by Federico Fellini and released in 1963, Ryde Film Club presents 8½ (15), at 8pm.

It is about a film director trying to relax after his last big hit and unable to come up with a new idea, and as such it is an autobiographical film of Fellini himself, and the trials and tribulations of his profession.

Ventnor Film Society presents In Between (15), a subtitled Israeli film, on both Tuesday (30) and Wednesday (31).

Three strong, independent minded Palestinian-Israeli women are sharing a flat in Tel Aviv. Away from the constraints of their families and traditions, they find themselves caught between the free and unfettered lives they aspire to lead and the restrictions imposed on them by society.

The films start at 7.30pm, at Ventnor Arts Club.

There are a few live satellite broadcasts coming from Ventnor Arts Club this week.

The Metropolitan Opera's La Fanciulla Del West is being shown tomorrow (27), all 4.5 hours of Puccini's gunpowder western.

The Royal Opera House's Die Walküre is screened on Sunday (28) in a five-hour marathon.

The National Theatre's Allelujah!, the new play by Alan Bennett, is being shown on Thursday (1). A documentary crew follows the fight to keep an old fashioned hospital in the Pennines, and the daily struggle to find beds on the Dusty Springfield Geriatric Ward.

The Happy Prince (15) is the untold story of the last days of tragic Oscar Wilde, who observes his own failure with ironic distance and regards the difficulties that beset his life with detachment and humour.

The film, written and directed by and starring Rupert Everett, is being shown by Niton Cinema at Niton Library tomorrow (27), at 7.30pm.