Capra Quotes

I don`t particularly like westerns as a genre, but I do love certain westerns. High Noon (1952) means a lot to me - I love the purity and the honesty, I love Gary Cooper in that film, the idea of the last man standing. I do not like John Wayne: I find it hard to watch him. I just never took to him. And I don`t like James Stewart as a cowboy. I love him, but just not as a cowboy; Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) is one of my favorite films. I love Frank Capra. I love Preston Sturges. But we`re talking about westerns. ... I have always admired Clint Eastwood`s westerns. The spaghetti westerns were a great discovery. And Pale Rider (1985). As a child, the John Ford film _Cheyenne Autumn_ made a big impression on me. And _Five Easy Pieces_. It`s not really a western, but it is about the possibilities that can be found in the West. Jack Nicholson is sublime in that film, just sublime. It`s the most stultifying portrait of middle-class life. You want to flee from that world and head anywhere less civilized. Which is, of course, the appeal of the West: It`s not tamed yet.

(on Frank Capra) Very often I would see the wheels going around and the tricks coming up. It was probably useful, but I used to be aware of the mechanics of it and how you would work toward a gag to get a gag in. I`m sure he`d think the same thing about me. He`s a good filmmaker.

Eyes are the greatest tool in film. Mr. Capra taught me that. Sure, it`s nice to say very good dialogue, if you can get it. But great movie acting - watch the eyes!

(2004 quote) I once met Clint Eastwood, and it was remarkable. I studied him as I spoke to him. I looked down, and his pants were a little short -- they showed a bit too much of his socks. There was something so timid and shy and almost gawky about him in real life. I remember thinking to myself, Someone should have cast him in Meet John Doe, the Frank Capra movie, because that`s the real him. There`s not a wisp of aggression about him. That`s the real essence, not the guy who says, "Make my day."

When I started making films, I wanted to make Frank Capra pictures. But I`ve never been able to make anything but these crazy, tough pictures. You are what you are.

(on Frank Capra) He was my favorite director. Woody Allen and I once sat in a restaurant and picked five pictures we`d take to an island. And much to my shock, he didn`t take a Capra picture and I took two. He took three Ingmar Bergman movies.

(on Frank Capra) I`d like to take that little Dago son of a bitch and tear him into a million pieces and throw him into the ocean and watch him float back to Sicily where he belongs.

I don`t mistrust sentiment and emotion, no. The question becomes, `Are you giving them something to make them a little happier, or are you putting in something that is inherently true to the material?` Are people behaving the way we all really behave, or are they behaving the way we would like them to behave? I mean, the world is not as it`s presented in Frank Capra films. People love those films - which are beautifully made - but I wouldn`t describe them as a true picture of life. The questions are always, is it true? Is it interesting? To worry about those mandatory scenes that some people think make a picture is often just pandering to some conception of an audience. Some films try to outguess an audience. They try to ingratiate themselves, and it`s not something you really have to do. Certainly audiences have flocked to see films that are not essentially true, but I don`t think this prevents them from responding to the truth.

Hell, no actor is going to tell Frank Capra how to make a picture. He has forgotten more about movie-making than most directors ever know.

Think of Frank Capra and Preston Sturges. They used the same actors over and over again.

What you have now is a Hollywood that is pure poison. Hollywood was a central place in the history of art in the 20th century: it was human idealism preserved. And then, like any great place, it collapsed, and it collapsed into the most awful machinery in the world. Why don`t I see a Frank Capra today? Because people aren`t like this anymore? People haven`t changed that much in 60 years.