An Interview with legendary Hollywood Director Frank Capra: 1971

Ca.

The Living Force
FOTCM Member
Franks Capra(Born May 18 1897 - September 3, 1991).

Wikis:
_https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Capra
Capra was born Francesco Rosario Capra in Bisacquino, Sicily, a village near Palermo. He was the youngest of seven children of Salvatore Capra, a fruit grower, and the former Rosaria "Serah" Nicolosi. Capra's family was Roman Catholic.[3]


The name "Capra", notes Capra's biographer Joseph McBride, represents his family's closeness to the land, and means "goat".[4] He notes that the English word "capricious" derives from it, "evoking the animal's skittish temperament", adding that "the name neatly expresses two aspects of Frank Capra's personality: emotionalism and obstinacy."[4]


In 1903, when he was five, Capra emigrated to the United States with his family, who traveled in the steerage section of the boat, which was the cheapest way to gain passage. For Capra, the journey, which took 13 days, remained in his mind for the rest of his life as one of his worst experiences:
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You're all together – you have no privacy. You have a cot. Very few people have trunks or anything that takes up space. They have just what they can carry in their hands or in a bag. Nobody takes their clothes off. There's no ventilation, and it stinks like hell. They're all miserable. It's the most degrading place you could ever be.[5]
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Capra remembers the ship's arrival in New York Harbor, where he saw "a statue of a great lady, taller than a church steeple, holding a torch above the land we were about to enter". He recalls his father's exclamation at the sight:
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Ciccio, look! Look at that! That's the greatest light since the star of Bethlehem! That's the light of freedom! Remember that. Freedom.[6]
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The family settled in Los Angeles's East Side (today Chinatown) which Capra described in his autobiography as an Italian "ghetto." [7] Capra's father worked as a fruit picker and young Capra sold newspapers after school for 10 years, until he graduated from high school. Instead of working after graduating, as his parents wanted, he enrolled in college. He worked through college at the California Institute of Technology, playing banjo at nightclubs and taking odd jobs, which included working at the campus laundry facility, waiting tables, and cleaning engines at a local power plant. He studied chemical engineering and graduated in the spring of 1918.[8] Capra later wrote that his college education had "changed his whole viewpoint on life from the viewpoint of an alley rat to the viewpoint of a cultured person".[9]

I don't think there is anyone whom has not been touched by his deep and thought provoking contributions .

A common theme was the challenge of the underdog opposing the establishment.

Though i have no prof, his ideas and cinematic efforts, seem an inspiration from 6DSTO. :halo:

Notable comments and personal thoughts of Capra, a thinking man.
Suffering
Hippies (and possible hope of revolution)
Changing Peoples lives through inspiration
Goods Guys and Bad Guys
Buster Keaton
Evil
Feeling person
Love
Universal
Rich and Poor
Imagination
Change
Our Brain, Spirit and knowledge
Conformity
Professional Citizenship
Materialism
The Depression and what was missed
Thinking people
Hunger and Cold
War
Humanity

Memorable achievements (of old school) film lore:
It Happened One Night (1934)
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
Meet John Doe (1941)
It's a Wonderful Life (1946)


https://youtu.be/rnpXk92WTz0

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Memorable achievements (of old school) film lore:
It Happened One Night (1934)
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
Meet John Doe (1941)
It's a Wonderful Life (1946)

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Films with excellent scripts about U.S. society and also very entertaining, which is not easy to achieve.
 
A man of his times and experiences... from Wiki... :scared: oh, c'mon, not all of the site is full of lies, they don't seem to do a bad job on general entertainment, perhaps not realizing the potential damage of it, while thinking they do:
Representing U.S. at International Film Festival

In January 1952, Capra was requested by the U.S. Ambassador to India to represent the U.S. film industry at the International Film Festival to be held in India. A State Department friend of Capra asked him and explained why his trip would be important:

[Ambassador] Bowles thinks the Festival is a Communist shenanigan of some kind, but he doesn't know what ... Bowles has asked for you. "I want a free-wheeling guy to take care of our interest on his own. I want Capra. His name is big here, and I've heard he's quick on his feet in an alley fight."[36]

After two weeks in India, Capra discovered that Bowles' fears were warranted, as many film sessions were used by Russian and Chinese representatives to give long political speeches. At a lunch with 15 Indian directors and producers, he stressed that "they must preserve freedom as artists, and that any government control would hinder that freedom. A totalitarian system – and they would become nothing but publicity men for the party in power." Capra had a difficult time communicating this, however, as he noted in his diary:

They all think some super-government or super-collection of individuals dictates all American pictures. Free enterprise is mystery to them. Somebody must control, either visible or invisible ... Even intellectuals have no great understanding of liberty and freedom ... Democracy only a theory to them. They have no idea of service to others, of service to the poor. The poor are despised, in a sense.[37]

When he returned to Washington to give his report, Secretary of State Dean Acheson gave Capra his commendation for "virtually single-handedly forestalling a possible Communist take-over of Indian films." Ambassador Bowles also conveyed gratitude to Capra for "one helluva job."[38]

Disillusionment period and Later Years

Although It's a Wonderful Life and State of the Union were successful soon after the war ended, Capra's themes were becoming out of step with changes in the film industry and the public mood. Friedman finds that while Capra's ideas were popular with depression-era and prewar audiences, they became less relevant to a prospering post-war America. Capra had become "disconnected from an American culture that had changed" during the previous decade.[23] Biographer Joseph McBride argues that Capra's disillusionment was more related to the negative effect that the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) had on the film industry in general. The HUAC interrogations in the early 1950s ended many Hollywood careers. Capra himself was not called to testify, although he was a prime target of the committee due to his past associations with many Hollywood blacklisted screenwriters.[23]

Capra blames his early retirement from films on the rising power of stars, which forced him to continually compromise his artistic vision. He also claims that increasing budgetary and scheduling demands were constraining his creative abilities.[23] Film historian Michael Medved agrees with and understands Capra's impressions, noting that he walked away from the movie business because "he refused to adjust to the cynicism of the new order."[39] In his autobiography written in 1971, Capra expressed his feelings about the shifting film industry:[40]

The winds of change blew through the dream factories of make-believe, tore at its crinoline tatters.... The hedonists, the homosexuals, the hemophiliac bleeding hearts, the God-haters, the quick-buck artists who substituted shock for talent, all cried: "Shake 'em! Rattle 'em! God is dead. Long live pleasure! Nudity? Yea! Wife-swapping? Yea! Liberate the world from prudery. Emancipate our films from morality!".... Kill for thrill – shock! Shock! To hell with the good in man, Dredge up his evil – shock! Shock![39]

Capra added that in his opinion, "practically all the Hollywood film-making of today is stooping to cheap salacious pornography in a crazy bastardization of a great art to compete for the 'patronage' of deviates and masturbators."[41][Note 1]

Interesting giving his earlier war experience:
During the next four years of World War II, Capra's job was to head a special section on morale to explain to soldiers "why the hell they're in uniform", writes Capra, and were not "propaganda" films like those created by the Nazis and Japan. Capra directed or co-directed seven documentary war information films.

Capra was assigned to work directly under Chief of Staff George C. Marshall, the most senior officer in command of the Army, who later created the Marshall Plan and was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize. Marshall chose to bypass the usual documentary film-making department, Signal Corps, because he felt they were not capable of producing "sensitive and objective troop information films." One colonel explained the importance of these future films to Capra:

You were the answer to the General's prayer ... You see, Frank, this idea about films to explain "Why" the boys are in uniform is General Marshall's own baby, and he wants the nursery right next to his Chief of Staff's office.[31]

Receiving medal from General George C. Marshall, 1945

During his first meeting with General Marshall, Capra was told his mission:

Now, Capra, I want to nail down with you a plan to make a series of documented, factual-information films – the first in our history – that will explain to our boys in the Army why we are fighting, and the principles for which we are fighting ... You have an opportunity to contribute enormously to your country and the cause of freedom. Are you aware of that, sir?[32]

As usual, he seems to have been 'used' quite effectively without awareness on his part... as is the norm for all of us in life, and for entertainers whose 'window of opportunity' for self-expression gets dated after a few years, with the Depression period perhaps extending until after the war, as the fortunes of the country didn't change much till then. I don't remember those later works of his... I think I caught a glimpse of 'State of the Union' many years ago but don't remember it.. and after reading the Wiki post on it, I'm not surprised it isn't seen on tv these days:
Plot

Republican newspaper magnate Kay Thorndyke (Angela Lansbury) intends to make her lover, aircraft tycoon Grant Matthews (Spencer Tracy), President of the United States with her as the power behind the throne. Thorndyke plans to use her newspaper chain's influence to deadlock the 1948 Republican National Convention, so it will choose Matthews as a compromise dark horse candidate instead of Dewey, Taft, or another.

Matthews is skeptical of the idea of running for president, but Thorndyke, Republican strategist Jim Conover (Adolphe Menjou), and campaign manager Spike McManus (Van Johnson) persuade him to run. Matthews reunites with estranged wife Mary (Katharine Hepburn) for the campaign. Despite knowing about Thorndyke and her husband's affair, Mary agrees to support him in public because of his idealism and honesty, and because she is unaware of Thorndyke's role in the campaign.

The politically naïve Matthews makes a controversial speech in Wichita denouncing big labor. Before he makes another controversial speech in Detroit denouncing big business, Thorndyke secretly persuades him to moderate his tone to help his chances for the nomination. With her and Conover's help, Matthews makes deals with various special interests for their support.

Before a nationwide fireside chat from the Matthews' home, Mary learns of Thorndyke's continuing relationship with her husband and sees the deals that he has made. Matthews realizes that he has betrayed his and Mary's ideals. On live radio, he denounces both his backers and himself as frauds, withdraws as a candidate while promising to seek bipartisan reform, and asks for his wife's forgiveness. When his backers attempt to turn off the speech, he angrily calls out, "Don't cut me off, I paid for this broadcast!".
Interesting to find Lansbury in this project in '48, compared to her later role in '62's "The Manchurian Candidate"... very interesting, but then she always had that 'look' early on in her career... like a dramatic bird looking for a branch to land on. Reminds me of 'Network' etc... perhaps Capra was ahead of his time but lacked the understanding of the zeitgeist in America at the time? Like any artist, timing is everything. :cool2:
 
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