Australian Feature:
4:00PM TheDeath and Life of Otto Bloom
6:00PM Sweet Country
8:30PM Goldstone
The Mostly British Film Festival was created by Ruthe Stein and Jack Bair eight years ago to bring to Bay Area audiences the best in cinema from the UK, Ireland, Australia, India, New Zealand and South Africa. For many of our films this is the only opportunity to see them in a theater. We have shown local premieres of such films as “56 Up,” “Hunger,” “Red Riding Trilogy,” “Lunchbox” and “London River.” The directors represented at the festival include John Boorman, Ken Loach and Mike Leigh and the actors are Colin Firth, Ewan McGregor, Cate Blanchett, Jim Broadbent and Charlotte Rampling, to name just some. Our guests of honor have been Malcolm McDowell, Minnie Driver, Michael York and Joel Edgerton.
For Tickets: http://mostlybritish.org/
THE MOSTLY BRITISH FILM FESTIVAL RETURNS FEB.15 – 22, 2018
TO THE HISTORIC VOGUE THEATRE IN SAN FRANCISCO FOR THE TENTH YEAR
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA.
The Mostly British Film Festival heads into its tenth year with twenty-five new and classic feature films and documentaries from the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, India and, for the first time, Canada. This mix of classics, dramas, thrillers, biopics and stories based on historical events offers something for every film lover.
Mostly British opens February 15 with MAD TO BE NORMAL. The versatile David Tennant transitions from Dr. Who and “Broadchurch’s” Alec Hardy, DI, to give a dazzling performance as Dr. RD Laing, the radical and controversial psychiatrist who became a 1960s counterculture hero for advocating for the mentally ill. The festival closes February 22 with JOURNEY’S END, a screen rendition of a play first performed onstage in 1928 in London. Director Saul Dibb’s stirring revival marks the WW1 centenary early next year. The film is timely, honoring the sacrifice demanded of so many, the dignity they demonstrated and ultimately the futility of war. Starring Paul Bettany, Sam Clafin and Tom Sturridge. Opening and closing night parties round out the evenings.
The festival pays tribute to “Downton Abbey’s” Joanne Froggatt when she visits February 16. A film clip of her career will be followed by an interview conducted by Jonathan Moscone, director of civic engagement at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and former artistic director of California Shakespeare Theater. A new American indie called A CROOKED SOMEBODY, starring the actress, tops the evening.
Scotch whisky will be featured on screen and available to taste on February 17. Between showings of whisky-themed British films THE HIPPOPOTAMUS and WHISKY GALORE! the audience will be treated to a free tasting of top of the line scotch.
A special series focusing on British New Wave Films of the 1960s on February 19th will feature ALFIE starring a debauched but dashing Michael Caine, DARLING with Julie Christie in her Oscar-winning role as a free spirit engaging in a series of shabby affairs and A TASTE OF HONEY—one of the first British movies to deal with all but taboo subjects at the time of sex, abortion, and homosexuality. The evening includes a tasting of Hendricks Gin—a British classic like these films.
The festival’s Australian Spotlight is especially strong with screenings of SWEET COUNTRY, winner of the Special Jury Prize at the Venice Festival, GOLDSTONE, a mix of detective story and crime thriller set in the Outback, and THE DEATH AND LIFE OF OTTO BLOOM, a mock documentary about the title character, who lives in reverse time.
The festival is held at the historic Vogue Theater in San Francisco, which at over 100 years, is one of the oldest movie theaters in the country. Purchased in 2007 by the San Francisco Neighborhood Theater Foundation, the nonprofit seeks to save and preserve historic movie houses. Tickets and festival passes offering priority seating will be on sale early January at the Vogue or at mostlybritish.org, cinemasf.com or by calling 415-346-2274.