Cinema Can Do Laughter: You Can’t Take It with You

YOU CAN’T TAKE IT WITH YOU: the title is also the leitmotif of Frank Capra’s film, which we presented at the opening of our retrospective in 2016. The film is an ode to the current moment and the value of life and praises playfulness, non-conformism and the freedom to do whatever you feel like, at a remove from thoughts of profitability and the pressures of work. Frank Capra later called the film the first ever hippie movie, which articulates a critique of capitalism with unusual lightness of touch and allows a utopia to shine forth in a mixture of warmheartedness, wit and engagement. One day on his way to work, Martin Vanderhof turns around and starts dedicating himself from then on to what makes sense to him and feels like fun. In his big, open house, people thus paint, dance and make music. Things get complicated when Vanderhof’s granddaughter Alice (Jean Arthur) falls in love with Tony (James Stewart), the song of Wall Street magnate A.P. Kirby. He needs the Vanderhof plot of land in order to expand his armaments factory. (hjf)