Milos Forman, director of One Flew Over a Cuckoo's Nest dies

CAIRO – 14 April 2018: Milos Forman,the Oscar winning director of "One Flew Over a Cuckoo's Nest" and "Amadeus", has passed away at age 86.

Born in Czechoslovakia on Feb. 18, 1932, Forman lost his parents to the Holocaust, and spent much of his childhood being raised in a boarding school for orphans. By 1950, he began studying at the newly established Film Institute at the University of Prague, starting off as an assistant director and scriptwriter. His first feature film came in 1964 with "Black Peter", which established him as part of the rising New Wave Movement in Czech.

A year later, his next film,"The Loves of a Blonde", would be his first to receive international acclaim, earning an Oscar Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. His next film wouldn't be as warmly received; at least, not in his own country.

"The Fireman's Ball", released in 1967, was a comedic film about a volunteer fire department's plans to host a big party going hilariously wrong, but also a seething criticism of Czechoslovakia's bureaucracy. The movie clearly hit a nerve, as it was banned in theatres following the Soviet takeover of the country.

Seeing his country come under the control of an oppressive regime, Forman, who was already in the U.S. producing his next project "Taking Off", decided to immigrate to the states for good. Released in 1971, the film was a comedy about two parents who find themselves in the youth culture movement of the 60s after their children run away. While critically acclaimed, the film fared disastrously at the box office, with Forman teetering at the edge of bankruptcy. His next film however would prove to be his salvation; "One Flew Over a Cuckoo's Nest."



Starring Jack Nicholson and Danny DeVito, the film was an adaptation of the 1962 novel of the same name byKen Kesey. Nicholson portrayed Randle McMurphy, a rebellious outsider who finds himself facing chargesof statutory rape after learning that his partner lied about her age. In order to escape jail-time, he convinces the judges that he is mentally unsound and is sent to a mental institution, where he makes friends with the other patients and butts heads with the tyrannical nurse, shaking up the established order of things.

The film received an immense amount of critical praise and proved to be an incredible financial success as well, grossing in $300 million worldwide. It was also the first film in 40 years since Frank Capra's “It Happened One Night” (1940) to win awards in all major categories of the Oscars.

Forman's next few films would continue to receive critical praise, with "Ragtime", his 1981 adaptation of E. L. Doctorow's historical novel about racism in the early 20th century America receiving eight Oscar Nominations.

But his biggest success was still yet to come; in 1984, Forman released "Amadeus", a historical film adapted from a stage-play of the same name by Peter Shafferabout Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and his rivalry with fellow composer Antonio Salieri. The film marked Forman's return to his homeland after a decade, which is where he chose to shoot this movie. "Amadeus" was not only nominated for a whopping 11 Oscar awards but also ended up winning eight of them, proving to be Forman's most critically acclaimed film of all.



From then on, Forman continued producing more well-received films, even if nothing matched the sheer heights of "Amadeus" and "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." His most notable later films include "The People vs. Larry Flynt" in 1996, which starred Woody Harrelson and "Man on the Moon" in 1999, a biopic starring Jim Carrey about comedian Andy Kaufman. His final film, "Goya's Ghosts", was released in 2006.