Tonight at the JCC Miles Nadal Centre in downtown Toronto, I continue the lecture series The Enigmatic Genius of Robert Altman by examining his gangster film, Thieves Like Us (1974). Keith Carradine plays Bowie, a 23- year-old escaped convict who pursues a dreamy idea of manhood and courts Keechie (Shelley Duvall), a doe-eyed innocent who has a firmer grip on reality. Based on the 1937 novel by Edward Anderson, it was first adapted by Nicholas Ray in 1948 as a film noir, They Live By Night, a gripping picture, but deterministic in its outlook. Altman removes the fatalistic confines by having his characters call into question the noir tropes that define them. Altman lets them breathe their own air - even if fate still hunts them down. Well look at clips from both pictures tonight. Hope to see you there.
Posted on: Mon, 11 Nov 2013 19:46:31 +0000
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