BBC Talk Italian 01 (Potrebbe 2024)
Miloš Forman, (nato il 18 febbraio 1932, Čáslav, Cecoslovacchia [ora nella Repubblica Ceca], è deceduto il 13 aprile 2018, Danbury, Connecticut, Stati Uniti), regista ceco di New Wave nato principalmente per i film distintamente americani che ha fatto dopo la sua immigrazione negli Stati Uniti.
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Forman è cresciuto in una piccola città vicino a Praga. Dopo che i suoi genitori, l'insegnante attivista Rudolf Forman e una casalinga protestante, morirono nei campi di concentramento nazisti, fu allevato da due zii e amici di famiglia; negli anni '60 apprese che suo padre biologico non era Rudolf Forman ma un architetto ebreo. A metà degli anni '50 Forman ha studiato alla Facoltà di cinema dell'Accademia delle arti di Praga. Dopo la laurea ha scritto due sceneggiature, la prima delle quali, Nechte to na mně (1955; Lascialo a me), è stata girata dal noto regista ceco Martin Frič. Forman era un assistente alla regia nella seconda di quelle sceneggiature, una storia d'amore intitolata Štěňata (1958; Cubs).
Durante la fine degli anni '50 e l'inizio degli anni '60, Forman ha agito come scrittore o assistente alla regia in altri film. Le prime grandi produzioni che ha diretto, Černý Petr (1964; Black Peter) e Lásky jedné plavovlásky (1965; Loves of a Blonde), hanno avuto un grande successo sia a livello nazionale che internazionale - quest'ultima ha ricevuto una nomination all'Oscar per il miglior film in lingua straniera —E Forman è stato salutato come uno dei maggiori talenti della New Wave ceca. I suoi primi film furono caratterizzati dall'esame della vita della classe operaia e dal loro entusiasmo per uno stile di vita socialista. Questi elementi sono evidenti anche in Hoří, má panenko (1967; The Firemen's Ball), che ha esplorato le questioni sociali e morali con una delicata satira. Quando The Firemen's Ball fu bandito in Cecoslovacchia dopo l'invasione sovietica del 1968, Forman emigrò negli Stati Uniti; è diventato un USAcittadino nel 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).
