The Book and the Movie | Lost Horizon / James Hilton, 1933 | Frank Capra, 1937

James Hilton, Lost Horizon, 1933 / Frank Capra, Lost Horizon, 1937
“People make mistakes in life through believing too much, but they have a damned dull time if they believe too little.”
“If we have not found the heaven within, we have not found the heaven without.”
“Is there not too much tension in the world at present, and might it not be better if more people were slackers?”

Frank Capra, Lost Horizon, 1937
“Then the whole range, much nearer now, paled into fresh splendor; a full moon rose, touching each peak in succession like some celestial lamplighter, until the long horizon glittered against a blue-black sky.”
“If I could put it into a very few words, dear sir, I should say that our prevalent belief is in moderation. We inculcate the virtue of avoiding excesses of all kinds—even including, if you will pardon the paradox, excess of virtue itself.”
“We believe that to govern perfectly it is necessary to avoid governing too much.”
“Perhaps the exhaustion of the passions is the beginning of wisdom, if you care to alter the proverb.”

Frank Capra, Lost Horizon, 1937
“My friend, it is not an arduous task that I bequeath, for our order knows only silken bonds. To be gentle and patient, to care for the riches of the mind, to preside in wisdom and secrecy while the storm rages without — it will all be very pleasantly simple for you, and you will doubtless find great happiness.”
“The first quarter-century of your life was doubtless lived under the cloud of being too young for things, while the last quarter-century would normally be shadowed by the still darker cloud of being too old for them; and between those two clouds, what small and narrow sunlight illumines a human lifetime!”
“The will of God or the lunacy of man – it seemed to him that you could take your choice, if you wanted a good enough reason for most things. Or, alternatively, the will of man and the lunacy of God.”
“Laziness in doing stupid things can be a great virtue…”

Frank Capra, Lost Horizon, 1937
“No ambitions? And how have you contrived to escape those widespread maladies?”
“One had to breathe consciously and deliberately, which, though disconcerting at first, induced after a time an almost ecstatic tranquility of mind. The whole body moved in a single rhythm of breathing, walking, and thinking, the lungs, no longer discrete and automatic, were disciplined to harmony with mind and limb.”
“You’re certain, then, that no human affection can outlast a five-year absence?” “It can, undoubtedly,” replied the Chinese, “but only as a fragrance whose melancholy we may enjoy.”

Frank Capra, Lost Horizon, 1937
“We have reason. It is the entire meaning and purpose of Shangri-La. It came to me in a vision long, long ago. I foresaw a time when man exalting in the technique of murder, would rage so hotly over the world, that every book, every treasure would be doomed to destruction. This vision was so vivid and so moving that I determined to gather together all things of beauty and culture that I could and preserve them here against the doom toward which the world is rushing. Look at the world today. Is there anything more pitiful? What madness there is! What blindness! A scurrying mass of bewildered humanity crashing headlong against each other. The time must come, my friend, when brutality and the lust for power must perish by its own sword. For when that day comes, the world must begin to look for a new life. And it is our hope that they may find it here.”

Jane Wyatt – Lost Horizon (1937)
“And, most precious of all, you will have Time—that rare and lovely gift that your Western countries have lost the more they have pursued it.”
“I suppose the truth is that when it comes to believing things without actual evidence, we all incline to what we find most attractive.”
“People would say, I suppose, that he came through without a scratch. But the scratches were there—on the inside.”

Frank Capra, Lost Horizon, 1937
“There was also in his nature a trait which some people might have called laziness, though it was not quite that. No one was capable of harder work, when it had to be done, and few could better shoulder responsibility; but the facts remained that he was not passionately fond of activity, and did not enjoy responsibility at all. Both were included in his job, and he made the best of them, but he was always ready to give way to any one else who could function as well or better. It was partly this, no doubt, that had made his success in the Service less striking than it might have been. He was not ambitious enough to shove his way past others, or to make an important parade of doing nothing when there was really nothing doing. His dispatches were sometimes laconic to the point of curtness, and his calm in emergencies, though admired, was often suspected of being too sincere. Authority likes to feel that a man is imposing some effort on himself, and that his apparent nonchalance is only a cloak to disguise an outfit of well-bred emotions. With Conway the dark suspicion had sometimes been current that he really was as unruffled as he looked, and that whatever happened, he did not give a damn. But this, too, like the laziness, was an imperfect interpretation. What most observers failed to perceive in him was something quite bafflingly simple—a love of quietness, contemplation, and being alone.”
James Hilton, Lost Horizon, 1933

Ronald Colman and Frank Capra on the set of Lost Horizon, 1937
Lost Horizon (1937)
Director: Frank Capra
Writers: Robert Riskin, James Hilton (novel)
Cinematography: Joseph Walker
Stars: Ronald Colman, Jane Wyatt, Edward Everett Horton
Set designer and art director Stephen Goosson won the Academy Award for Best Art Direction at the 10th Academy Awards (1938)

Broadway & 46th Street, New York, 1937
Also:
On directing > There are no rules in filmmaking. Only sins | Frank Capra, 1897-1991
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