One of my favorite all time directors, Milos Forman's career has spanned 50 years and is still going strong. He is one of only 3 living directors with 2 Oscars for best picture (with Coppola and Eastwood), and he has directed 8 different actors in best actor Oscar performances. He has directed some of my favorite films of the last 30 years, The People vs Larry Flynt, Amadeus, Valmont, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Man on the Moon, Ragtime, Hair...
The National Gallery of Art is showing free screenings of some of his earliest films and also the Director's cut of Amadeus throughout the month of September.
Miloš Forman: Lives of an Artist
September 22, 23, 29, 30
Distinguished leader of the Czech new wave and celebrated Hollywood
director Miloš Forman (born 1932) turned 80 years old this year. From
any perspective, his life has had more than its share of dramatic
situations. His parents died in concentration camps, his earliest work
was challenged by the authorities, and he was denied admission to drama
school, yet managed to graduate from the FAMU film
academy and work for Czech television in the 1950s. When barely 30,
during the early days of cultural liberalization known as the Prague
Spring, he launched his experimental approach to filmmaking under the
watch of the communist regime. Yet as the brief but pivotal Prague
Spring drew to a close in 1968, Forman was forced to leave for the
United States where, somewhat tentatively, he resumed his filmmaking
career. This cycle of Forman's work is presented in association with the
Czech Film Archive and the Embassy of the Czech Republic, with thanks
to Barbara Karpetova, Mary Fetzco, and Michal Bregant.
Origins of the Czech New Wave
September 22 at 4:00
Illustrated lecture by Michal Bregant
Film historian, critic, curator, and director of the Czech Film
Archive in Prague, Michal Bregant discusses the career of Miloš Forman
and
his relationship with the Czech new wave, the artistic movement of the
late 1950s and 1960s that profoundly affected the course of European
cinema. (Approximately 50 minutes)
Audition
followed by Taking Off
September 23 at 4:30
With his first 16 mm camera Forman made Audition, an account
of tryouts for a musical play at Prague's famous Semafor Theatre,
combining documentary and fiction. A satirical portrait of the young
women who flock there merely to show off mediocre talents, the film's
imaginative soundtrack is a mix of Czech pop, folk, and classical music.
(Konkurs, 1963, 35 mm, Czech with subtitles, 47 minutes)
In the aftermath of his exile, Forman's American debut was Taking Off, another tale that begins with a talent competition. Although it borrows motifs from Audition,
the story takes a different turn, focusing on the American suburbanite
parents of a runaway daughter who find themselves adrift in the "flower
power" counterculture of the era, as they try to locate their girl.
Chosen as the official American entry in the 1971 Festival de Cannes,
the film—which includes a performance
by Ike and Tina Turner—was awarded the jury prize. (1971, 35 mm, 93
minutes)
The Fireman's Ball
September 29 at 1:00
Introduction by Michael Bregant
A provincial fire department's annual ball erupts in mayhem—raffle
prizes are pilfered, the beauty pageant goes awry, the contestants'
carousing fathers drink too much—and outside in the town, a house burns
down. For a humorously unassuming political allegory, The Fireman's Ball
suffered one of the most unusual fates in film history. Not only was
the president of Czechoslovakia outraged by its satirical tone, but
thousands of volunteer firemen threatened to strike after it opened.
Ultimately, the film was banned. (Horí, má panenko, 1967, 35 mm, Czech with subtitles, 71 minutes)
Black Peter
followed by Loves of a Blonde
September 29 at 3:00
Forman's first full feature was filmed in a small town with a
nonprofessional cast who improvised much of their dialogue. Inspired by
the vérité approach of Italian neorealism, Black Peter centers
on a shy but sympathetic young store clerk who, assigned to apprehend
shoplifters, lacks the nerve to confront anyone. Its warmth, ironic
humor, and realism were a hit with viewers and, though criticized by the
regime, the film was selected as the best picture of 1963 by Czech film
critics. (Cerný Petr, 1963, 35 mm, Czech with subtitles, 85 minutes)
Another critical success for Forman was Loves of a Blonde, a
tender story of a naive factory worker who has a one-night stand with a
musician from Prague and then follows him home. "Forman's humor comes
from the fact that his characters peer out at the world like timid
nocturnal animals, always prepared to defend themselves against attack
but constantly having the ground cut from under their feet by the
discovery that people are never quite what they seem"—Tom Milne. (Lásky jedné plavovlásky, 1965, 35 mm, Czech with subtitles, 83 minutes)
Amadeus
September 30 at 4:00
Director's cut
Sweeping nearly all major categories in the 1984 Oscars, Forman's
adaptation of Peter Shaffer's drama about a brash Mozart and his
beleaguered rival Salieri was not without its detractors. Pauline Kael
wrote, "The insensitivity to what Mozart might have been like is so
flagrant that for the first hour you almost think it's a joke."
Returning to Prague for the filming, Miroslav Ondříček’s cinematography
captured opulent baroque spaces, while Forman played these period
settings as counterpoint to his eccentric characterizations, curiously
validating the whole effect. The director’s cut of the film is loaned
through the courtesy of the Academy Film Archive and Saul Zaentz. (1984,
35 mm, 180 minutes)
