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Frank Capra Biography

Frank Capra

(Palermo, Italy, 1897-La Quinta, United States, 1991) American film director of Italian origin, maximum representative of the American comedy of the 30s, which he endowed with a golden humanistic optimism.When he was six years old, his family emigrated to the United States.He studied at the California Institute of Technology, and upon graduation (1918), he obtained a job as a professor in the army.In 1921 he began his film career, and in 1931 he achieved his first great success as a director with The Miracle Woman .

Frank Capra

The 1930s would in fact be the most valued of his career, as masterpieces such as It Happened One Night belong to it (1934), starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert.The film tells the story of a young heiress named Ellie Andrews (Claudette Colbert), elegant and somewhat headstrong, who has married a ladyboy.Her father, who disapproves of the marriage, forces her to divorce, but the young woman flees from her father's yacht to return to New York in search of her husband.Ellie leaves with her clothes on, so she must take a bus that also includes Peter Warne (Clark Gable), a press correspondent who is returning from a job.Although at first the relationship between them is tense, little by little the indifference is giving way to loving feelings.

Halfway between Capra's early work as a screenwriter, director, and gagman for the comedian Harry Langdon and his great late-1930s political comedies, It happened a night is a superb sentimental comedy very close to the wild and libertine screwball comedies of Gregory La Cava or Leo McCarey, and it was for the director an overwhelming recognition by the Hollywood Academy , which awarded the film five Oscars: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Clark Gable), Best Actress (Claudette Colbert) and Best Adapted Screenplay, signed by Robert Riskin, co-creator of Capra's Best Works.

Frames from It Happened One Night (1934) and Live as you like (1938)

Without forgetting other titles of the decade such as The secret of living (1936, second Oscar for best director), Knight without a sword (1939) or Juan Nadie (1940, with Gary Cooper and Barbara St anwyck), it is necessary to highlight a film that condenses the best essences of his cinematography and that was destined to become a classic of American comedy: Live as you want (1938).To the joy for his third Oscar must be added the satisfaction that, as the film's producer, Capra was the recipient of the award for the best film of the year. Live As You Want , written by Robert Riskin and splendidly starring Lionel Barrymore, Jean Arthur and James Stewart, is perhaps the most successful comedy to date from a specialist director in the genre.

Like his two previously Oscar-winning feature films, Live As You Want shows the triumph of the elemental goodness of the human spirit over adversity.The eccentric but ultimately happy life of the kind professor Vanderhof (Lionel Barrymore) collides head-on with social impositions, in the form of a debt to the treasury that threatens to truncate his future and that of his family.As he did in The Secret of Living , Capra faces an eminently individualistic attitude to life (but fully in tune with what we could call traditional values, such as honesty, kindness or solidarity with others) with an environment dominated by the overwhelming presence of institutions and their strict code of conduct.

It is not difficult to extract from the plot of the film a vindication of a very American way of understanding democracy and its mechanisms.The social environment appears to us irredeemably corrupted insofar as, by moving away from the sphere of the individual, it becomes dehumanized and loses all its legitimacy.The political and social references present in Live as you want are an echo of those that already occupied The secret of living , and can be interpreted, at the same time, as the defense of some of the principles advocated by the Franklin D.Roosevelt administration in the framework of the New Deal (in particular, solidarity with others promoted by the numerous economic programs of social assistance) and as a wake-up call to a state apparatus that is increasingly grown and susceptible to forgetting its objective Lastly, the happiness of the individual.

How beautiful it is to live! (1946)

Like other great filmmakers of At the time, Frank Capra put his talent at the service of his country during World War II, making various documentaries for the United States Army.Returning to his profession once the contest was over, he soon directed another of his best films, How beautiful it is to live! (1946), which however did not win public applause.

The protagonist of the story is George Bailey (James Stewart), who has inherited from his father a kind of bank that is dedicated to helping the troubled neighbors of his small town.But he must face Henry Potter (Lionel Barrymore), an ambitious businessman who wants to take over his bank and take over the town.On the eve of Christmas Day, and before his defeat against Potter, Bailey tries to commit suicide.At that moment, his guardian angel takes human form and saves him, making him see what his city would have been without him: a wretched community, mistreated by the greed of Potter, the only owner of the town.After being convinced that he has been indispensable to many people who love him, Bailey returns to fight Potter and receives the solidarity of the entire town.

Considered the last masterpiece of the Italian-American director, What beautiful is to live! responds to all the characteristics of the "Capra style": it exudes optimism, idealism and tenderness, and tries to show once again the goodness of human nature and the benefit of community life.Although Capra's idealism and ingenuity of cinema have gone a bit out of fashion, no one doubts that he was able to create his own style of producing jewelry like this film, destined to be seen over and over again without losing its ability to thrill the audience.viewer.From the 1950s, however, his formula seemed to run out, and he retired after filming what would be his last film, A Gangster for a Miracle (1961), with Glenn Ford, Bette Davis and Peter Falk in the cast.In 1982 he was honored by the American Film Institute for his work as a whole, and in 1985, by Hollywood, in an event that brought together a large number of personalities from film, culture and politics.

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