Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

If we were to map the films from this year’s Politics on Screen section along a timeline, we’d begin with idealism in the late 1930s, plunge into the paranoia and anxiety of the 1960s and ’70s, and finally come up for air in the cautiously optimistic atmosphere of the 1990s, a decade that now feels as distant as the world depicted in Frank Capra’s film.

In Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, a young, wide-eyed civic do-gooder from a rural state gets appointed to fill a vacant Senate seat. Thrown headfirst into the corruption, cynicism, and backroom politics of Washington, he must fight to defend the very ideals that brought him there.

At the time of its release, some critics scoffed at Smith’s innocence; others balked at the film’s overtly negative portrayal of “traditional” Washington. But nearly 90 years later, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington remains a bona fide classic as a touchstone not just in cinema, but in the very real political discourse of our time. You’ll feel its echoes throughout the films featured in this year’s program.

before the screening on 10.11 intro by Podkast amerykański hosts

in Polish only