RAISING THE BAR

This evening marks the opening of one of the more promising cinematic ventures to hit the Valley in a while: Film Bar, self-described as an “an independent movie theater and beer/wine bar featuring independent, foreign, art house, cult and classic film—and more!”

The opening weekend at the hip downtown location offers up a variety of intriguing flicks, but for an offbeat Valentine’s date next Monday evening, February 14, Film Bar will host a showing of six short subjects—about an hour’s worth altogether—on the theme of loooove. The bar opens Monday at 5, the theatre at 7:45; the show starts at eight. Admission is free, but donations will benefit, appropriately enough, the American Heart Association.

Try to control your dismay, Gentle Readers, when I inform you that bloggage is likely to be sparse at best here for a spell. Things look to grow hectic for Your Humble Narrator in the coming weeks & months, so while I may post the odd review or link, Monster-of-the-Week & other sparkling features will have to go on indefinite hiatus.

In view of that, let’s make the last one for a while a good one…

Monster-of-the-Week: In honor of Valentine’s Day, let’s give the nod to the second of the title characters, played by Jean Marais, in Jean Cocteau’s sublime 1946 version of Beauty and the Beast…

At the end of the story, of course, the curse is lifted, the Beast is magically de-Beasted, & we see the handsome Marais shorn of fuzz & fangs. It’s famously claimed that when Greta Garbo saw the film, she remarked “Give me back my Beast!”