Word: capra
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...America were invited in and honored. Of the twelve recipients of the National Medal of Arts, six were unable to attend, but their daughters, sons, cousins and friends stepped up for them. Their achievements had preceded them long ago. The recipients were predominantly creators: Contralto Marian Anderson, Filmmaker Frank Capra, Composer Aaron Copland, Painter Willem de Kooning, Choreographer Agnes de Mille, Actress Eva Le Gallienne, Folklorist Alan Lomax, Critic Lewis Mumford and Novelist Eudora Welty. But also on hand were some who gave generously to encourage such work: Houston Art Patron Dominique de Menil, Seymour Knox of Buffalo's Albright...
Several hundred people watched roughly 40 minutes of a 1936 Frank Capra film, "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town," and then discussed the film with the experts in an informal question-and-answer session in the symposium, "Film as an Art Form...
Preston Sturges used to write and direct this stuff pretty well, with gusts of anarchic energy and a gaggle of pruny character actors to undercut the sentiment. Frank Capra was a master at building social comedy to the apex of hysteria, then pulling a happy-ending miracle out of his hat. Ron Howard, even after Splash and Cocoon, ain't these guys, yet. When he lets his film relax into hip facetiousness, and when Keaton parades his elfin jock swagger, Gung Ho is agreeable. But its relentless stereotyping of the Japanese provokes winces and worse. Its tone swings violently from...
...argue with the pervasive sense of fun and abandon that characterizes Holmes and has been the hallmark of Spielberg's past work. To his credit, Spielberg has not asked to be taken seriously as an artist and he delivers entertainment and good will like no one since Frank Capra. But movies like Holmes scream nouveau riche. There is never room for understatement, never a scene or effect down-played. Everything must be the most expensive, the most elaborate. Spielberg has always been exhausting to watch, but never emotionally fulfilling. How can we care about the characters when the moviemakers...
...might even say IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (Harvard Science Center), but then Jimmy Stewart's already said that. But it's worth saying again, and Capra's classic Christmas flick is worth seeing once every year around holiday/exam time. Stewart plays the small town bank manager who is threatened by the local Grinch in a business suit (Lionel Barrymore...