Milos Forman _________________ Czech Republic (1932- )


The youngest of three sons, Forman was born in 1932 in Caslav, a small Bohemian town 45 miles from Prague. When he was nine, both parents were arrested by the Gestapo and perished in the death camps. Forman enrolled in the University of Prague's Film Institute, funded by the State just after the war. Graduates of the Film Institute like Forman, Jiri Menzel, Ivan Passer and Jan Kadar became leading figures in what is now regarded as the Golden Age of Czech cinema before the Soviet invasion in 1968.

His international repute soared with his next two films, the satirical Loves of a Blonde in 1965, and the controversial Fireman's Ball in 1967, a good-natured lampoon of his nation's fire-fighting bureaucracy. Fireman's Ball so unsettled State functionaries that Czech President Antonin Novotny banned its release. When asked why his government objected to such a gentle and apparently harmless spoof, Forman said: "All the Czech films of this period were claiming a freedom of expression that ran counter to the State film industry's ideology. This was a forewarning of the Russian invasion soon to come. Suddenly these State officials realized there was a strong potential for creativity among people, producing offbeat films that people want to see, and that are saleable to foreign markets. This inspired people working in other fields to demand similar freedom, which was upsetting to the State."

When the Soviet tanks rumbled into Prague to stay in August of 1968, Forman was fortunately in Paris negotiating to make his first American film. At first, Forman was forbidden to work in America by the Immigration Board. But Forman had vocal and powerful friends who admired his films -- Mike Nichols, Buck Henry, Paddy Chayefsky and Sidney Lumet. There followed a bleak, desperate period in New York of deals that fell through and a play directed by Forman that failed on Broadway.

Forman was close to a nervous collapse in 1973 when he got a package from Michael Douglas and Saul Zaentz containing a copy of Ken Kesey's hit novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. This apparently jinxed project had been turned down by all major Hollywood studios: "Who wants to go see a film about a bunch of loonies?" Douglas and Zaentz asked Forman if he would be interested in making a film of the book. Forman followed the triumph of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in 1979 with a film version of Hair, the historic rock-hippie Broadway musical of a decade ago. (Filmbug.uk) An extremely versatile director, in recent years he has directed films about Mozart (Amadeus), a pornographer (The People vs. Larry Flynt) and a comedian (Man on the Moon), as well as a comedy staring Ben Stiller (Keeping the Faith).

MAJOR WORKS:

    Keeping the Faith (2000)
    Man on the Moon (1999)
    Valmont (1989)
    New Year's Day (1989)
    Amadeus (1984)
    Ragtime (1981)
    Hair (1979)
    One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
    Taking Off (1971)
    The Firemen's Ball (1968)
    Loves of a Blonde (1965)
    Black Peter (1964)


ON THE WEB:

Milos Forman Useful, but not a very deep Web site. Check out the links to other resources.

"Interview with Milos Forman." Red Spring. George Washington University. 18 January 1997. Very good interview about Forman's career, reasons why he emigrated to the US, his views toward communism, etc. 6 April 2004 (http://www.gwu.edu/%7Ensarchiv/ coldwar /interviews/episode-14/forman1.html)

Lewis, Kevin. "Milos Forman Defender of the Artist and the Common Man." DGA Magazine. 22.1 (March/April 1997). Another good interview. 16 April 2004 (http://www.dga.org/news/mag_archives/v22-1/milos.html)


ARTICLES:

Horton, Andrew J. "A Nation of Thieves: Milos Forman's Fireman's Ball." Central Europe Review 2.5 (7 February 2000). 5 April 2004 ("http://www.ce-review.org/00/5/kinoeye5_horton.html").

Jensen, Jeff. "Forman on Forman ." Entertainment Weekly 516 (10 December 1999): 52-53. 5 April 2004 ("proquest.umi.com.authenticate.library.duq.edu/pqdweb?index=18&did=000000046983743&SrchMode=1&sid=3&Fmt=3&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT =309&VName=PQD&TS=1081304324&clientId=3262").

" Milos Forman." The Unesco Courier 7 (July 1995): 18-21.
5 April 2004 ("http://proquest.umi.com.authenticate.library.duq.edu/pqdweb?index=45&did=000000006660686&SrchMode=1&sid=3&Fmt=3&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT =309&VName=PQD&TS=1081304658&clientId=3262").


BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Forman, Milos. Turnaround: A Memoir. Villard Books, 1994.

Hames, Peter. The Czechoslovak New Wave. University of California Press, 1985.

Goulding, Daniel J. Five Filmmakers. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994.

Liehm, Antonin J. Closely Watched Films. International Arts and Sciences Press, 1974.

The Milos Forman Stories. International Arts and Sciences Press, 1975.

Skvorecky, Josef. All the Bright Young Men and Women. Peter Martin Associates, 1971.

Slater, Thomas J. Milos Forman: A Bio-Bibliography. Greenwood Press, 1987.

Slater, Thomas J., ed. Handbook of Soviet and East European Films and Filmmakers. Greenwood Press, 1992