Guillermo del Toro is unpacking simply how impactful “It’s a Fantastic Life” is on cinematic historical past.
The director advised Sight and Sound that Frank Capra‘s beloved 1946 Christmas movie starring Jimmy Stewart as a suicidal father who displays on his life is a definite portrait of the “nightmare” aspect of the American Dream.
“‘It’s a Fantastic Life’ is one in every of my favourite films for a lot of causes,” del Toro stated. “I discover it fascinating that [Frank] Capra, an immigrant [from Italy], gave again America a view of itself that was extra beautiful and healthful than it actually was, and on the identical time darker and extra nightmarish than films tended to think about.”
The “Frankenstein” filmmaker continued, “Like Walt Disney, Capra could be very typically misinterpreted as an everlasting optimist, however the nightmarish nature of the darkish episodes in ‘It’s a Fantastic Life’ display that he understands terror, that he understands darkness. It’s a nightmare that’s adjoining to the American Dream, and to the American psyche. There’s all the time this creepier, darker, edgier aspect to the Norman Rockwell goodness. The hopefulness of the ending solely exists in a distinction.”
Del Toro added, “To me it’s completely timed, when it comes to comedic tone and ship and melodrama. It’s a film that it might be inconceivable to undergo with out that closing launch. In a wierd means, it’s the best ‘what if?’ speculative fiction.”
“It’s a Fantastic Life” grew to become a staple movie within the del Toro family, and is a viewing custom for the auteur.
“I first noticed it as a child on TV and each time I see it, it’s inevitably a kind of films that makes me cry three, 4 instances,” del Toro stated. “We watch it within the cinema yearly round Christmas, and we watch it on TV no less than one other time, as a result of it’s simply impeccable.”
“It’s a Fantastic Life” relies on the brief story “The Best Present” by Philip Van Doren Stern. Stewart stars as George Bailey, a person who has spent his life within the small city of Bedford Falls the place his financial institution has just lately been in monetary hassle. George is visited by his guardian angel Clarence (Henry Travers), who makes an attempt to indicate him all the great he has performed for his neighborhood. Donna Reed, Thomas Mitchell, Beulah Bondi, Ward Bond, Frank Faylen, and Gloria Graham additionally star within the basic movie that earned a Greatest Image nomination on the Oscars.