Jan Tomáš "Miloš" Forman (; ; 18 February 1932 – 13 April 2018) was a Czech and American film director, screenwriter, actor, and professor. He rose to fame in his native Czechoslovakia before emigrating to the United States in 1968. Over a career spanning six decades, Forman won two Academy Awards, a BAFTA Award, three Golden Globe Awards, a Golden Bear, a César Award, and the Czech Lion.
Forman was an important figure in the Czechoslovak New Wave. Film scholars and Czechoslovak authorities saw his 1967 film The Firemen's Ball as a biting satire on Eastern European Communism. The film was initially shown in theatres in his home country in the more reformist atmosphere of the Prague Spring. However, it was later banned by the Communist government after the invasion by the Warsaw Pact countries in 1968. Forman was subsequently forced to leave Czechoslovakia for the United States, where he continued making films.
He received two Academy Awards for Best Director, one for the psychological drama One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) and one for the biographical drama Amadeus (1984). During this time, he also directed notable and acclaimed films such as Black Peter (1964), Loves of a Blonde (1965), Hair (1979), Ragtime (1981), Valmont (1989), The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996) and Man on the Moon (1999). One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Amadeus have been inducted into the National Film Registry.
Early life
thumb|left|Miloš Forman school register 1941. (SOkA Kutná Hora)
Miloš Forman's childhood was marked by the early loss of his parents. Forman was born in Čáslav, Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic) to Anna Švábová Forman, who ran a summer hotel. His parents attended a Protestant church. He believed that his father was Rudolf Forman. During the Nazi occupation, Rudolf, a member of the Czech Resistance, was arrested for distributing banned books, and reportedly died from typhus in Mittelbau-Dora, a subcamp of the Buchenwald concentration camp in May 1944. Another version has it that he died in Mittelbau-Dora during interrogation. Forman's mother had been murdered in Auschwitz in March the previous year. Forman said that he did not fully understand what had happened to them until he saw footage of the concentration camps when he was 16. His older brother Pavel was a painter twelve years his senior, and he emigrated to Australia after the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia. Forman later discovered that his biological father was in fact the Jewish architect Otto Kohn, a survivor of the Holocaust, and Forman was thus a half-brother of mathematician Joseph J. Kohn.
He later studied screenwriting at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. He was assistant of Alfréd Radok, creator of Laterna Magika. Along with fellow filmmaker and friend Passer, he left Czechoslovakia for the United States during the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in summer 1968.
Career
Along with cinematographer Miroslav Ondříček and long-time friend from school Ivan Passer, Forman filmed the silent documentary Semafor about the Semafor theater. He regularly collaborated with cinematographer Miroslav Ondříček.
In 1967, he directed The Firemen's Ball an original Czechoslovak–Italian co-production; this was Forman's first color film. It is one of the best–known movies of the Czechoslovak New Wave. On the face of it a naturalistic representation of an ill-fated social event in a provincial town, the film has been seen by both film scholars and the then-authorities in Czechoslovakia as a biting satire on East European Communism, which resulted in it being banned for many years in Forman's home country.
<blockquote>"When Soviet tanks rumbled into Prague in August 1968, Forman was in Paris negotiating for the production of Taking Off (1971), his first American film. Claiming that he was out of the country illegally, his Czech studio fired him, forcing Forman to emigrate to New York"</blockquote>
The first movie Forman made in the United States, Taking Off, shared the Grand Prix (ex aequo)(second prize) with Johnny Got His Gun at the 1971 Cannes Film Festival. The film starred Lynn Carlin and Buck Henry, and also featured, as Jeannie, Linnea Heacock, discovered, with friends, in Washington Square Park. It was critically panned and left Forman struggling to find work. Forman later said that it did so poorly he ended up owing the studio $500. The success of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest allowed Forman to direct his long-planned film version of Hair in 1979, a rock musical based on the Broadway musical by James Rado, Gerome Ragni and Galt MacDermot. The film starred Treat Williams, John Savage and Beverly D'Angelo. It was disowned by the writers of the original musical, and, although it received positive reviews, it did not do well financially.
Forman's adaptation, Valmont (1989) of Pierre Choderlos de Laclos's novel Les Liaisons dangereuses had its premiere on 17 November 1989. Another film adaptation by Stephen Frears from the same source material had been released the previous year, and overshadowed Forman's adaptation.
1996–2006
thumb|right|200px|Forman in 2009
The 1996 biographical film, The People vs. Larry Flynt was a portrayal of pornography mogul Larry Flynt who brought Forman another directing Oscar nomination. However, Kirk Honeycut from The Hollywood Reporter wrote, "In general, the filmmakers failed to make several basic decisions before shooting...[the] Below-the-line credits are terrific, which only increases an overwhelming sense of disappointment with the film’s failed ambitions."
Unfinished projects
In the late 1950s, Forman and Josef Škvorecký started adapting Škvorecký's short story Eine kleine Jazzmusik for the screen. The script, named Kapela to vyhrála (The Band Won It), tells the story of a student jazz band during the Nazi Occupation of Czechoslovakia. The script was submitted to Barrandov Film Studios. The studio required changes and both artists continued to rewrite the script. Right before the film started shooting, the whole project was completely scrapped, most probably due to intervention from people at the top of the political scene, as Škvorecký had just published his novel The Cowards, which was strongly criticized by communist politicians. The story Eine kleine Jazzmusik was dramatized as a TV film in the 1990s. In the spring and summer of 1968, Škvorecký and Forman cooperated again by jointly writing a script synopsis to make a film version of The Cowards. After Škvorecký fled the Warsaw Pact invasion, the synopsis was translated into English, but no film was made.
In the mid-1960s, Forman, Passer and Papoušek were working on a script about a soldier secretly living in Lucerna Palace in Prague. They got stuck writing the script and went to a village firemen's ball. Inspired by the experience, they decided to cancel the script and write The Firemen's Ball instead.
In early 1970s, Forman worked on a script with Thomas Berger based on his novel Vital Parts.
In 1989, Forman was asked to direct Ghost for Paramount and pitched directing the film to screenwriter Bruce Joel Rubin. However, he was dismissed from the film when both Rubin and Paramount disliked his ideas for the film.
In the early 1990s, Forman co-wrote a screenplay with Adam Davidson. The screenplay, titled Hell Camp, was about an American-Japanese love affair in the world of sumo wrestlers. The picture was to be funded by TriStar Pictures, and was cancelled just four days before shooting because of the disapproval of the Japan Sumo Association, while Forman refused to make the changes requested by the association. It was postponed however, following an injury of Forman's.
In January 1997, Forman agreed to make Universal's The Little Black Book as his next film, expecting to shoot in the fall. It was an adaptation of the French play by Jean-Claude Carrière. Later that same month, he reportedly was reading the script for, and considering directing, the Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle With Wings as Eagles. Forman was the star's preferred choice to take on the helm of the project, which was set up at Paramount, under Alan Ladd Jr.
Around 2000, Forman was in talks to direct a film about the early life of Howard Hughes with screenplay by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, and Edward Norton in the role of the eccentric young billionaire.
thumb|right|200px|Forman in 2009
Around 2001, Forman was set to direct and co-write the comic crime caper Bad News, adapted from the novel by Donald E. Westlake. Forman was co-writing the script with Doug Wright. The project never came to fruition.
In the early 2000s, Forman developed a film project to be titled Embers, adapted by Jean-Claude Carrière from Hungarian novelist Sándor Márai’s novel. The film was about two men in the former Austria-Hungary Empire from different social backgrounds who become friends in military school and meet again 41 years later. Forman cast Sean Connery and Klaus Maria Brandauer as well as Winona Ryder. Several months before shooting, Sean Connery and the Italian producer had a disagreement, and Connery withdrew from the project. Forman was so convinced that Sean Connery fit the role that he didn't want to shoot the film without him and cancelled the project a few days before the shooting was due to start.
Personal life and death
thumb|upright|Forman gave his 18-year-old sister-in-law [[Hana Brejchová her first film role in Loves of a Blonde, which earned her third place in the Best Actress category at the Venice Film Festival.]]
Forman's first wife was Czech movie star Jana Brejchová. They met while making Štěňata (1957). They divorced in 1962. Forman had twin sons with his second wife Czech actress and singer Věra Křesadlová. They separated in 1969. Their sons and (b. 1964) are both involved in the theatre. Forman married on 28 November 1999, and they also had twin sons Jim and Andy (born 1999).
Forman was professor emeritus of film at Columbia University. In 1996, asteroid 11333 Forman was named after him. He wrote poems and published the autobiography Turnaround in 1994. He is interred at New Warren Cemetery in Warren, Connecticut.
Work
Film
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!Year
!English title
!width=65|Director
!width=65|Writer
!Original title
|-
| 1964
| Black Peter
|
|
| Černý Petr
|-
| 1965
| Loves of a Blonde
|
|
| Lásky jedné plavovlásky
|-
| 1967
| The Firemen's Ball
|
|
| Hoří, má panenko
|-
| 1971
| Taking Off
|
|
|
|-
| 1975
| One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
|
|
|
|-
| 1979
| Hair
|
|
|
|-
| 1981
| Ragtime
|
|
|
|-
| 1984
| Amadeus
|
|
|
|-
| 1989
| Valmont
|
|
|
|-
| 1996
| The People vs. Larry Flynt
|
|
|
|-
| 1999
| Man on the Moon
|
|
|
|-
| 2006
| Goya's Ghosts
|
|
|
|-
|}
Documentary film
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!Year
!English title
!width=65|Director
!width=65|Writer
!Original title
|-
| 1960
| Magic Lantern II
|
|
|
|-
|rowspan=2|1964
| If Only They Ain't Had Them Bands
|
|
| Kdyby ty muziky nebyly
|-
| Audition
|
|
| Konkurs
|-
| 1973
| Visions of Eight
|
|
| Segment "The Decathlon"
|-
|}
Short film
- I Miss Sonia Henie (1971)
Acting credits
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Year
! Title
! Role
|-
| 1953
| Slovo dělá ženu (A Woman as Good as Her Word)
| Young Worker
|-
| 1954
| Stříbrný vítr (Silver wind)
| dustojník u Stanku
|-
| 1986
| Heartburn
| Dmitri
|-
| 1989
| New Year's Day
| Lazlo
|-
| 2000
| Keeping the Faith
| Father Havel
|-
| 2008
| Chelsea on the Rocks
| Himself
|-
| 2009
| Peklo s princeznou (Hell with a Princess)
| Erlebub
|-
| 2011
| Beloved (Les Bien-aimés)
| Jaromil
|}
Television
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!Year
!English title
!Original title
|-
| 1966
| A well paid walk
| Dobře placená procházka
|-
|}
Theatre
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Year
! Title
! Director
! Writer
|-
| 1958
| Laterna magika
|
|
|-
| 1960
| Laterna magika II
|
|
|-
| 1972
| The Little Black Book
|
|
|-
| 2007
| A Walk Worthwhile
|
|
|}
Honours and legacy
In 1977, he became a naturalized citizen of the United States. He presided over a César Award ceremony in 1988. In April 2007, he took part in the jazz opera Dobře placená procházka, itself a remake of the TV film he made in 1966. Forman's films One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Amadeus were selected for the National Film Registry as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" in 1993 and 2019 respectively
- 1965: Awarded the state prize of Klement Gottwald for Loves of a Blonde
- 1997: The Crystal Globe award for outstanding artistic contribution to world cinema at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.
- 1998: Awarded a lifetime Achievement award by the Czech Lion Awards for his contributions to Czech cinema
- 1995: Awarded Czech Medal of Merit
- 2015: Awarded honorary Doctor of humane letters degree by Columbia University
Awards and nominations
Throughout Forman's career he won two Academy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival, Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival, a BAFTA Award, a César Award, and the Czech Lion.
|-
| 1986
| Best Film
| Amadeus
|
|
|-
| 1982
| Ragtime
|
|
|-
| 1997
| rowspan=3|Berlin International Film Festival
| rowspan="2" | Golden Berlin Bear
| The People vs. Larry Flynt
|
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | 2000
| rowspan="2" | Man on the Moon
|
|
|-
| Silver Bear for Best Director
|
|
|-
| 1990
| Best Director
| Valmont
|
|
|-
| 1980
| Hair
|
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1985
| rowspan="2" | Amadeus
|
|
|-
| Best Foreign Film
|
|