Tells the story of how Frank Capra, a young and penniless immigrant, rose through the ranks of early Hollywood to become | dG1fM2NVQnoxamFoT0k
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00Films are always a window into an era or a time or a place or a man's mind, and no one
00:14was ever really a more dominant filmmaker of his era.
00:26He made some of the greatest movies in the history of cinema, and they're foundational
00:31in the craft of cinema, the way they're made, how they're made, and they're f***ing great
00:38entertainment.
00:39Watch fireworks, huh?
00:40In behalf of the Academy, I present you with this award.
00:57Capra's personal story is a story about one man who overcame a lot of opposition to go
01:05from being an Italian peasant to a major American movie director.
01:11These films that I were making were just my way of saying, thanks, America, if you can
01:16understand that kind of a cliche.
01:18Shit, so many things happened all at once.
01:24The kid from Sicily had developed a way of showing America that all Americans loved.
01:39His career has an extraordinary decline.
01:43It's not that you don't have darkness.
01:47Real darkness comes forward in these movies, but when we look into Frank's films, he says
01:56we can endure, we can survive, we can suffer and triumph and live through it.
02:03It's not a perfect world, but there's a place for you in it.
02:08That really makes him America's filmmaker, and that's why people watch It's a Wonderful
02:14Life every year at Christmas.
02:17It's not because they're sentimental.
02:19It's because it is a life-saving movie.
02:27If you find something real and true in the moment in which you're living, and you do
02:32it well and entertainingly, it will always remain contemporary and universal.
02:38I guess this is just another lost cause, Mr. Maine.
02:42These stories are always applicable to our lives, but they're even more so when we forget
02:48how to hope.
02:49The world is going through terrible, terrible turmoil.
02:53We need to be reminded that it can still work.