Director de origen checo Miloš Forman

Miloš Forman, (nacido el 18 de febrero de 1932, Čáslav, Checoslovaquia [ahora en la República Checa] - falleció el 13 de abril de 2018, Danbury, Connecticut, EE. UU.), Cineasta de New Wave nacido en la República Checa, conocido principalmente por las películas distintivamente estadounidenses que hizo después de su inmigración a los Estados Unidos.

Examen

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¿Quién interpretó a Merry Brandybuck en las películas de El señor de los anillos?

Forman creció en un pequeño pueblo cerca de Praga. Después de que sus padres, el maestro activista Rudolf Forman y una ama de casa protestante, murieron en campos de concentración nazis, fue criado por dos tíos y amigos de la familia; En la década de 1960 supo que su padre biológico no era Rudolf Forman, sino un arquitecto judío. A mediados de la década de 1950, Forman estudió en la Facultad de Cine de la Academia de las Artes de Praga. Al graduarse, escribió dos guiones, el primero de ellos, Nechte to na mně (1955; Leave It to Me), fue filmado por el destacado director checo Martin Frič. Forman fue asistente de dirección en el segundo de esos guiones, un romance titulado Štěňata (1958; Cachorros).

A finales de los años cincuenta y principios de los sesenta, Forman actuó como escritor o asistente de dirección en otras películas. Las primeras producciones importantes que dirigió, Černý Petr (1964; Black Peter) y Lásky jedné plavovlásky (1965; Loves of a Blonde), tuvieron un gran éxito tanto a nivel nacional como internacional; este último recibió una nominación al Premio de la Academia a la mejor película en idioma extranjero —Y Forman fue aclamado como un gran talento de la nueva ola checa. Sus primeras películas se caracterizaron por su examen de la vida de la clase trabajadora y su entusiasmo por un estilo de vida socialista. Esos elementos también son evidentes en Hoří, má panenko (1967; The Firemen's Ball), que exploró cuestiones sociales y morales con sátira apacible. Cuando la Bola de los Bomberos fue prohibida en Checoslovaquia después de la invasión soviética de 1968, Forman emigró a los Estados Unidos; se convirtió en Estados Unidosciudadano en 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.

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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).