MOSTLY BRITISH FILM FESTIVAL San Francisco 16-23 2017

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/links/543.jpg

Just a couple of reviews from the Mostly British Festival held every year for the past eight years at the Vogue Theater in San Francisco.

HANDSOME DEVIL (John Butler) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4277-MOSTLY-BRITISH-FILM-FESTIVAL-San-Francisco-16-23-Feb-2017&p=35246#post35246)

A gay coming-of-age school picture from Northern Ireland sort of like the UK film Get Real.

A PATCH OF FOG (MIchael Lennox) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4277-MOSTLY-BRITISH-FILM-FESTIVAL-San-Francisco-16-23-Feb-2017&p=35247#post35247)

About a strange friendship that's created between a lazy writer with a kepto habit and a lonely security guard

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/links/543.jpg

TWICE SHY (Tom Ryan 2016) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4277-MOSTLY-BRITISH-FILM-FESTIVAL-San-Francisco-16-23-Feb-2017&p=35262#post35262)

A modest little film about a tough subject - abortion. . . in Ireland! A fine cast.

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/links/543.jpg

Awards of the Mostly British Festival 2017 - press release.


Mostly British Film Festival Award Press Release

The poignant family drama The Sense of An Ending won the jury prize for best film at the Mostly British Film Festival, February 16-23 at the Vogue Theater in San Francisco. Ritesh Batra was honored as best director for his insightful adaptation of Julian Barnes’ Man Booker Prize-winning novel about a divorced retiree whose quiet existence is uprooted by a letter exposing long buried secrets.

The festival awarded Jim Broadbent the best actor prize for his low-key but deeply felt portrayal of the lead character. Announcing the awards festival co-director Ruthe Stein said, "Our audience was riveted by the movie’s multi-level story and Jim Broadbent’s performance."

The best actress award went to Miranda Otto as a devoted and loving wife and mother whose past threatens to implode her family in the Australian movie The Daughter based on Ibsen’s 19th century play The Wild Duck.

Special merit was awarded to the Irish comedy Handsome Devil about two very different Irish high school outsiders learning to be true to themselves.

In its ninth year, the Mostly British Film Festival screened 25 new and classic films from the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, India and South Africa. The festival’s attendance was at an all- time high, including four sold out evenings.

[Johann]

Great stuff!

You see everything! Huzzah

[Chris Knipp]

Thanks - sorry I couldn't cover more of the films this year. I'll make it up with New Directors and the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema. I've reviewed most of the R-V films and plan to be through on ND/NF

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/links/543.jpg

THE REHEARSAL (Alison Maclean 2016) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4277-MOSTLY-BRITISH-FILM-FESTIVAL-San-Francisco-16-23-Feb-2017&p=35798#post35798)

Didn't publish this review earlier on Filmleaf (only here (http://www.chrisknipp.com/writing/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=3546)). It was part of Mostly British in Feb. in San Francisco, but now a NYC theatrical release next month has been announced. I need to see it again but probably won't be in NYC for the Metrograph run. However, we'll all get access to it eventually I feel sure. The Rehearsal is a complicated, slow-burning drama that defies easy summary, involving a teen romance, an acting school, a over-aggressive teacher, and a local scandal that may tie in with some of the students.