It’s that ‘thing called life’ at S.F. Film Festival

Thursday’s movie — the first of 173 films that will be shown over the next 15 days — was “Love & Friendship,” a Regency-era comedy starring Kate Beckinsale and Chloë Sevigny.

Director Whit Stillman adapted the script from an incomplete Jane Austen novella called “Lady Susan,” which follows a young woman engaged in a charming Machiavellian struggle to arrange marriage for herself and her daughter.

“She sort of subverts every rule about a romantic heroine for that time period, which I really liked actually,” Beckinsale said.

The Castro Theatre is a friendly venue for opening night events, and Thursday was no exception.

[...] as Cowan noted before the movie, this year’s festival be the first in more than 30 years to take place predominantly in a new venue — the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema.

Cowan said the festival organizers selected this new venue as the center of the “festival village” to acknowledge the neighborhood’s blossoming cinema scene.

Immaculately-coiffed attendees had their photos taken before entering the main floor, which was immediately packed with dancers swaying to the tunes of a Latin-funk band.

Some photographers struggled to snap pictures of the famous as non-famous revelers gleefully photo-bombed their shots.

Kitty Oestlien, who was visiting from out of town for the festival, declared that she was thoroughly enjoying the party and had special praise for the movie.

Films will be screened at the Alamo Drafthouse New Mission, the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, the Castro Theatre, and the Roxie Theatre.