Milos Forman


Forman, Miloš,

1932–2018, Czech-American filmmaker, b. Čáslav, Czechoslovakia (now in the Czech Republic), asJan Tomáš Forman. He attended film school in Prague and worked as a screenwriter and director, becoming a key figure in the Czech New Wave, directing such films as Black Peter (1964), The Loves of a Blonde (1965), and The Firemen's Ball (1967), which satirized socialist bureaucracy and was banned after the Soviet invasion (1968). Forman left (1968) Czechoslovakia for the United States, becoming a citizen in 1975. His first American film, Taking Off (1971), a youth comedy, won critical praise but was a box-office disappointment. With One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975, Academy Awards best picture and director), an adaptation of Ken KeseyKesey, Ken Elton,
1935–2001, American novelist and counterculture figure, b. La Junta, Colo.; grad. Univ. of Oregon (1957), Stanford Univ. (1960). While a student he volunteered for a hospital study of mind-altering drugs, substances that were to shape much of his life and
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's novel, Forman became a directorial sensation. Adaptations of the Broadway musical Hair (1979) and E. L. DoctorowDoctorow, E. L.
(Edgar Lawrence Doctorow) , 1931–2015, American novelist, b. New York City. The author of a dozen novels, Doctorow is known for his skillful blending of fiction and fact into reconstructions of eras in American history.
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's novel Ragtime (1981) did not fare as well, but that of Peter Shaffer's play Amadeus (1984), about the MozartMozart, Wolfgang Amadeus
, 1756–91, Austrian composer, b. Salzburg. Mozart represents one of the great peaks in the history of music. His works, written in almost every conceivable genre, combine luminous beauty of sound with classical grace and technical perfection.
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-SalieriSalieri, Antonio
, 1750–1825, Italian composer and conductor. He received his first training in Italy, going afterward (1766) to Vienna, where he remained as conductor of the opera and later (1788–1824) as court conductor.
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 rivalry, also won best picture and best director awards. Valmont (1989), loosely adapted from LaclosLaclos, Pierre Ambroise François Choderlos de
, 1741–1803, French novelist and general, known as Choderlos de Laclos. He is best known for Les Liaisons dangereuses (1782; tr.
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's Les Liaisons dangereuses, was not as well received as 1988's Dangerous Liaisons, based on the same material. The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996), about the adult magazine publisher, and Man on the Moon (1999), about comic Andy Kaufman, were moderately successful. Goya's Ghosts (2007) portrayed the conflict between art and commercial success in the artist's life. Forman was also a professor of film studies at Columbia from 1978 (emeritus from 1996).

Bibliography

See his autobiography (1994).