There are no rules in filmmaking. Only sins. And the cardinal sin is dullness.
Interpretation
Filmmaking lacks strict rules; instead, it is guided by creative principles, with dullness being the greatest failure.
Frank Capra emphasizes that filmmaking is an art form that thrives on creativity rather than rigid guidelines. In this realm, being unoriginal or boring is seen as the ultimate misstep, suggesting that filmmakers should strive for innovation and engagement to captivate their audiences.
In practice
This quote could be used during a film school lecture to inspire students to embrace creativity.
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?
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!
My advice to young film-makers is this: don't follow trends, start them!
I would have liked to be - indeed, I should have been - a second Rembrandt.
One begins by plaguing oneself to no purpose in order to be true to nature, and one concludes by working quietly from one's own palette alone, and then nature is the result.
What are our conductors giving us year after year? Only fresh corpses. Over these beautifully embalmed sonatas, toccatas, symphonies and operas the public dance the jitterbug. Night and day without let the radio drowns us in a hog-wash of the most nauseating, sentimental ditties. From the churches comes the melancholy dirge of the dead Christ, a music which is no more sacred than a rotten turnip.
My music is best understood by children and animals.
No picture is made to endure nor to live with but it is made to sell and sell quickly with usura, sin against nature, is thy bread ever more of stale rags is thy bread dry as paper.
This diary is my kief, hashish and opium pipe. This is my drug and my vice.
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