Valentine's Day film treat at Wolverhampton Light House

Wolverhampton's Light House cinema has announced a special Valentine's Day screening of Jean Vigo's, deeply moving masterpiece, L'Atalante (1934).

Hailed as the greatest romance ever made, Light House is offering movie fans to see the film as intended by Vigo, having been brilliantly digitally remastered by the British FGilm Institute.

The screening will take place on Tuesday, February 14, at 8.15pm. Tickets cost: £7.60 full / £6.20 concessions, with a complimentary cocktail for all ticket holders, served from 8pm.

To book tickets contact Light House Box Office on 01902 716055 or visit www.light-house.co.uk

L'Atalante sees Juliette (Dita Parlo) marrying and moving in with Seine barge captain Jean (Jean Dasté), but their relationship soon shows signs of strain.

Sharing the cramped boat with eccentric bosun Père Jules (Michel Simon), a cabin boy and a clutter of cats doesn't help, nor do Jean's jealous tendencies or the couple's reluctance to compromise.

To this simple story Vigo brings an extraordinary array of ideas and insights, while the lustrous lyricism of Boris Kaufman's camerawork, injections of surrealism and the almost childlike innocence of the performances locate the film in a fertile territory between objective realism and subjective fantasy.

In their scenes together (which include one of the most erotic in cinema), Dasté and Parlo reveal an achingly vulnerable intensity. No other movie matches its mix of playfulness, poetry, sensuality and tenderness; this masterpiece is truly timeless.

Based on a one-page scenario by author, Jean Guinee, Vigo was initially apprehensive to take on what he deemed to be a frivolous workaday melodrama, unsuitable for himself in light of his previously socially scabrous work. After rewriting the short story with his trusted co-writer, Albert Riera, Vigo was able to fashion a story that allowed him to juxtapose hard-hitting, inner-city realism with exquisitely sensual flights into the surreal.

However, the film would subsequently be butchered by Gaumont, who had commissioned the film, and renamed Le Chaland Qui Passe (The Passing Barge) for its release in 1934.

Vigo's original version would later be discovered in Italy, in 1989, and has been digitally restored by the BFI for the big screen.

Ticket holders are also invited to attend Light House's regular 'Open Mic Night' after the screening, admission free.