You Only Live Once

"You are free, Eddie, the gates are open." Eddie hears this sentence twice in Lang’s most uncompromising film. Yet the gates he so desperately wants to see open for him remain closed to the petty criminal. Fresh out of prison, he dreams of becoming part of society—but it refuses to take him in; on the contrary, at the first opportunity, he finds himself back behind bars—innocent—and is even sentenced to death... François Truffaut: "It is precisely this idea—that no one has the right to judge anyone else, that everyone is both guilty and a victim—that characterizes the work of Fritz Lang with such tenacious genius; "You Only Live Once" stands as one of the key turning points in that body of work."
(Florian Widegger)