Films That Matter
Giving is Receiving
After a middling success with Broadway Bill (1934), Frank Capra wanted to return to the gargantuan success he had with his film released earlier that year, the rare Academy Award winner of the ‘Big Five’, It Happened One Night. Turning pen to paper with his then go to writer Robert Riskin, they worked on developing a tale based upon Clarence Budington’s short story “Opera Hat” – which was turned into serial form in The American Magazine, and it soon became the director’s biggest box office success yet, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936). Certainly part of why Frank Capra’s work would become known as ‘Capracorn’, this feature thrives thanks to its Great Depression setting (which was obviously still a major problem at the time), sweetly sentimental charm, and its belief in a humanist outlook.
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British Fare Serves Up Tasty Christmas Treat
Love ActuallyDecember 15, 2013After last week’s action-packed Christmas review of Die Hard, I think it is time to reset our bearings and capture a more Christmas-y feel. The 2003 romantic comedy Love Actually, written and directed by Richard Curtis (Mr. Bean, Bridget Jones’s Diary), fits the bill.
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Silence is Golden
The ArtistMarch 4, 2013Last years big Oscar winner The Artist, which won Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Original Score, and Costume Design, is a film that harkens back to the golden age of cinema. I have heard that a lot of people feel indifferent about watching this film, as a silent black and white motion picture seems boring and dated, yet The Artist is a beautifully written story that is quite the opposite.