Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream, it takes over as the number one hormone; it bosses the enzymes; directs the pineal gland; plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to film is more film.
Interpretation
Film can consume and dominate one's thoughts and emotions, much like a powerful addiction.
In this quote, Frank Capra metaphorically compares film to a disease that overtakes an individual, asserting that its influence can be as profound and consuming as a drug addiction. The use of vivid imagery emphasizes how cinema affects our psyche, suggesting that just as a person addicted to heroin might seek more of the drug as a remedy, a film enthusiast immerses themselves further in films in response to their obsession, thereby illustrating the powerful grip and emotional resonance that cinema can have on a person.
In practice
During a speech at a film festival, one might say, 'As Frank Capra noted, film is a disease that takes hold of us, urging us to seek more cinematic experiences.'
Someone should keep reminding Mr. Average Man that he was born free, divine, strong; uncrushable by fate, society, or hell itself; and that he is a child of God, equal heir to all the bounties of God; and that goodness is riches, kindness is power, and freedom is glory. Above all, every man is born with an inner capacity to take him as far as his imagination can dream or envision-providing he is free to dream and envision.
If You Want to Send a Message, Try Western Union.
In these days of wars and rumors of wars - haven't you ever dreamed of a place where there was peace and security, where living was not a struggle but a lasting delight?
There are no rules in filmmaking. Only sins. And the cardinal sin is dullness.
The Oscar is the most valuable, but least expensive, item of world-wide public relations ever invented by any industry.
My Advice to Young Filmmakers is This: Don't Follow Trends. Start Them!
We Orientals find beauty not only in the thing itself but in the pattern of the shadows, the light and darkness which that thing provides.
A serious writer is not to be confounded with a solemn writer. A serious writer may be a hawk or a buzzard or even a popinjay, but a solemn writer is always a bloody owl.
Photography is not about the thing photographed. It is about how that thing looks photographed.
In documentaries, there's a truth that unfolds unnaturally, and you get to chronicle it. In narratives, you have to create the situations so that the truth will come out.
Writing isn't something I do, writing is something that I am. I am writing - it's just an expression of me.
I always say that music is a small drop in the ocean of life. I was told a long time ago that your horn, or whatever instrument you play, is a means to be in the world.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.