New at BOP: Review: Matrix Resurrections Movie Review: Moonfall Movie Reviews: Scream The #1 Movie in America November Forecast The Many Saints of Newark October Forecast New Trivia Question All site updates Share & Save   Tweet Print this column

Frank Capra

Is there a more American, a more patriotic director than Frank Capra? You may throw out directors such as John Ford or Howard Hawks, but if the American spirit is full of such schmaltzy yet friendly images as apple pie on Independence Day, then Frank Capra is the quintessential American filmmaker. He is well remembered for such classics as Mr. Smith Goes To Washington and It’s a Wonderful Life, movies that celebrate the human spirit, stories that remind us what it means to live in this country. There are some people who might feel the need to gag on such boldly and baldly sentimental films, movies such as Mr. Deeds Goes to Town and You Can’t Take It With You, but his films are an important touchstone in cinema. Without Capra, do we get the James Stewart of the 1950s? Do we get screwball comedies half as good as It Happened One Night?

Capra is best known for his collaborations with Stewart, and for his propaganda filmmaking for the United States military during World War II. Though the word propaganda may make you cringe when thinking of the American war effort, there’s no question that Capra’s documentary filmmaking, captured in the Why We Fight series, is propaganda of the highest order, just something that might be seen now as necessary for the time. Capra’s work is always noted by its folksy nature, its celebration of the common man, and its excoriation of greed (see Mr. Smith Goes to Washington if you need further proof). When you think about the upcoming holiday, there’s no better auteur to highlight than Frank Capra.

Wes Anderson

Of the many current auteur directors, Wes Anderson might be the most divisive. He’s perhaps the most obvious working director to choose, because just about everyone who watches and appreciates movies only needs to look at a freeze-framed image from one of his films, whether it’s Rushmore or The Darjeeling Limited, to know it’s one of his films. Anderson’s style is well-known; you may call it fussy or twee, or you may embrace it, as I do. Whatever the case, Anderson is an auteur, not only because he has such a strong hand in the scripts of the films he directs, but for the many hallmarks apparent in his filmography. Even when he’s working on a stop-motion animated adaptation of a Roald Dahl story, you can count on Anderson finding a way to get a quirky, memorable soundtrack of songs from the 1960s and 1970s into the picture.

Other notable standbys of Anderson’s films are certain actors, from Bill Murray (who’s made an appearance of some kind in each of the man’s films, except for his debut, Bottle Rocket) to Owen Wilson (a frequent writing collaborator) to Jason Schwartzman. Another great staple of Anderson’s work (to me, at least) is his use of space, and the idea that shooting a film in widescreen doesn’t mean there shouldn’t always be plenty to look at. Various shots from The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic, and even Fantastic Mr. Fox provide a feast for the eyes, as long as you know where to look for the various details. Anderson has detractors (and though I’m not one of them, I readily admit that he’s a director you either love or hate), but his style is one of a kind, even if others have tried to copy him unsuccessfully.

Continued:       1       2       3