SIFF Cinema's opening week

The Seattle International Film Festival has a new year round venue and Thursday, March 1st the SIFF Cinema was the place to be for Seattle movie fanatics. Located in Seattle Center (under the sky bridge near the Opera House on Mercer St) the cozy new 400-seat theater was filled with excited moviegoers enjoying a pre-film reception that included many delicious beverages and hors d'oeuvres. The main course was a one-time-only screening of Max Ophüls classic 1953 French film "The Earrings of Madame de..." The sly and surprising film kicked off a series of 32 films from the prestigious Janus film collection, with quite a few "must see" screenings. Check the SIFF website for complete listings.

On Friday, the SIFF Cinema delighted film fanatics with a screening of Francois Truffaut's "The 400 Blows" which was followed with a rare opportunity to see "Antoine and Collete", a short film Truffaut made with two of the actors from "The 400 Blows". (A few audience members who rose to leave the screening during the end credits of "The 400 Blows" had to scurry quickly back to their seats when the short film began immediately afterward).

Also on Friday, SIFF Cinema screened Jean Cocteau's masterpiece "Beauty and the Beast", which is perhaps the greatest cinematic telling of a fairy tale ever.

On Sunday night I was able to catch a late screening of the fourth and final film shown this week, Louis Malle's "The Lovers", about a woman who pursues love with complete disregard for everything else in her life. (Not that there's anything wrong with that!)

All four films shown this week were from either new or pristine prints and WOW.....they looked beautiful! The coming attractions were a big hit with the crowd, fully showing off the theater's amazing projection and sound system. (The coming attraction for "300" was especially liked!)

The theater has a small concession stand with limited selections (popcorn, soda, a few assortments of candy) with a few folks mentioning their genuine happiness with real butter on their popcorn!

A few folks complained about difficulty in finding the cinema and a few folks pointed out that the seats weren't the most comfortable movie seats in town, but other than those two issues, folks seemed to be in agreement that the new SIFF cinema is a great place to see a movie, with the bathroom situation much better than that of The Egyptian or the Seven Gables.

Congratulations and thanks to all the wonderful folks at SIFF for working so hard to provide Seattle film fanatics with a cool, new spot to enjoy cinema. The SIFF staff has made the venue a warm, welcoming place to be, not unlike a close friend's living room.

So come on Seattle film lovers, make your journey down there and watch a movie with your movie fanatic friends in your new cinematic living room. SIFF Cinema!