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.
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So vast is art, so narrow human wit.
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The silent thing onstage allows for a kind of intimacy that no conversation can have. If I just shut up, we're forced to look at each other and really confront that moment.
Every form of theatre has something in common with a visit to the doctor. On the way out, one should always feel better than on the way in.
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Films might get to you and your subconscious and make a little difference, but when the vigilante drum beats, the mob screams and the conformists go along with it. There have to be people who are non-conformists.
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