Purchase your Mostly British Film Festival Series Passes and get priority seating for all films. Individual movie tickets go on sale on January 15. Discounts go to members of the San Francisco Film Society, the Fromm Institute, the San Francisco Neighborhood Theater Foundation and people 65 and over.
Monthly Archives: January 2018
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. One of Scotland’s greatest minds, Laing adopted humane holistic treatment for mental illness using as tools group therapy and communal healing. Drugs were prohibited except for the experimental use of LSD. Based on a book of the same title of conversations with Laing, the film is largely set at a refuge Laing set up at Kingsley Hall in east London. Gabriel Byrne and Michael Gambon are illuminating as patients who adore their hard-drinking, emotional shrink. Elisabeth Moss brings out Laing’s soft side as his partner. This absorbing biopic, directed by Robert Mullan, captures his impact on mental h ealth around the world. UK 2017 (106 minutes)
“One of David Tennant’s best performances-he is in a pugnacious, mercurial and beady-eyed form.” The Guardian
The film will be introduced by Dr. Michael Guy Thompson, who joined Laing in 1973 and became an integral part of his practice, living in one of the post-Kingsley Hall therapeutic communities. He now practices psychoanalysis in San Francisco.
The Party
Sally Potter directs this sparkling, smart black comedy with a wonderful ensemble cast and creative black and white cinematography. Beginning as a celebration for Janet (Kristin Scott Thomas) who has been promoted to Shadow Minister of Health, the party unravels as her guests, all close friends, arrive and reveal shocking secrets and lies. Janet’s nervously distracted husband (Timothy Spall) adds to the chaos and confusion with his own dramatic announcements. “The Party” is all London bourgeois wit, fun and games until it is not. Set against UK politics, it exposes a political class that has lost its way. With Cillian Murphy and Emily Mortimer.
UK 2017 (72 minutes)
Joanne Froggatt Tribute
“Downton Abbey” fans will always think of Joanne Froggatt fondly as the lady’s maid Anna, a role for which she received three Emmy nominations and won a Golden Globe. But Miss Froggatt has moved on with movie and TV roles displaying her versatility. In the series “Liar,” which will be back for a second season on SundanceTV, she plays a victim of date rape who can not convince authorities she is telling the truth. She appeared as Britain’s first female serial killer in Masterpiece’s “Dark Angel,” and in the tender “Starfish” she watches her husband succumb to a devastating infectious disease. The Mostly British Film Festival is lucky to be catching her just as her career has caught fire.
Miss Froggatt will be interviewed by Jonathan Moscone, director of civic engagement at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and former artistic director of California Shakespeare Theater.
“A Crooked Somebody” – an American independent film Miss Froggatt chose to screen-shows another side of the multi-faceted actress. For one thing she plays an American. Rich Sommer (“Mad Men”) makes a very appealing psychic named Vaughn. Vaughn’s readings seem to make people feel better afterward by giving them a kind of closure. But he proves to be too successful when someone he comes across believes that Vaughn is the real deal and can assist him in connecting with the other side. This is more of a grift than Vaughn can handle as his friend and business partner played by Miss Froggatt tries to warn him. With Ed Harris as Vaughn’s father, a preacher disgusted by his son’s career path. USA 2017 (102 minutes)
Ticket includes:
7:30 pm Joanne Froggatt Tribute: Film clips from her career, onstage interview
8:40 pm Screening of “A Crooked Somebody”
A Crooked Somebody
“Downton Abbey” fans will always think of Joanne Froggatt fondly as the lady’s maid Anna, a role for which she received three Emmy nominations and won a Golden Globe. But Miss Froggatt has moved on with movie and TV roles displaying her versatility. In the series “Liar,” which will be back for a second season on SundanceTV, she plays a victim of date rape who can not convince authorities she is telling the truth. She appeared as Britain’s first female serial killer in Masterpiece’s “Dark Angel,” and in the tender “Starfish” she watches her husband succumb to a devastating infectious disease. The Mostly British Film Festival is lucky to be catching her just as her career has caught fire.
Miss Froggatt will be interviewed by Jonathan Moscone, director of civic engagement at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and former artistic director of California Shakespeare Theater.
“A Crooked Somebody” – an American independent film Miss Froggatt chose to screen-shows another side of the multi-faceted actress. For one thing she plays an American. Rich Sommer (“Mad Men”) makes a very appealing psychic named Vaughn. Vaughn’s readings seem to make people feel better afterward by giving them a kind of closure. But he proves to be too successful when someone he comes across believes that Vaughn is the real deal and can assist him in connecting with the other side. This is more of a grift than Vaughn can handle as his friend and business partner played by Miss Froggatt tries to warn him. With Ed Harris as Vaughn’s father, a preacher disgusted by his son’s career path. USA 2017 (102 minutes)
Ticket includes:
7:30 pm Joanne Froggatt Tribute: Film clips from her career, onstage interview
8:40 pm Screening of “A Crooked Somebody”
I, Daniel Blake
Dave Johns is a veteran standup comedian who was about to pack it in at 59 when director Ken Loach cast him as the title character in this gritty drama about a fictional everyman struggling to claim disability benefits after a serious heart attack. A chilling and recognizable story, this decent widower, a carpenter in North East England, becomes ensnared in the bureaucratic nightmare of the UK welfare state. Unable to work or receive benefits, he strives to retain his dignity and humanity in the face of heartless officials. The film won numerous awards including the Palme D’Or at Cannes. UK 2016 (100 minutes)
Not Another Happy Ending
Karen Gillan of the cult British TV show “Doctor Who” stars as a writer whose first novel is set for publication just as she finds herself in love. But too much happiness causes her to develop writer’s block. It looks as if she may be forced to choose between being in love and continuing to write. Shot on location in Glasgow, the city has a romantic glow adding to the sweet nature of this rom-com. UK 2013 (102 minutes)
London Road
Based on the stage production “London Road,” a sold out hit, earning five-star reviews when it premiered at the National Theater in London 2011, the film version is equally gripping. A quirky musical, it tells the true story of the serial murders in London Road, rural Ipswich, which shattered the community when the bodies of five young women were discovered. The musical uses verbatim interviews with the residents of London Road, who had struggled for years with soliciting on their street. A local man was convicted of the murders and this brings the community together to process the disturbing events. Cast includes Tom Hardy (“Mad Max”) and Olivia Colman (of “Broadchurch” fame and soon to play Queen Elizabeth in Netflix’s “The Crown”). UK 2015 (91 minutes)
The Hippopotamus
The wild literary genius of Stephen Fry comes to life in this feature from writer-director John Jencks. Based on Fry’s novel, it stars Roger Allam (“Games of Thrones”) as Ted Wallace, a theater critic thrown out on his ear following a very public outburst during a new London play. Encountering the daughter of an old friend whilst drowning his sorrows in the pub, he’s offered a large sum of money to investigate a series of unexplained “miracles.” His adventure begins as he tracks down old friend and adversary Lord Logan (Matthew Modine from “Full Metal Jacket”) his wife (Fiona Shaw), their needy son and lots of whiskey. A riotous tale of a mischievous, cantankerous and drink-sodden soul. UK 2016 (98 minutes)
Mostly British will host a free whisky tasting of top of the line scotch between screenings of the whisky-themed British films “The Hippopotamus” and “Whisky Galore!”
Compliments of Gordon Biersch and WildCide
Whisky Galore!
This is one of those unusual remakes that actually lives up to the original– in this case the perennial British comedy classic from 1949 of the same title. What makes the new version really delicious is that it is inspired by a true story. Set on the sweeping prehistoric shores (mixed Gaelic and Norse) in Scotland’s Outer Hebrides islands during World War II, the film shows what happens when the normally complacent inhabitants are told that the island’s supply of whisky – mother’s milk to locals– has dried up. Salvation seems possible when they learn of a shipwrecked cargo vessel destined for New York and loaded with 50,000 crates of Scottish whisky. But their planned raid meets an obstacle: a bellowing home guard captain played with comic flair by the inimitable Eddie Izzard. Director Gillies MacKinnon (“Regeneration”) concocts a steaming brew out of the clash between the whisky deprived and the somewhat depraved captain. UK 2016 (98 minutes)
Mostly British will host a free whisky tasting of top of the line scotch between screenings of the whisky-themed British films “The Hippopotamus” and “Whisky Galore!”
Compliments of Gordon Biersch and WildCide