Two yeas ago on OTBKB. This is the story of our great Valentine’s Day. Hepcat will never be able to top it.

Hepcat once staged the most wonderful Valentine’s surpise. Part
of the surprise was that he even did something at all—usually he’s a Valentine’s Day Scrooge, the guy who gets really put out with the
whole idea of  this Hallmark holiday. But that year he really rose above
his own objections to it and planned something big. He told me that
he was taking me somewhere but he wouldn’t say where. Ever curious, I
kept asking. "You’ll ruin the surprise," he said again and again.

My expectations rose sky high. Then he told me the location of where
we were going — somewhere downtown on the far west side. Hmmm. I
didn’t have a clue where he had in mind.

That night, we drove down the West Side Highway and parked on Varick
Street near Houston. When we turned down a side street, I saw a small
movie marquee in the distance. It said, "Grand Opening on Valentine’s
Day. Now Showing: L’Atalante by Jean Vigo.

I thought I was dreaming. This tiny, recently refurbished movie
theater, then called the Soho Cinema, was playing my favorite movie of
all time on their opening night. Made in 1934, this black and white
french movie is the story of Juliette who marries Jean. She comes to
live on his river barge along with a cabin boy and the strange
old second mate Pere Jules. Soon bored by life on the river, she slips
off to see the nightlife when they get to Paris. Angered by this, Jean
sets off, leaving Juliette behind. Overcome by grief and longing for
his wife, Jean falls into a depression and Pere Jules goes and tries to
find Juliette. When he finds her she too is eager to return to the
barge. Back together again, they resume life on the river.

It is a simple story told with grace and poetry. It may be one of
the most romantic movies of all time. Jean Vigo had tuberculosis when
he made it, and was dead just
after its release. He was
only 29, and had made only four films. A romantic
until the end.

We were the only ones in the theater other than the usher and the
popcorn guy. Sitting in our own private movie palace watching a
treasure of French cinema, it was a Valentine’s Day impossible to
forget.