Miloš Forman, Oscar-winning Czech director of 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest,' dies at 86 (Pode 2024)
Miloš Forman, (nascido em 18 de fevereiro de 1932, Čáslav, Tchecoslováquia [agora na República Tcheca] - morreu em 13 de abril de 2018, Danbury, Connecticut, EUA), cineasta do New Wave nascido na República Tcheca, conhecido principalmente pelos filmes norte-americanos distintos ele fez depois de sua imigração para os Estados Unidos.
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Forman cresceu em uma pequena cidade perto de Praga. Depois que seus pais, o professor ativista Rudolf Forman e uma dona de casa protestante, morreram nos campos de concentração nazistas, ele foi criado por dois tios e amigos da família; nos anos 60, ele aprendeu que seu pai biológico não era Rudolf Forman, mas um arquiteto judeu. Em meados da década de 1950, Forman estudou na Faculdade de Cinema da Academia de Artes de Praga. Ao se formar, ele escreveu dois roteiros, o primeiro dos quais, Nechte to na mně (1955; Leave It to Me), foi filmado pelo renomado diretor tcheco Martin Frič. Forman foi diretor assistente no segundo desses roteiros, um romance intitulado Štěňata (1958; Cubs).
Durante o final dos anos 1950 e início dos anos 60, Forman atuou como roteirista ou diretor assistente em outros filmes. As primeiras grandes produções que ele dirigiu, Černý Petr (1964; Black Peter) e Lásky jedné plavovlásky (1965; Loves of a Blonde), tiveram grande sucesso nacional e internacionalmente - este último recebeu uma indicação ao Oscar de melhor filme em língua estrangeira - e Forman foi aclamado como um dos principais talentos da nova onda tcheca. Seus primeiros filmes foram caracterizados pelo exame da vida da classe trabalhadora e pelo entusiasmo por um estilo de vida socialista. Esses elementos também são evidentes em Hoří, má panenko (1967; O Baile dos Bombeiros), que explorava questões sociais e morais com sátira suave. Quando o Baile dos Bombeiros foi banido na Tchecoslováquia após a invasão soviética de 1968, Forman emigrou para os Estados Unidos; ele se tornou um EUAcidadão em 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).
