Frank Capra

Frank Capra
Student name
School name
Frank Capra
Life history
Frank Capra was born near Palermo, scaly city, Italy in May 18, 1897 and died on 3rd September 1991 in la Quinta, California, U.S.A. He was an American Director of motion pictures and is known for his gentle use of satiric and sentimental comedies in 1930s to 1940s.
His family migrated from Italy to Los Angeles at the age of six years. He became an army engineering instructor after graduating from California institute of technology in Pasadena in 1918. Other than being a director of motion pictures, he was also a property man and a film cutter; he wrote film titles and gags for comedies like Halroach and Mack Sennett from the year 1921, ( HYPERLINK "/sightandsound/feature/49664" Capra before he became "Capraesque", 2010).
Frank Capra directed popular Harry Langdon comedies like tramp, tramp, tramp and the strong man in 1926 and long pants in 1927. His long association with Columbia pictures dates back to 1928, the period he started directing some of the studios prestigious films. Together with Douglas Fairbanks they directed the power of the press film in 1928, platinum blonde (1931) and lady for the day (1933), for which he was nominated for Academy Award for best director for the first time.
His Oscar award winning film, it happened before of 1934 marked the beginning of his golden period in the film industry by winning in each of the five categories: best picture, actress, director and screenplay. Other most popular films he directed in the 1930s include Broadway bill (1934) and lost horizon in 1937. Frank won two more Oscars in 1936 and 1938 with Mr. Deeds goes to town and you can’t take it with you respectively with both films sharing a lot in common from humor exhibited by the characters, heroism and many others.
Mr. Frank enjoyed unlimited freedom at the Colombia studios which made him adopt a one man, one film theory as he became responsible for every aspect of his films. He directed Mr. Smith goes to Washington in 1939 which was an idealistic tale by a young man battling corruption in Washington D.C portrayed by James Stewart which still remains one of his popular works, ( HYPERLINK "/cinema/collections/capra.htm" \l "bio" Description of the Capra Collection, 2010).
The mixture of idealism, patriotism and essentiality as found in his films earned him a name Capra- corn. He left Colombia studios after “Mr. Smith” and he continued with a close examination of America’s political system producing others political films like meet John doe in 1941 featuring Gary Cooper as an ex baseball player who became a populist hero.
Capra being a major in American signal corps from 1941-45 directed a series of high regarded documentaries commissioned by the US government titled why we fight which greatly helped increase the public support for the war effort.
His other popular films include it’s a wonderful thing of 1946 won Oscar nominations for best picture and was ranked 11th in 1999 on the list of 100 greatest films of all time by the American film institute and remains a perennial holiday favorite.
His final film of stature it’s a wonderful life was followed by other five pictures of respectable efforts. His other reasonably successful films include state of the union (1948), which is a blend of pleasant domestic and political satire, ridding high produced in1950 and finally here comes the groom (1951).
In 1950s, Capra turned to writing science documentaries for young television viewers. He later directed two more films; a hole in the head (1959) which he co- directed with Frank Sinatra and pocketful of miracles (1961) in conjunction with Bette Davie his role and approach being formulaic in both films.
Frank Capra chose to retire after pocketful of miracles after revealing his dissatisfaction with Hollywood in the post studio system days in his autobiography, “The name above the title”. He was honored greatly for his efforts and contribution to the film industry with a life Achievement award from the American film institute in 1982, (Christian et al, 1962).
Frank Capra best movies
Here below are some of his thrilling movies.
It happened one night.
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town-1936.
Lost horizon in 1937.
You can’t take it with you -1938.
Mr. Smith goes to Washington-1939.
Meet John Doe – 1941.
Arsenic and old race -1944.
It’s a wonderful life -1946.
State of the union in 1948.
Personal life
Frank Capra got married to actress Helen Howell in 1923 and divorced after only five years. He got married again to Lucille Warner in 1928 with whom they had a daughter and three sons of which one died at infancy.
He was four times the president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences and also helped find Directors Guild of America and was their president three times. During his tenure as the president, Frank worked hard to give directors more artistic control of their films.
He retained his earlier ambition to teach science even during his time as film director and after the decline of his film career he made and released science related TV films and documentaries for small children.
Frank Capra stature was diminutive, he loved fun and wild hunting in sports, he was an ardent climber and in entertainment, playing the guitar was his strength, he too was a writer.
His son, frank Capra Jr. followed his father’s footsteps and until his death in December 2007, he was the president of EUE Screen Gems Studios in Wilmington, North Carolina and his grandchild frank Capra 3 is currently a Hollywood director and has worked as assistant director in the film the American president in 1995 (George Jr, 2006).
Directing style
Improvisation: to a greater extent Capra relied on his ability to improvise and in most cases Capra was noted going onto the set with master scene. According to him, all he wanted was the master scene and he takes care of the rest; how to shoot and focusing attention on the actors all the times, (Capra, 1971).
This is best shown by spoilt rich girl in the film it happened one night and subsequent lighting of the actress face in the film indicates innovativeness of frank Capra. His movie Mr. Smith Goes to Washington has been branded one of the most quintessential  HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whistleblower" \o "Whistleblower" whistleblower movies in the history of America.
In the same movie which attracted a lot of criticism from senate politicians, Capra operated under the protection clause in the bill of rights allowing him as a voter at least one free swing at the senate showing his great improvisation and innovative skills, .
Humor: In his film, Mr. Smith goes to Washington, Frank Capra greatly uses sense of humor from laughter as much as from injured dignity. The hallmarks of director frank Capra is seen in his Inspiring, heartfelt, patriotic, witty movies rich with humor as shown in wonderful life and Mr. Smith goes to Washington films as well other movies.
Mr. Deeds goes to town and you can’t take it with you are his two films that are similar in their humorous presentation of a naive, idealistic hero and project his essential optimism as the hero triumphing over shrewder individuals.
Unobtrusive craftsmanship: Capra employed unobtrusive craftsmanship while directing his films and avoided fancy technical gimmicks that could distract his audience. Capra’s style has been described by William S. Pechter as “ of almost classical purity” and his reliance on editing greatly helped him sustain the sequence of rhythmic motion.
Editing: This helped him sustain a sequence of rhythmic motion by imposing order on chaos and images that are constantly in motion. This resulted in a kind of beauty controlled motion more like dancing which made his films dynamic, taut, and even hysterical with unrelenting and frantic accelerating pace which seemed to have been released from accumulated pressure, (George Jr, 2006).
Unique style: John Raeburn discusses how Capras early film American madness as one in which the tempo of the film was perfectly matched and synchronized with the action. Capra reduces the length for each short to emphasize madness of what is happening by using more and more crosscutting shots as the panic intensity increases.
Naturalistic dialogue: Capra uses the high quality natural dialogues in his films by having his speakers overlap each other just like it happens in ordinary life and this was an innovation that helped to move talkies away from legitimate stage. Natural dialogue is clearly seen in Mr. Smith goes to Washington just like in many of his films where Smith converse with Susan.
Common theme: Capra had a common theme “messianic innocent” for most if not all of his films pitting himself against the forces of greed rooted in the society. This is depicted clearly in the film Mr. Smith goes to Washington where the young man is fighting corruption being perpetrated by greed peoples in authority.
The imprisonment of young daughters to the age past 21 years in the movie it happened one night clearly represents his messianic theme portrayed in his films. However, his inexperience strategically d...