Mar 27, 2015
Festival
San Francisco, CA – The San Francisco Film Society announced today that it will host the US Premiere of Mr. Holmes, Saturday April 25, 12:30 pm at the Sundance Kabuki Cinemas as part of the 58th San Francisco International Film Festival.
“We’re thrilled to have Bill Condon’s smart, elegant and moving take on the legendary detective as a Marquee Presentation at the Festival, ” said SFFS Director of Programming Rachel Rosen. “I know our audiences will appreciate the film’s stylish direction and stellar performances, led by the incomparable Ian McKellen.”
The magisterial Sir Ian McKellen reunites with Gods and Monsters (1998) director Bill Condon for Mr. Holmes (2015), a wistful look at the famous sleuth in his sunset years. Though he’s in his 90s, Sherlock Holmes is not going gently into that good night; he’s exasperated with how Dr. Watson (Colin Starkey) has characterized him; generally cantankerous with everyone around him, including housekeeper Mrs. Munro played by Laura Linney; and worried about his own advancing senility which he tries to remedy with special herbs. Deciding to set the story-and his mind-straight, he decides to work on his version of a 30-year-old case involving a missing woman, a strange musical instrument and the mistake that leads him to retirement. Using an intricate flashback structure, Mr. Holmes allows McKellen to play the character in two different time frames-the enfeebled, grouchy gumshoe puttering around his Sussex garden in 1947 and the sleek sleuth of 30 years earlier-and the result is one of his finest performances. Loosely adapted from Mitch Cullin’s novel A Slight Trick of the Mind and featuring precise attention to period detail and the visual splendor of the English countryside, Mr. Holmes stands proudly against the other indelible portraits of the unforgettable man who lived at 221B Baker Street. Mr. Holmes plays Saturday April 25, 12:30 pm and Tuesday May 5, 2:00 pm at the Sundance Kabuki Cinemas. Roadside Attractions will open the film in Bay Area theaters on July 17.
Bill Condon got his start as a screenwriter before making his directing debut in 1987 with Sister, Sister. After making a handful of TV movies and Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh (1995), he broke through with the critically acclaimed Gods and Monsters (1998), for which he won a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar. His other films include Kinsey (2004), Dreamgirls (2006), The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Parts 1 and 2 and The Fifth Estate (2013). He is currently working on his next project, Beauty and the Beast (2016).
Tickets to Mr. Holmes are $13 for SFFS members, $15 general, $14 seniors, students and persons with disabilities. Box office opens March 31 for SFFS members and April 3 for the general public, online at sffs.org.
For general information visit festival.sffs.org.
To request interviews or screeners, contact your Festival publicist.
For photos and press materials visit sffs.org/pressdownloads.
58th San Francisco International Film Festival
The 58th San Francisco International Film Festival runs April 23-May 7 at the Sundance Kabuki Cinemas, Castro Theatre, Landmark’s Clay Theatre and the Roxie Theater in San Francisco and the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley. Held each spring for 15 days, SFIFF is an extraordinary showcase of cinematic discovery and innovation in one of the country’s most beautiful cities, featuring nearly 200 films and live events, 14 juried awards with nearly $40,000 in cash prizes and upwards of 100 participating filmmaker guests.