Regisseur Milos Forman: Oscar-Preisträger ist gestorben (Kann 2024)
Miloš Forman (* 18. Februar 1932 in Čáslav, Tschechoslowakei [heute in der Tschechischen Republik]; * 13. April 2018 in Danbury, Connecticut, USA), tschechischer New Wave-Filmemacher, der vor allem für die typisch amerikanischen Filme bekannt war er machte nach seiner Einwanderung in die Vereinigten Staaten.
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Forman wuchs in einer kleinen Stadt in der Nähe von Prag auf. Nachdem seine Eltern, der Aktivistenlehrer Rudolf Forman und eine protestantische Hausfrau, in Konzentrationslagern der Nazis gestorben waren, wurde er von zwei Onkeln und Freunden der Familie aufgezogen. In den 1960er Jahren erfuhr er, dass sein leiblicher Vater nicht Rudolf Forman, sondern ein jüdischer Architekt war. Mitte der 1950er Jahre studierte Forman an der Filmfakultät der Akademie der Künste in Prag. Nach seinem Abschluss schrieb er zwei Drehbücher, von denen das erste, Nechte to na mně (1955; Überlasse es mir), von dem bekannten tschechischen Regisseur Martin Frič gedreht wurde. Forman war Regieassistent beim zweiten dieser Drehbücher, einer Romanze mit dem Titel Štěňata (1958; Cubs).
In den späten 1950er und frühen 60er Jahren war Forman entweder als Autor oder Regieassistent für andere Filme tätig. Die ersten großen Produktionen, die er inszenierte, Černý Petr (1964; Black Peter) und Lásky jedné plavovlásky (1965; Loves of a Blonde), waren sowohl im Inland als auch international sehr erfolgreich - letztere erhielten eine Oscar-Nominierung als bester fremdsprachiger Film - und Forman wurde als großes Talent der tschechischen Neuen Welle gefeiert. Seine frühen Filme zeichneten sich durch ihre Auseinandersetzung mit dem Leben der Arbeiterklasse und ihre Begeisterung für einen sozialistischen Lebensstil aus. Diese Elemente werden auch in Hoří, má panenko (1967; Der Feuerwehrball) deutlich, der soziale und moralische Fragen mit sanfter Satire untersuchte. Als der Feuerwehrball nach der sowjetischen Invasion von 1968 in der Tschechoslowakei verboten wurde, wanderte Forman in die USA aus. Er wurde ein USBürger im Jahr 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).
