"Perhaps I failed, or perhaps in twenty years time it will be better appreciated. It all depends on one's viewpoint, whether something is brilliant or abysmal"

{Nic Roeg in Joseph Lanza's Fragile Geometry : the Films, Philosophy and Misadventures of Nicolas Roeg (PAJ Publications)]

Make no mistake : twenty years on, Eureka is a bona fide lost masterpiece.

Uniting many regular Roeg collaborators - writer Paul Mayersberg, Director of Photography Alex Thomson, editor Tony Lawson, composer Stanley Myers - Eureka was the crest of his arc towards Hollywood. Made in 1981/2 with MGM backing and a Tinseltown 'A' list cast (including early, charismatic appearances from Joe Pesci and Mickey Rourke), Eureka nevertheless fell victim to the fecklessness of its studio boss and the political plughole of his downfall.

UA bought MGM and disregarded pedigree, cast and finished product. Eureka was virtually shelved and ran briefly in London in late Spring of 1983: it only crept out in the US on the coat-tails of its successor, Insignificance.

The film features the habitual marvellous performance by Gene Hackman as Jack McCann, and audaciously warp-factors from his determined gold-search in the Yukon wilderness to fabulous Bahaman wealth in later life.

He's beset by vicious speculators and family turmoil (chiefly a vintage, preening turn from Rutger Hauer as his son-in-law), bees to a honey-pot that is of no fulfilment to Jack, only anti-climax : "Once I had it all. Now I just have everything".

The McCann saga is, by turns, bloody, sublime and dazzling, filled with, by Roeg's own admission, "extra-ordinary" characters with true epic stature.

Occasionally not for the faint-hearted, Eureka welds remarkable sources (not least Edgar Allan Poe's last poetic work, from which it takes its name) into an even more remarkable whole. Its theme of wealth not being its own reward still packs a contemporary punch. One can only speculate how unpalatable Los Angeles studio heads must have initially found that, let alone a Britain in full Thatcherite overdrive.

For anyone who cares about modern cinema, Eureka's neglect casts a long shadow, and remains a defining point in Roeg's career.

Make the most of this rare screening.

* based on the book Who Killed Sir Harry Oakes by Marshall Houts
1982 GB/USA 129 mins