Most Capra-corn Film From Capra?
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Dancon7 — 19 years ago(March 05, 2007 09:36 AM)
"What are the Capra touches in Blue Velvet?"
Well, in It's A Wonderful Life, George Bailey gets hit in the ear and starts bleeding, and in Blue Velvet they find a severed ear with ants crawling all over it. So there you go. -
thapie — 19 years ago(March 06, 2007 02:49 PM)
i think the term capracorn is a very old shopworn saying that has stuck and i can see where it comes into play in some of his films but not enough to realy stop their value as classics.
and in blue velvet frank was a gas huffer and in it's a wonderful life mr. gower sure lookd like a gas huffer! -
SaintMark5 — 19 years ago(March 31, 2007 04:03 PM)
"in Blue Velvet they find a severed ear with ants crawling all over it"
This, I would venture to suggest, is more of a reference to1354 the hand with ants crawling out in Bunuel and Dali's Un Chien Andalou, of whom Lynch was a huge fan. -
masterofmydomain78 — 18 years ago(April 22, 2007 02:41 AM)
(What are the Capra touches in Blue Velvet?)
The despiction of a small community, the definition of the different inhabitans (All them importants, some in a lesser degree) and the most relevant touch the portray of the small community gives us at first a sense of a very "American Way of Life", but only in the surface, because hidden in this town, there's a lot of dark stuff.
As an example, in "It's A Wonderful Life" we can see that without George Bailey, the town became REALLY evil (crime, gambling, prostitution, bad politicians, etc.)
A spooky kind of town like Twin Peaks or Lumberton, two archetypical cities created by David Lynch.
Or course in the film of Capra all ended well, but in the alternate reality that the angel Clarence show us, we can see that this little american town can be potentially VERY evil. -
marvel88 — 18 years ago(August 21, 2007 04:41 PM)
Yeah, that term is just stupid. Capra certainly did deal with very dark topics. In a way, the crowd scene near the end of "Meet John Doe" could be very frightening if considered from a certain point, as well as the way Jim Taylor handles the small-town press in "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington." Though these are dark, there's no reason Frank Capra had to be Bergman and not allow his films to end the RIGHT way. There's nothing wrong with inspiration.
"I know you're in there, Fagerstrom!"-Conan O'Brien -
ZildjianDFW — 16 years ago(December 12, 2009 10:45 AM)
The film world, especially the more snobby, pseudo-intellectual crowd, has had a tendency to belittle Capra and his films, coining words like "Capra-corn" to make him seem like a Disney Land ride. For some reason, a certain sector of the art world, including in film, has developed this notion that if a work is depressing, tragic, cynical, and such, is intrinsically more valid than a work that is uplifting and inspiring. The fact of life is this: life is hard, but a phoenix can only rise when it's burned. Great tragedy can lead to great growth. And that's what Capra's films show. All of them (except maybe the more light-hearted comedies) show characters that go through hard times but come to the other side stronger for it. Many of his movies are actually pretty dark. "It's a Wonderful Life", for example, was controversial in its time for being TOO dark. But the film-snobs don't like Capra because his movies are ultimately optimistic. It's a lot easier to succumb to the darkness than it is to face it and walk through it.
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wjm6292 — 13 years ago(July 04, 2012 06:50 PM)
its easy to poke fun at the corniness of some of his movies, as many could almost be considered fairy tales. i actually think lost horizon was his best movie. and based on his body of work, if someone put him at the top of the list of great directors i would not argue
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elisedfr — 12 years ago(May 18, 2013 02:46 AM)
HuhI don't think It's a Wondeful Life is corny. Or it's the most tortured and imaginative corny film I've ever seen. Frankly, when poor George Bailey arrived to the "new" town and none of his friends or family recognize him, I call it disturbing.
I'd say High Hopes even though I enjoyed some moments of it. I have never seen the Bing Crosby-Jane Wyman one though but I don't really want to.
If I'm not mistaken the term Capra-corn was invented by a critic in the 50's for his new, more harmless movies. It's a bit streched out to use it for anterior, far more complex movies.
" You ain't running this place, Bert, WILLIAMS is!" Sgt Harris