With three Oscars behind him, Frank Capra is known for being a great director of the last century. Let’s discover his history and his career up to the years of great success.
Who was Frank Capra
Frank Russell Capra, born Francesco Rosario Capra (Bisacquino, May 18, 1897 – La Quinta, September 3, 1991), was an Italian naturalized American film director and producer.
In fact, it was born in province of Palermo to move to the United States at the age of five, more precisely to Los Angeles together with other Italian immigrants. To help the family he dedicated himself to menial jobs, but when it came to putting the study first, he did so by carrying out all the necessary sacrifices.
After getting a degree in chemical engineering in 1918, he was called to join the American army from which he was able to take leave only due to illness.
Back home from his family, his degree does not seem to offer him great job opportunities so he tries to move to San Francisco but he doesn’t find valid offers here either. One day he thinks of making his passion as a self-taught director his job, starting to direct some short films.
Before becoming a great director he moves within the panorama carrying out the most disparate professions. In fact, he works as a handyman, editor, typist and screenwriter. Only with Mack Sennett did he really train in directing directing his first film entitled “La grande sparata” released in 1926.
The great success of Frank Capra
Shortly after, Capra decides to move from the First National in favor of a new film company: the Columbia. An extremely fruitful partnership begins that allows the company to be recognized and established alongside “Big Five”, but also to the director to carry out projects in extreme autonomy. These films, produced with a very low budget, obtain great success through comedy films, adventure films obviously adapting also to projects accompanied by sound like “The Donovan Affair”.
The artist achieves great success in the period in which Barbara Stanwyck becomes the star of his films. In fact, we remember “Femmine di Lusso”, “La donna del miracolo”, “Proibito” and many other successes of the early 1930s. They do register though even flops like “General Yen’s bitter tea” which is affected by the rivalry between Stanwyck and Marlene Dietrich under the wing of Josef von Sterneberg. He still manages to get it his first Oscar nomination with “Lady for a day” in 1933 and start one with “It happened one night” with which wins in numerous categories of the Oscars, i.e. Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Lead Actor and Best Actress in a Leading Role.
Frank Capra and farewell to the cinema
He has now become one of the most famous directors in Hollywood and his projects prove to be extremely effective in acting as a mirror to the contemporary. During his most successful years he obtained the title of president of the Motion Picture Academy for four years. With the Second World War his career saw a clear break and with the call to arms in 1942 he took care of coordinating the popular documentaries on the conflict.
With “Preludio alla guerra”, a video montage of those years, the Academy Award for Best Documentary. It seems difficult, with the end of the war, to return to his own style and Capra finds himself in great difficulty with respect to creativity and so he decides to approach the world of television by making educational documentaries. Once you get to know the TV, the cinema ceases to exist.
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