Greatness is thrust upon Britain’s Prince Albert after his brother abdicates and he is forced to ascend the throne as King George VI. He is not a natural for the role being timid, low in self-confidence and suffering from a debilitating stammer. 1936 was a critical time in Europe, threatened by the ambitions of Hitler and Mussolini, and Britain needed a strong, clear voice. The Queen Mother astutely hired Lionel Logue, an Australian actor and speech therapist, to help the King overcome his stammer. The film is the moving story of the relationship between these two men, a deep and often hilarious friendship. It is a superb film, a winner of a best picture Oscar and best actor for an extraordinary Colin Firth as the King. Directed by Tom Hooper with Geoffrey Rush as the speech therapist and Helena Bonham Carter and Guy Pearce.  

UK 2010 (118 minutes)

“Elizabeth” and “Richard III” will be introduced by Peter Robinson, movie reviewer for KALW91 FM and editor of San Francisco’s Books & Travel.

Laurence Olivier’s “Richard III,” from 1955 is considered the best of his efforts behind the camera. Directing himself, he gives a much heralded if undeniably campy performance as the malformed title character who methodically plots and murders his way to the throne. Olivier delivers Richard’s famous soliloquies directly facing the audience. Given a lavish budget estimated at several millions, he shot the film in color and Vista Vision, a super-sharp widescreen process that enhanced his own visual concepts. The Mostly British festival will screen a new eye-boggling digital restoration. The film also is notable for starring four actors who ultimately are knighted: Cedric Hardwicke, Ralph Richardson, John Gielgud and Olivier. UK 1955 (160 minutes)  

Directed by Shekar Kapur, this lush period extravaganza stars Cate Blanchett in the role that announced her as a star as Elizabeth 1 during the early years of her reign. She was a Protestant monarch in a Catholic country, reason enough for the instability surrounding her reign. Conspiracy and intrigue created her steely determination to survive and rule, with betrayal eventually causing her to relinquish the one man she loved, the dashing Joseph Fiennes as Sir Robert Dudley, and become “the Virgin Queen”. Fabulous sets and costumes combined with a stellar cast (including Fiennes, Geoffrey Rush, Christopher Eccleston and Richard Attenborough) led by Blanchett who enthralls as the passionate young princess adopting the merciless mantle of the Queen of England during a tumultuous period in British history. Rightly garnered 7 Oscar nominations.UK 1998 (124 minutes)

Breezing onto the big screen like a small-screen observational comedy, complete with a deadpan voiceover, longtime collaborators director Jamie Thraves and actor Aiden Gillen’s (“Game of Thrones,” “The Wire”) latest is a not-exactly-documentary-not-really-fiction film– a low-fi, freewheeling, meta-riff on fame with Gillen playing an iteration of himself, an actor named Aidan who lives alone with a dog, struggles to connect with his (real-life) teenage daughter, and has mixed feelings about fame. He has a bad back, can’t sleep, and is playing a serial killer – the element which eventually lifts this good-natured Dublin-set charmer into pure fiction. One hopes. With a dark underpinning that repeatedly bubbles to the surface, a solid sense of humor, and a rollicking lens on the absurd, this is a uniquely entertaining film. Ireland 2017 (75 minutes)

Due to technical difficulties at the Vogue Theater, Black ’47 will be played at the Balboa Theater (3630 Balboa Street, San Francisco) on Sunday, February 17 at 7:30 PM.

Irish filmmaker Lance Daly takes on the Great Famine and its worst year, 1847, resulting in a powerful revenge tale the Guardian calls “harrowingly effective.” Australian actor James Frecheville ( “Animal Kingdom”) gives a coldly terrifying performance as an Irishman who deserts from the British army and returns to his homeland to discover the truth about how his family has been tyrannized and allowed to die in squalor and misery. He is pursued by disgraced English soldier-turned-policeman (Hugo Weaving), a drawlingly arrogant officer (Freddie Fox), and a tracker-guide (Stephen Rea from “The Crying Game”). The superb cast is rounded out by Jim Broadbent as an evil absentee landlord. This viscerally tough, insightful film contains lively historical detail concerning the exploitation of Irish Catholics, including a riveting scene showing “Souperism,” wherein evangelical Protestants offered a meal to poor, starving Catholics in exchange for conversion. A huge hit in Ireland, the film benefits from the majesty of cinematographer Declan Quinn’s wide vistas. Irish 2018 (100 minutes)

Called Ireland’s “most maverick moviemaker” by The Irish Times, Director Liam O Mochain’s third feature is an omnibus film, comprising seven interconnecting tales, each inspired by a true story, with the director himself at the center as a likable loser working the Lost & Found at an Irish country rail station. An older man begs for train fare to Dublin. A cranky pub owner with wild ideas keeps refurbishing his unpopular pub. A marriage proposal at an airport goes hideously wrong. On her deathbed, an old woman recalls valuables left behind when fleeing the war, inspiring her grandson into an unlikely treasure hunt. One ambitious “bridezilla” is determined to keep her booking at a wedding venue, even though she no longer has a willing groom…or does she? The breezy vignettes weave these characters and others into and out of each other’s lives bringing deeper meaning and ingenuity to the movie’s title. A truly independent film filled with humor and humanity, this low-key charmer will leave your heart warmed and your spirit lifted. 

Ireland 2017 (92 minutes)

Please observe the film’s new date and time:

Anna Paquin, whose mercurial career has gone from Oscar winner for “The Piano” to TV star of “True Blood” and “Game of Thrones,” appears in this sweet unexpected love story as a physician named Jean who returns to her hometown where she maintains bee colonies in her backyard. When one of her patients is evicted she invites him and his sister to stay with her, and a romance slowly sparks between the two women. Based on a novel by noted British actress Fiona Shaw, the movie is, in the words of the Toronto International Film Festival where it showed, “a story of courage in the face of terrifying intolerance. Love comes in myriad forms here: romantic love and the vocational love that a caregiver feels for her community—even when the community turns on her. Beautiful to look at, suspenseful, sexy and deeply touching, this film from director Annabel Jankel reminds us that opening our hearts to the possibility of love can be reward enough.” UK 2018 (106 minutes)

Please observe the film’s new date and time:

Warring stepbrothers compete for the affections of a worldly Irish singer on the road from Shetland to Glasgow in a fearlessly funny, bold and beautiful drama with tremendous energy and personality. Lushly photographed, sexy, cool, anarchic and honest, with a trio of charismatic young actors at the center, Welsh-born writer-director-punk musician Philip John’s first feature is a simply drawn, but intricately thought out right-of-passage film that recalls the quirky nuance of Bill Forsyth and the rock-n-roll charge of Danny Boyle. Winner Best Film Newport Beach Film Festival.

UK/Ireland 2016 (93 minutes)

Sponsored by Bruce Lymbum

From Stephan Elliot, writer and director of “The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert,” comes this hilarious and raunchy comedy about growing up in a Sydney beachside suburb during the swinging 1970s. Guy Pearce who became a star playing a drag queen in “Priscilla” is this time cast as one of the parents, along with Aussie star Radha Mitchell (in person at the festival), attempting to raise their children in relatively privileged circumstances between wild partying and general outrageous behavior. For a couple of their teenagers their parents’ behavior is difficult to understand and makes coming of age all the more daunting. The teens are forced to deal with marital discord not to mention a beached whale. Clever nostalgic  references to the 70’s are a treat along with compelling character performances from the large cast including famous pop star and Australian TV icon Kylie Minogue and veteran actor Jack Thompson. Australia 2018 (97 minutes)

GUEST OF HONOR: RADHA MITCHELL
Australian actress Radha Mitchell will join us at the festival with two of her new films, which she will introduce and participate in a Q & A following the screenings. She stars in “Flammable Children,” as a parent trying to raise children in the wild 1970s in Sydney. In “Celeste” she gives a touching and vulnerable performance as a renowned opera diva who gives up her career for the man she loves and moves to a rainforest. Her films “Looking for Grace” and “The Waiting City” played in the Australian Spotlight section of the Mostly British festival. The critical success of “High Art,” one of her early Hollywood movies, gained her a wider audience. She has also worked in Hollywood on “Neverland” and “Melinda and Melinda.” Woody Allen hired her as the lead character Melinda without an audition on the strength of seeing one of her movies.

Introduction by Radha Mitchell followed by an explanation of Everything Australian by Mostly British board member Lachlan Welsh. Miss Mitchell will participate in a Q & A after the screening.