Jeffrey Keith Negus

"An aesthetic experience that leaves the spectator vacant is no form of art." --- John Cassavetes FULL EXCERPT: "I adore Frank Capra. He was and still is, in my opinion, the greatest filmmaker that ever lived. Capra created a feeling of belief in a free country and that there is goodness in bad people; that everyone reaches a limit where they would stop and be sane again because what they really wanted was to have compassion for other people and live in a spirit of friendliness and brotherhood. I don’t think his films were sentimental or romantic; they were expressions of a practical philosophy. Like him I believe that there cannot be artists who find no room for elemental human behavior and passion. Idealism is not sentimental; it validates a hope for the future. Capra gave me hope and in turn I wish to extend a sense of hope to my audiences. By affording the spectators a glimpse into ideas that confuse, rock, and disturb them, I offer the mind food for thought. An aesthetic experience that leaves the spectator vacant is no form of art. At the same time I don’t emulate Capra. The characters in my films display a lack of comfort and find themselves in petty and embarrassing situations, but this is only so because they haven’t yet come to grips with their emotional natures. I am a tough and deeply cynical person. Capra didn’t care about his cynicism. I wish I could be as independent as him to really express the beautiful ideas he could without feeling perhaps that these ideas were not truthful. If I had the capacity, the means, and the temperament, I would love to make every one of Capra’s films but so far I’ve never done it." (From John Cassavetes' interview with Gautam Dasgupta, 1975) Clip from: Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) Director: Frank Capra

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