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Miloš Forman - world famous film director
From Wikipedia:
Jan Tomáš "Miloš" Forman (/ˈmiːloʊʃ/;[2] Czech: [ˈmɪloʃ ˈforman]; 18 February 1932 – 13 April 2018) was a Czech-American film director, screenwriter, actor, and professor who rose to fame in his native Czechoslovakia before emigrating to the United States in 1968. Throughout Forman's career he won two Academy Awards, a BAFTA Award, three Golden Globe Awards, a Golden Bear, a César Award, and the Czech Lion
“Everything I did in my life I did because I wanted to win. The will to win belongs to my essential motivational powers. However, winning is quite exhausting so the next thing, which always comes to my mind, is this: Fine, I have won, but that’s not it. Next time it's going to be even harder."
Miloš Forman was born in 1932 into a teacher’s family in the small town of Čáslav (Central Bohemian region). He was the youngest of three brothers. His father was a member of a resistance group against the Nazi occupation, and was arrested by the Gestapo when Milos was eight years old. Shortly afterwards, Forman’s mother was also arrested .Both parents died during WWII in concentration camps. After the war, Forman attended a boarding school were he met his life long friends - among them Václav Havel, later president of Czechoslovakia and Czech Republic.
Forman was fascinated by theatre since childhood. In the early 1960s, Forman bought his own movie camera in East Germany and began to shoot a documentary about the popular Prague theatre the Semafor. In 1967, Forman received permission to travel to the United States to make his first American film for Paramount Pictures. He had thousands of ideas (including a film adaptation of Franz Kafka’s novel Amerika (America), however the communist film authorities rejected these ideas.
Until 1968, Miloš Forman, together with cinematographer Miroslav Ondříček, shot several successful films in Czechoslovakia, characterized by a scathing, almost blackly humorous view of society.
The 1967 film The firemen´s ball (in Czech Hoří, má panenko !) was also nominated for an Oscar and allowed Forman to emigrate to the United States.
Among Forman´s most famous films belongs One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) and Amadeus (1985).
Filming Amadeus gave Forman the rare opportunity to return to his homeland. Although he was an American citizen, Forman was never able to receive official permission to visit Czechoslovakia. To solve this problem Forman called Jiri Purs, head of the Czechoslovak Film Institute and the “boss” of the whole Czechoslovak communist film industry. He explained to Purs how much money American filmmakers were willing to spend in Czechoslovakia, and quickly obtained all the necessary visas. Filming was heavily controlled by the secret police. The picture was nominated for eleven Academy Awards, and was awarded eight. Amadeus was filmed not only in Prague streets but also in the theatre named today Estates Theatre were the Mozart ś Don Giovanni had a premiere in 1787.
Prahga, Estate Theater
Forman said about this movie:
“You know in communist countries they love to make movies about composers because composers don't talk, they make music so therefore they don't say anything subversive.”
The list of films directed by Forman is very long. Among them Hair, Ragtime, Valmont and others.
Thanks for reading
Margaret
