The vivid passion spilling out of Wuthering Heights led Victorian readers to assume it to be written by a man. The true author wasn’t revealed until Emily Bronte published a later edition under her own name. She has left future fans of her extraordinary only novel to ponder how the house-bound spinster daughter of an Anglican priest became acquainted with such sexual frenzy. Taking poetic license in how little is known of this particular Bronte, the biopic supplies Emily with an obliging lover who unearths her naked lust. Frances O’Connor — an Australian actress known for Mansfield Park– makes a thrillingly assured debut as director and writer. The film flashes back to the early years when the sisters delight in stories they tell each other. But the focus remains mainly on Emily, revealed in Emma Mackey’s riveting performance to be the oddest of her siblings. Through O’ Connor’s camera the big landscape of the Yorkshire Moors looks appropriately forbidding while also inviting you in. Entire sequences are played almost silently, contributing to a lasting eerie feeling not unlike a Bronte novel.

Chronicle movie critic Mick LaSalle has named Emily on his list of Movies to Watch Out For in 2023.

UK 2023 (130 minutes)

5:30 PM Reception – Presidio Kebab – 3277 Sacramento Street

Frances O’Connor will introduce her film in a Zoom interview.

7:30 PM Emily

Sponsor: British Consulate General San Francisco

This film was apparently inspired by a true story, adding to the delight of Valerie Buhagiar’s latest somewhat quirky film. But who needs plot logic? Set in Malta in the 1980s, a sparkling backdrop, Natascha McElhone (The Crown) gives a wonderful performance as a 50-yearold woman who escapes her dreary life looking after her older brother when he enters the priesthood – the tradition in Malta. When the autocratic priest dies, abandoned by the church with no home or means of support, she manages to secretly masquerade as the village’s new priest, giving somewhat wayward advice from the confession booth. Things take off from there as she begins a new life. Enjoy!

Canada/Malta 2021 (87 minutes)

What is British cinema? Cinema made in Britain, that takes place in Britain, produced by British companies or rooted in British culture? Celebrated British filmmakers ponder this question, launching the impressive new Brit Box series Reel Britannia – an informative, rich four-part series on five decades of British cinema starting with the Swinging 60s. Comedian Nick Helm narrates (from writer/director Jon Spira’s script), guiding us through commentaries from filmmakers, Stephen Frears, Ken Loach, Richard Attenborough, Terence Davies, Mike Leigh, etc with wonderful humor and acerbic quips. Set against societal shifts, we are treated to film clips capturing those faces we have known and loved over the years and who have made British cinema shine. Cinephiles are in for a treat!

UK 2022 (120 minutes)

This is a breakout role for James Norton, a mainstay of British detective series like Happy Valley and Grantchester. He plays a real-life conman who recruits vulnerable women by posing as an undercover M15 agent, supplying this diligently crafted thriller with a romantic and vengeful twist. The lines between rakish spy and dashing lover are blurred in his early entreaties to his victims as he presents an airtight cover story, an almost too-perfect alibi. Gemma Arterton is at her gleaming best as Alice– a would-be recruit who catches herself before stumbling down the rabbit hole.

UK 2022 (115 minutes)

Sponsor: Gerry and Fran Schall

When Brian ( Paul Mescal, Normal People) suddenly returns
home to a small Irish fishing village after unexplained years
away, a happy reunion with his mother Aileen (Emily Watson,
Breaking the Waves; Gosford Park) quickly spirals into chaos,
as he is accused of a terrible crime committed years past.
Directors Saela Davis and Anna Rose Holmer open their film
with an exploration into the relationship between mother and
son. But a tense crime drama unfurls, as Aileen lies for her
son, before slowly embarking on a journey to uncover the
truth. Viewing her son in a new light, she ultimately tests her
own sense of right and wrong. Is he the innocent child she
once raised?

Ireland/UK/US 2022 (100 minutes)

This is a complex and tender debut feature from Scottish writerdirector Charlotte Wells. Eleven-year-old Sophie (Frankie Corio) and her father, Calum (Paul Mescal)) are on vacation in a Turkish resort, lazing by the pool, playing games, eating in the hotel buffet and enjoying being together. Terrific performances from them both! Slowly, a shadow emerges conveying that this is time remembered: it is 20 years ago before smart phones and camcorders, before grief and loss become inscribed in Sophie’s memories of her father through haunting, fragmented flashbacks that never offer a complete picture. Aftersun fascinates in its exploration of memory, with feelings of loss and love resurfacing over and again. It resonates with us all. Winner of seven British Independent Film awards including Best Picture, Winner Best First Film from New York Film Critics.

Paul Mescal nominated for Best Actor Academy Award for Aftersun   

UK 2022 (96 minutes)

Remember mini-skirts and PVC macs, colored tights and make-up — all prune-colored and putty? This was the legacy of Mary Quant, who Sadie Frost celebrates in her vibrant documentary about the fashion icon of the swinging 60s, with her Vidal Sassoon bob and clothing designs that liberated young women from the staid, form-fitting 1950s look. Frost invites Quant’s celebrity friends, Kinks guitarist Dave Davies, Kate Moss, Vivienne Westwood and more to weigh in on this fabulous story of a seemingly reticent person who transformed the world of fashion. Interested in fashion or not, you will love this film.

UK 2021 (86 minutes)

The Thorn Birds remains one of the most-highly rated miniseries in TV history. Even more impressive the show has lost none of its grip 40 years after it first captivated audiences with its saga of forbidden love between a Roman Catholic priest and an impressionable young scion of a sheep farm family in the 1920s Australian Outback. You’ll see its power to captivate watching extensive excerpts from the series during our tribute to The Thorn Birds 40th anniversary. Stars Richard Chamberlain, Rachel Ward and Bryan Brown will come together on Zoom to talk about making the series.

Australia 1983 (90 minutes)

Sponsor: Australian Consulate General San Francisco

This meditative and heartfelt documentary expresses the yearning felt for the Isle of Berneray in Scotland’s Outer Hebrides by those born there who eventually moved away. Interwoven with found footage of the island from the 1950s and ‘60s are interviews with locals who left. “Berneray has been part of me all my life, it’s where my heart is,” one expat confides. The focus on small town life is sweet and charming, capturing a bygone way of life. In Gaelic with English subtitles.

UK/ Screen Scotland 2022 (88 minutes)

Sponsor: Bruce Lymburn

In the original short story on which this frontier movie is based the wife isn’t even named. She’s a remote figure waiting for the return of her sheep drover-husband in 1893 Australia. Reconceptualized by Aussie playwright Leah Purcell the saga now has a feminist bent. Adapting her popular play to the screen, the wife has stepped out of the shadow, her name emblazoned in the title. Purcell appears as Molly, a heavily pregnant frontier wife struggling in the Snowy Mountain ranges, a gaggle of kids at her heels and no husband in sight.

The drama intensifies when an indigenous man wanders onto her property and is revealed to be wanted for murder. A vibrant addition to the history of the Australian western.

Australia 2021 (109 minutes)

Sponsor: Austrialian Consulate General San Francisco

Winner of the Golden Eye Award for Best Documentary at Cannes, direc- tor Payal Kapadia creates an intimate look at social life at a Mumbai university through the way it intersects with India’s caste system. The film is skill- fully and artistically constructed through a series of letters of love and longing by a student to her estranged boyfriend – a separation forged by his family who deny them permission to see each other because she is below his caste. As such, it addresses important issues such as Hindu nationalism, the caste system and capitalism through the eyes of Indian college-educated youth.”

Named one of “The Best Genre Movies of 2022” by the New York Times.

One critic calls it “a testament to the inseparability of the country.

India 2022 (99 minutes)

Born into a farming family in rural Northern Ireland, Seamus Heaney became the finest poet of his generation and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1995. Not inconsequentially, his career coincided with one of the bloodiest political upheavals of the 20th century, the Troubles in Northern Ireland. In this absorbing documentary, Heaney’s wife, Marie, and their children gather six years after his death in 2013 to reflect on their family life by reading some of the poems he wrote for them. The voice of Heaney himself, pulled from voluminous recordings, joins them in this tour of his life, his art, and his beloved Irish landscapes. Director Adam Low’s film is resonant with grace and awe for the words one man left behind.

Ireland 2019 (88 minutes)

Grief-stricken Róise lost her husband, Frank, two years ago and is still struggling to get out of bed each morning. One day, an eager stray terrier (a star-making performance by Barley the Dog) turns up on her doorstep. And just won’t leave. This mysterious dog brings happiness to her life once more, curiously seeming to know things about her late husband – his favorite chair and the route of his morning walk. Róise comes to believe that the dog is Frank reincarnated. A warm-hearted, witty and hugely entertaining film from directors Peter Murphy and Rose Moriarty, it may bring a tear or two to the eyes of dog lovers. In Irish Gaelic with subtitles.

Ireland 2022 (88 minutes)

For the Irish-born, Pulitzer prize-winning poet Paul Muldoon, music matters almost as much as poetry. He sees little difference between poetry and song lyrics. In this unique musical documentary from director Alan Gilsenan, Muldoon tours us through key moments in his creative life, as his language and literary influence are explored by many of the artists and musicians he has worked with: a stellar lineup including Paul Simon, Liam Neeson, Van Morrison and Bono. Illuminating Muldoon’s allusive and playful poetry as both dramatic and lyrical, this innovative documentary will inspire fans of music, poetry and literature alike. In English and Irish Gaelic with English subtitles.

Ireland 2022 (75 minutes)

Co-Presented With Irish Culture Bay Area

In this honest and affecting film, a retired sea captain and his daughter must reassess their strained relationship after he begins a new romance with a widowed housekeeper. With painstaking care and an extraordinary amount of empathy, Finnish director Klaus Härö catches the tiny fluctuations in the relationship between father and daughter that prove to be of seismic, heartbreaking proportions. A story told with profound compassion and a clear eye, My Sailor, My Love is both the beautiful, moving story of true love found in late years, and the ensuing devastating family drama.

Finland/ Ireland 2022 (103 minutes)

This comedic drama is directed by Michael Powell, based on Norman Lindsay’s novel. A disheveled and disillusioned Australian painter, Bradley Morahan, played by James Mason, decides to retreat from New York City to his homeland to find inspiration and revive his waning creativity. Settling on the shore of a small island on the Great Barrier Reef, the elderly artist has a fortuitous encounter with bombshell young islander, Cora, a nubile Helen Mirren in her first major role. As a gorgeous beach babe, she becomes his model and muse. Helen Mirren as a hot young thing does indeed recharge Bradley’s creative batteries!

Australia 1969 (106 mins)

Sponsor: Australian Consulate General San Francisco

Like a fine wine, this is a well-balanced documentary that goes down smoothly. It follows four young Zimbabwe men who escape to South Africa in the hope of starting new lives. Strangers when they meet, they discover a shared brilliant talent for identifying wine even though they’ve never so much as sipped the stuff in their native country. The film follows them as they become all-knowing sommeliers. With charm and admirable chutzpah they infiltrate a white world by competing as a team at the World Wine Tasting Championship in Burgundy, France.

South Africa 2022 (96 minutes)

Here is an appealing movie about older people, life-long friends who gather for a reunion where you just know hurtful secrets will slowly creep out. The Palm Beach of the title is a glitzy northern Sydney enclave where the sun unfailingly shines. Director Rachel Ward—a former sultry Hollywood star– populates it with a virtual murderer’s row of durably sparkling acting talent including her husband Bryan Brown, Richard E. Grant, Sam Neill and Greta Scacchi. Expect trials and tribulations at the host’s spectacularly airy beach house and for them to be predictably resolved. Ward and Brown — who met on The Thorn Birds set and have been married for 40 years — discuss their film beforehand on Zoom.

Australia 2019 (100 minutes)

Sponsor: Australian Consulate General San Francisco

A young Maggie Smith, fresh off her Oscar for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, gives a performance infused with subtle introspection and tender sexuality, bringing her star presence to bare in this bittersweet unlikely love story of a lonely British woman in her late 30s on a bus tour of Spain and an 18-year-old privileged American (played by Timothy Bottoms) wandering the country – and his life – aimlessly. These seemingly mismatched lovers journey through emotionally rocky terrain as they travel through the lush Spanish countryside; two strangers, poles apart, both seeking the same thing – the happy ending that life can never guarantee. Our Valentine’s Day offering. 

USA 1973 (110 minutes)

Just when you think there couldn’t be anything more to say about the Beatles, along comes this fascinating documentary about the history of the Fab Four’s famous studio, Abbey Road, showing how it began recording classical music and morphed into a large studio where major popular albums were cut. Director Mary McCartney, Paul’s offspring, has one of the best Rolodexes in the business. The bold-face names she cor- rals to tell revealing anecdotes include Ringo Starr, Elton John, George Lucas, Burt Bacharach and, of course, her Dad.

UK 2022 (86 minutes)

Added Short; Ruthless In 1970s Northern Ireland, a young boy, bereft of his mother, defies his father to get the Glam Rock album he so desperately wants. The writer is Kate Perry. Matthew McGuigan directs. 

Ireland 2020 (13 minutes)

An icon of European art films in the swinging ‘60s, Charlotte Rampling has lost none of her hypnotic power onscreen which she displays in this insightful family saga from first-time New Zealand director Matthew J. Saville. Rampling tears into her role of a veteran war photographer famous for her courage and hard drinking. Now wheel-chair bound and afraid to be alone, she moves to New Zealand to be with her son and winds up the ward of her troubled grandson, a task assigned to him as punishment for being expelled from school. You’ll be touched watching these two slowly resolve their intense dislike.

New Zealand 2021 (94 minutes)

Directed by Anthony Simmons, this drama stars the young Judi Dench who won the 1965 BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer. The film employs some stylish noir camera work and kitchen sink realism to track the stories of two couples in crisis. Set against a mysterious backdrop involving a drowned woman found in the Thames, Dench plays a distraught young wife abandoned by her drunken husband while she cares for their child. Haunting score by John Barry and atmospheric riverside shots of London play a starring role. A fine performance from a young Judi just embarking on a great career.

UK 1965 (94 minutes)

British director Georgia Oakley has set her critically praised and quietly searing first feature in the homophobic era of Margaret Thatcher where a Tory peer is heard to proclaim the utter superiority of heterosexual families. Rosy McEwen (of the TV series The Alienist) hits just the right notes suppressing her insecurity and fear as a closeted lesbian teaching at a state school. When a gawky teen arrives in her class the teacher senses her sexuality and must decide whether to defend her and invite schoolroom suspicion.

UK 2023 (97 minutes)

Sponsor: Rachel Herbert and Dana Oppenheim

Winning top documentary this year, both the Golden Eye Award at Cannes and the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, this film tells the remarkable story of two brothers intent on rescuing the meat-eating black kites that sail across the polluted skies of New Delhi. So much dirt and division scar New Dehli, but co-exist with the breath-taking beauty of nature captured by Shaunak Sen’s film. Here the brothers treat the birds that literally fall from the sky, injured and choked by smog – nearly 26,000 injured kites to date….”When I let a bird go after healing it and it flies away, I feel pure joy,” says Nadeem, the elder brother. Beautiful, touching film. Academy Award Nomination for Best Documentary.

UK/India 2022 (97 minutes)

The news 10 years ago that the remains of King Richard III of Shakespeare fame were uncovered under a Leicester parking lot inspired this whimsical film about the real-life amateur historian sleuth Philippa Langley whose dream is realized by the monarch’s exhumation. Created by director Stephen Frears and writer-actor Steve Coogan, the team behind Philomena, it shares an inspirational tone with their earlier film that will have you rooting for Philippa as she butts heads with the archaeological establishment. Sally Hawkins is perfection in the role. Is there any actress of her generation so willing or adept at showing vulnerability?

UK 2023 (108 minutes)

7:30 PM The Lost King
9:30 PM Party: Vogue Theatre