Oscar Profile #130: Milos Forman

Born February 18, 1932 in Caslav, Czechoslovakia (present day Czech Republic) to Anna Forman, Milos Forman’s mother ran a summer hotel. Her husband Rudolf was a professor. They were Protestants.

During the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia, Rudolf was named by a member of the anti-Nazi Underground as a member during a Gestapo interrogation. Rudolf and Anna were arrested, Anna dying at Auschwitz in 1943, Rudolf at Buchenwald in 1944. Forman has stated that he didn’t fully realize what had happened to them until he viewed concentration camp footage at the age of 16.

Living with relatives during the war, Forman learned that his biological father was really Jewish architect Otto Kohn.

He was educated in elite schools after the war, becoming first a film actor in 1953, a screenwriter in 1955, an assistant director in 1957 and a full-fledged director in 1960. His first wife, Jana Brejchová (1958-1962), is a still active Czech actress, as is his second wife, Vera Kresadlová (1964-1999) with whom he had his first set of twin sons, born in 1964.

Forman’s career took off with 1964’s internationally acclaimed Black Peter about a few days in the life of a teenager which did not see a U.S. release until 1971 when Forman was already established as a director of international repute.

His next two films, 1966’s Loves of a Blonde and 1968’s The Fireman’s Ball, both about Czech village life, received Oscar nominations for Best Foreign Language Film.

Forman’s first U.S. film was the critically acclaimed 1971 comedy, Taking Off. His next film, 1975’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest won numerous awards, including Forman’s first Oscar as Best Director. He became a U.S. citizen in 1977.

His 1979 labor of love, Hair was the opening film at that year’s Cannes Film Festival.

1981’s Ragtime was a critical failure but still managed to amass eight Oscar nominations, albeit none for Forman. 1984’s Amadeus was a different story altogether, winning eight Oscars out of eleven nominations, including Forman’s second for Best Director.

1989’s Valmont suffered from comparison to Stephen Frears’ acclaimed 1988 film Dangerous Liaisons. Both films were adaptations of the classic French novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses.

Forman rebounded with 1996’s The People vs. Larry Flynt which earned him yet another Oscar nomination for Best Director.

The director married his third wife Martina in 1999 with whom he had a second set of twin sons that same year. They were named Andrew and James after Andy Kaufman and Jim Carrey, the comedian and the actor who played him in 1999’s Man on the Moon. The family resides in the state of Connecticut.

Forman’s 2006 film, Goya’s Ghosts received mixed reviews and did not achieve the box-office success of many of his previous films. A professor emeritus of Columbia University, Milos Forman is now 81.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

TAKING OFF (1971)

Forman’s first U.S. film was better received in England where it was nominated for six BAFTAs including Best Film; Direction; Screenplay (co-written by Forman, John Guare and two others); Actress (Lynn Carlin) and Supporting Actress (Georgia Engel). Although it appeared on ten best lists in the U.S. it was not nominated for any major awards here. Perhaps the hilarious comedy about aspiring teenagers who leave home and parents who experiment with marijuana hit too close to home for the more uptight Academy and other awards granters.

Buck Henry, Audra Lindley and Paul Benedict co-star. Kathy Bates makes an auspicious screen debut singing a song she composed called “And Even the Horses Had Wings”.

ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST (1975)

Forman’s film of Ken Kesey’s 1962 novel and Dale Wasserman’s 1963 play hit all the right buttons in 1975 and still resonates with audiences discovering it today. Among its many awards were five Oscars out of nine nominations. Its five Oscars for Best Picture; Actor; Actress; Director and Screenplay was the first such sweep since It Happened One Night forty-one years earlier. For Jack Nicolson, winning his first Oscar on his fifth nomination in seven years for his wrongly incarcerated mental patient was no surprise, but character actress Louise Fletcher’s win as the rigid nurse who torments him was.

Fletcher got the role after being dumped by Robert Altman for the role she developed in Nashville when he had a falling out with her husband who was his producing partner. Lily Tomlin, who replaced her, received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress, the category many though Fletcher’s Nurse Ratched should have competed in. But, as Fletcher rightly said, no one would have contested the placement had the role been played by one of the numerous legendary actresses who turned the role down including Geraldine Page, Anne Bancroft, Ellen Burstyn and Angela Lansbury.

HAIR (1979)

Twyla Tharp’s amazing choreography is often singled out as the film’s most important ingredient next to Galt MacDermot, Gerome Ragni and James Rado’s intoxicating score, but it took a master director to put it all together.

Although based on the sensational Broadway musical of the same name, the plot is substantially changed and given more substance. Star John Savage’s character in the original off-Broadway production was an alien from outer space; the hippie leader of the tribe in the Broadway production and a naïve draftee in the film. Other characters are also given more substantive back stories and the ending is completely different.

Although unjustly shut out of the Oscar race, the film did receive Golden Globe nominations for Best Picture – Musical or Comedy and New Star of the Year – Male for Treat Williams who is terrific as Claude’s draft card burning buddy, Berger. Co-stars Beverly D’Angelo, Annie Golden, Dorsey Wright, Don Dacus and Cheryl Barnes also deliver impressively and there are unforgettable cameos by Charlotte Rae, Nell Carter, Melba Moore and legendary director Nicholas Ray.

AMADEUS (1984)

Forman’s third adaptation of a Broadway success became his most successful awards magnet, earning eleven Oscar nominations and winning eight including Forman’s second for Best Director.

Oscar winner F. Murray Abraham and nominee Tom Hulce take on the roles of Salieri and Mozart played on Broadway by the better known Ian McKellen and Tim Curry. Their relative anonymity brought freshness to the project that might not have existed had the leads been played by better known actors in the roles. They were aided by the film’s meticulous production design, makeup, costume design and the film’s score comprised mostly of Mozart compositions.

THE PEOPLE VS. LARRY FLYNT (1996)

Co-produced by Oliver Stone, Forman’s searing biography of the controversial Hustler publisher was an early Oscar favorite but denunciations from several women’s group which found the film misogynistic helped torpedo its chances. It was nevertheless nominated for two Oscars for Woody Harrelson’s revelatory title performance and for Forman’s astute direction. Its much praised supporting performances by Courtney Love and Edward Norton were not honored by the Academy, although Love’s portrayal of Flynt’s tragic third wife, Althea Leasure, did earn her a New York Film Critics’ award and numerous other citations.

Norton, who played Flynt’s attorney, received numerous awards for his breakout performances in this and two of the year’s other hit films, Primal Fear and Everyone Says I Love You. He won the Los Angeles Film Critics’ award for all three and was Oscar nominated for Primal Fear.