One Flew East, One Flew West
My favourite movie of all time is 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' - starring Jack Nicholson and directed by Milos Forman.
When I first watched the movie, as a young teenager, I didn't appreciate its deeply political undertones which Milos Forman later explained in a speech to the Directors Guild of America:
""I explained I wanted to make the film because to me it was not just literature but real life, the life I lived in Czechoslovakia from my birth in 1932 until 1968.
"The Communist Party was my Nurse Ratched, telling me what I could and could not do; what I was or was not allowed to say; where I was and was not allowed to go; even who I was and was not."
Read more about the life and times of Milos Forman via the following link to The Guardian.
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/apr/14/milos-forman-one-flew-over-the-cuckoos-nest-director-dies-aged-86
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest director Miloš Forman dies aged 86
Film-maker became key figure of the Czech new wave before emigrating to the US and establishing a successful career in the US
Peter Bradshaw: Forman brought the spirit of anti-Soviet rebellion to Hollywood
By Andrew Pulver - The Guardian
Miloš Forman, the Czech-born director of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Amadeus, has died at the age of 86. Czech news agency CTK reported that Forman died on Friday in the United States after a short illness. His wife, Martina, told CTK: “His departure was calm and he was surrounded the whole time by his family and his closest friends.”
Michael Douglas: how we made One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Forman was born in the Czech town of Caslav in 1932; after the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia, his mother died in concentration camps. After being raised by relatives, Forman joined the Prague Film Academy, and began writing scripts in the late 1950s, gradually moving up the ranks in the postwar Czechoslovak industry. His debut as director, Black Peter, about a teenager in his first job, incurred the dislike of the Communist authorities for its irreverent attitude, but after its prizewinning appearance at the Locarno film festival enabled Forman to continue directing.
His next film, A Blonde in Love – inspired by a real-life incident in which Forman came across a young woman who had been duped and abandoned by a lover – established the free-wheeling, semi-documentary style that became his trademark in this period and made Forman a key figure in the burgeoning Czech new wave. It was nominated for the best foreign language film Oscar, as was the follow up, The Fireman’s Ball – a brilliantly scabrous account of a chaotic official social event that again incurred the wrath of the Communist authorities.
The Fireman’s Ball was released in 1967 and Forman was then invited to the US by Paramount Pictures to make a film in America. After attempting to get the rights to the musical Hair, Forman began work on an original screenplay, for the film Taking Off. In August 1968 Czechslovakia was invaded by Warsaw Pact forces aiming to suppress Alexander Dubček’s liberalising reforms; Forman opted to stay in the US, were he was joined by fellow director Ivan Passer.
Taking Off was a flop on its release in 1970, and Forman suffered a breakdown, living in the rundown Chelsea Hotel in New York but determined not to return to Czechslovakia. At his lowest point he was offered the chance to direct One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, another anti-authoritarian parable adapted from Ken Kesey’s novel. Producer Michael Douglas later told the Guardian the hiring was on the strength of The Fireman’s Ball: “It took place in one enclosed situation, with a plethora of unique characters he had the ability to juggle.” With a cast led by Jack Nicholson at the height of his powers, Cuckoo’s Nest emerged as a massive success, a seminal product of the New Hollywood and winner of all top five Academy awards.
