MOSTLY BRITISH FILM FESTIVAL TURNS 10.
While March 4’s Oscar Awards will feature a bevy of British nominees (including best picture nominees “The Darkest Hour” and “Dunkirk”), the Mostly British Film Festival in San Francisco got a jump on the golden man with London stars Joanna Froggatt and Sir Bob Geldof, who alighted Feb. 18 at the Vogue Theatre in Presidio Heights for its 10th anniversary season.
First-nighters gathered for cocktails at Magic Flute restaurant on Sacramento Street, then strolled to the nearby Vogue, where a packed house awaited a screening of Froggatt’s new film, “A Crooked Somebody,” preceded by her Q&A with Jonathan Moscone, YBCA’s chief of civic engagement.
And nobody engages like Moscone: As a theater director he’s mad for all types of drama and is a raconteur of the first order.
Describing the fraught romance between “Mr. Bates” and Froggatt’s “Anna” character in “Downton Abbey,” Moscone noted that, for his generation, it held the same rabid interest as “Luke and Laura” from the old “General Hospital” soap opera.
However, a fervent “Downton” fan in the audience called out, correcting Moscone that he should’ve referenced “Upstairs Downstairs.”
“Thanks,” said Moscone, teasingly. “But I work alone.”
Dreamed up by former Chronicle film critic Ruthe Stein with San Francisco Giants General Counsel Jack Bair and Giants EVP Alfonso Felder, this plucky cornucopia of Celtic-language filmography benefits the San Francisco Neighborhood Theater Foundation.
The foundation, founded by Bair and Felder, saved the historic single-screen Vogue and Balboa theaters from condoization, and also programs the beloved free Film Night in the Park series.
“The festival was Ruthe’s idea to provide programming at our theaters. She looked at other festivals in town and found ‘Mostly British’ was a niche that wasn’t filled,” Bair says. “The idea is, foreign films in English without subtitles. Though some of the Scottish and Irish films can be difficult if you’re not attuned to those brogues.”
This year, their efforts were recognized by the robust Daily Mail (with an online monthly readership of 31 million), breathlessly headlining Froggatt’s arrival thusly: “Demure Joanne Froggatt Shows Off Her Tiny Waist In a Stunning, Figure-Skimming Green Dress for the Mostly British Film Festival in San Francisco.”
The festival also works closely with local consul generals, including Britain’s Andrew Whittaker, who describes himself as a “massive ‘Downton Abbey’ fan.”
“I really love this festival because of the British bit, and we work closely with our Irish, Australian, New Zealand and Indian colleagues,” he enthused. “Ruthe and Jack do a phenomenal job putting this together. And I get all the benefits of attending opening nights and meeting the stars.” Sir Bob: Days later at the Fairmont Hotel, Republic of Ireland Consul General Robert O’Driscoll hosted cultural power Celts at a brunch honoring Geldof, the former Boomtown Rats frontman and Dubliner whose documentary on poet-playwright W.B. Yeats, “A Fanatic Heart,” had its festival premiere.
“I use the description, ‘rock star’ a lot,” O’Driscoll admitted. “But Sir Bob? He’s not only a real rock star — he’s also a fellow Dub.”
O’Driscoll also had a shout-out for “Lady Bird” actress Saorise Ronan and her Oscar nomination.
“The film sector is so strong in Ireland now. And our government is putting creativity and the arts at the center of its public policy,” he toasted. “We may need to actually look at rebranding here in the future: I see the ‘Mostly Irish Film Festival.’ ”
Most days now, Geldof is a noted humanitarian and media mogul, oft referred to as “Saint Bob” for organizing the transformative Live Aid concert in 1985. Though he long ago shed his naughty punk rock persona, fans at brunch fondly recalled the transformative power of his music.
At that time in Ireland, said Jacinta Tobin, Ireland had 22 percent unemployment and very little hope as a nation.
“But Bob did this magical thing, benefiting victims of the Ethiopian famine,” Tobin recalls. “That moment really shifted people’s mood and, in part, set Ireland on a road to recovery. There was pride that this small, poor country could effect a greater good.”
Geldof’s eloquent evocation on his passion for Yeats, one of Ireland’s greatest artists, was grad school dissertation-level stuff. And he highlighted the fact that rather than picking up a rifle during Ireland’s 1916 Easter Rising, Yeats picked up a pen.
“Use words, dig deep with a pen,” intoned Geldof, who credits Yeats with singing Ireland into being. “Words over bullets any day. That’s long been the way of the Irish.”
Later at the Vogue, he engaged in a spirited Q&A with storied rock critic Ben Fong-Torres. But Geldof still wasn’t finished: After the screening of “Fanatic Heart” (also available via Amazon), the rock star joined Bair for a nightcap.
Geldof arrived here days after the horrific Florida high school shooting — a gruesome, tragically recurring incident Geldof knows all too well. In 1979, the Boomtown Rats were touring the states when a teenager went on shooting rampage in San Diego. Her nihilistic reason why became one of the Rats’ biggest hits: “I Don’t Like Mondays.”
So at the Big Four plank, well until midnight, Geldof imparted his advice to Bair for this country: Get rid of the guns.
Catherine Bigelow is The San Francisco Chronicle’s society correspondent. Email: missbigelow@sfgate.com Instagram: @missbigelow