Milos Forman Wins Best Director: 1976 Oscars (Mai 2024)
Miloš Forman, (născut la 18 februarie 1932, Čáslav, Cehoslovacia [acum în Cehia] - a crescut 13 aprilie 2018, Danbury, Connecticut, SUA), cineast New Wave, originar din Cehia, cunoscut în principal pentru filmele distinct americane care a făcut după imigrarea sa în Statele Unite.
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Forman a crescut într-un oraș mic de lângă Praga. După ce părinții săi, profesorul activist Rudolf Forman și o gospodină protestantă au murit în lagărele de concentrare naziste, el a fost crescut de doi unchi și prieteni de familie; în anii 1960 a aflat că tatăl său biologic nu era Rudolf Forman, ci un arhitect evreu. La mijlocul anilor '50, Forman a studiat la Facultatea de Film a Academiei de Arte din Praga. După absolvire, el a scris două scenarii, dintre care primul, Nechte to na mně (1955; Las-o la mine), a fost filmat de către regizorul ceh Martin Frič. Forman a fost asistent regizor la cea de-a doua dintre acele scenarii, o romanță intitulată Štěňata (1958; Cubs).
De-a lungul sfârșitului anilor '50 și începutul anilor '60, Forman a jucat ca scriitor sau regizor asistent la alte filme. Primele producții importante pe care le-a regizat, Černý Petr (1964; Black Peter) și Lásky jedné plavovlásky (1965; Loves of a Blonde), au avut un mare succes atât pe plan intern, cât și pe plan internațional - acesta din urmă a primit o nominalizare la premiul Oscar la cel mai bun film în limba străină. - iar Forman a fost salutat ca un talent major al noului val ceh. Filmele sale timpurii s-au caracterizat prin examinarea vieții clasei muncitoare și entuziasmul lor pentru un stil de viață socialist. Aceste elemente sunt evidente și în Hoří, má panenko (1967; Balul pompierilor), care a explorat problemele sociale și morale cu o satiță blândă. Când balul pompierilor a fost interzis în Cehoslovacia după invazia sovietică din 1968, Forman a imigrat în Statele Unite; a devenit SUAcetățean în 1975.
Forman’s first American film was Taking Off (1971), a story about runaway teenagers and their parents. Although not a box-office success, it won the jury grand prize at the Cannes film festival. The movie was also notable for being the last of Forman’s works to incorporate his early themes. Most of his American films are also bereft of the earlier social concerns that defined his Czech films, although he clearly demonstrated his mastery of the craft of direction and showed a remarkable ability to work with actors.
One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) was an independent production that had been turned down by every major studio, but it catapulted Forman to the forefront of Hollywood directors. A potent adaptation of Ken Kesey’s 1962 novel, it starred Jack Nicholson as Randle P. McMurphy, an irrepressible free spirit who cons his way from a prison work farm into a mental hospital. Against his better judgment, he enters into a war of wills with the sadistic head nurse (played by Louise Fletcher). The film became the first since It Happened One Night (1934) to win all five major Academy Awards: best picture, actor (Nicholson), actress (Fletcher), director, and screenplay (Bo Goldman and Lawrence Hauben).
Hair (1979) was Forman’s much-anticipated version of the Broadway musical, but it was a disappointment at the box office, despite receiving generally positive reviews. The director then made Ragtime (1981), a handsomely mounted, expensive adaptation of E.L. Doctorow’s best-selling novel about early 20th-century America. The historical drama starred James Cagney in his first credited big-screen appearance in some 20 years; it was the actor’s last feature film. Ragtime, however, also failed to find an audience, although it received eight Oscar nominations.
Forman rebounded from those mild disappointments with the acclaimed Amadeus (1984), Peter Shaffer’s reworking of his stage success. F. Murray Abraham gave an Oscar-winning performance as the jealous Antonio Salieri, and Tom Hulce earned praise as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The lavish production won eight Oscars, including for best picture and Forman’s second for best director. After that triumph he took a five-year break from directing, reappearing with Valmont (1989), an adaptation of Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’s classic novel Dangerous Liaisons. However, Forman’s version—which starred Colin Firth, Annette Bening, and Meg Tilly—was generally compared unfavourably to Stephen Frears’s adaptation, which had been released the previous year.
In 1996 Forman returned to form with The People vs. Larry Flynt, a biopic of the pornographic magazine publisher whose legal battles provoked debates about freedom of speech. The dramedy featured strong performances, notably by Woody Harrelson in an Oscar-nominated turn as the controversial Flynt, Courtney Love as Flynt’s wife, and Edward Norton as his frustrated attorney. Forman earned an Academy Award nomination for his directing. He also garnered praise for Man on the Moon (1999), in which Jim Carrey channeled the genius of the late comic Andy Kaufman. The fine supporting cast included Danny DeVito, Love, and Paul Giamatti. Less successful was Goya’s Ghosts (2006), a costume drama starring Natalie Portman as a model for the artist Francisco de Goya (Stellan Skarsgård) and Javier Bardem as a church official who rapes her after she is unjustly imprisoned during the Spanish Inquisition. In 2009 Forman codirected the musical Dobre placená procházka (A Walk Worthwhile).
In addition to his directorial efforts, Forman occasionally acted in films, including Heartburn (1986), Keeping the Faith (2000), and Les Bien-Aimés (2011; Beloved). He also cowrote (with Jan Novák) the memoir Turnaround (1994).
