My Twisted Valentine, Barbican

Death and love join hands in this Twisted Valentine's day cinema London season at the Barbican: alternative movies to see on Valentine's Day include Coppola classic The Virgin Suicides.

My Twisted Valentine, Barbican
Dinner and a movie is a staple date night game-plan for Valentine's Day, but like all conventions, it can be as tedious as it is safe. The Barbican's My Twisted Valentine season is on hand, however, with a programme of alternative romantic films designed to give a typical Valentine's night-at-the-movies a bit of edge.

Being screened are a series of cliché-free films about love, including Hal Ashby's cult black comedy Harold and Maude: an unconventionally beautiful film about the relationship between Harold, a wealthy young man obsessed with death and Maude, an eccentric, 79 year old woman with a zest for life. This unconventional yet heartwarming film is supplemented with the lilting musical accompaniments of Cat Stevens: a bildungsroman with a twist, Ashby's 1971 classic has earned a place in cinematic history and will be screened on February 14th, at 4pm, followed up later the same day by Venus in Furs, a film inspired by Leopold von Sacher-Massoch's eponymous novel.

Taking for its central character a jazz musician who witnesses a murder and later develops an erotic obsession for the murder victim's dead ringer, Venus in Furs finds a link between the sexual liberation of the 1960s and the arch eroticism of Sacher-Massoch. Other films being screened include Sophia Coppola's classic 1999 adaptation of Jeffrey Eugenides' dark novel The Virgin Suicides, screening from an original 35mm release print, and The Honeymoon Killers (like Bonnie and Clyde, but with more sadism).

If you're looking for things to do in London on Valentines day, head to the Barbican for an alternative date night with their My Twisted Valentine season. 

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