They Live by Night (1948)
They Live by Night (1948)
(Nicholas Ray, US 1948, 95 min., 35mm)
War, Myth, Desire. Nicholas Ray’s raw story of lovers on the run involves three jailbreakers named Bowie, Chickamaw, and T-Dub finding safe haven in their hometown. Bowie (Farley Granger) finds himself falling for Chickamaw’s niece Keechie, who nurses him back to health. After a planned robbery, all Bowie wants is to clear his name from the murder rap he took back in Oklahoma at the age of sixteen. All Keechie wants is Bowie. The robbery goes wrong and the two run from both their friends and the law, hoping to spend one day in the sun as a normal couple. The great French filmmaker François Truffaut adored They Live by Night, calling it “the most Bressonian of American films” and its director “the poet of nightfall.”
Note later start time.