Black Peter

Forman grew up in a small town near Prague. Orphaned when his parents, a Jewish professor and a Protestant housewife, died in Nazi concentration camps, he was reared by two uncles and family friends. In the mid-1950s Forman studied at the film school of the University of Prague. Upon graduating he wrote two screenplays, the first of which, Nechte to na mn (“Leave It to Me”), was filmed in 1955 by noted Czech director Martin Fri. Forman in 1957 was himself an assistant director on the second of these screenplays, a situation comedy entitled Stenata (“The Puppies”).

Throughout the late 1950s and early ‘60s Forman acted as either writer or assistant director on other films. He directed his first major productions in 1963: Cerný Petr (Black Peter) and Konkurs (Talent Competition). These films had great success both domestically and on the international festival circuit, and Forman was hailed as a major talent of the Czech New Wave. His early films were characterized by their examination of working-class life and their enthusiasm for a socialist lifestyle. These elements are also evident in Lásky jedné plavovlásky (1965; Loves of a Blonde) and Hoí, má panenko (1967; _The Firemen’s Ball_), both of which explored social and moral issues with gentle satire. When Firemen’s Ball was banned in Czechoslovakia after the Soviet invasion of 1968, Forman immigrated to the United States.

His first American film, Taking Off (1971), was the last to incorporate his early themes. Although he clearly demonstrated his mastery of the craft of direction and showed a remarkable ability to work with actors, most of his American films are also bereft of the earlier social concerns that defined his Czech films. In 1975 he directed One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, an independent production that had been turned down by every major studio. It became only the second film in history to win Academy Awards in all the four major categories: best picture, best director, best actor (Jack Nicholson), and best actress (Louise Fletcher).

Forman followed this success with several adaptations, including one of the popular Broadway musical Hair (1979), an epic telling of E.L. Doctorow’s novel set in turn-of-the-century America, Ragtime (1981), and the screen version of the Peter Shaffer play Amadeus (1984). The last film, an exuberant celebration of the genius of Mozart, won the Oscar for best picture and earned Forman his second Oscar for directing.

With The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996), Forman returned to the theme of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest—the misuse of power within a hopeless and comic bureaucracy. It garnered Academy Award nominations for best director and best actor. In 1999 he directed Man on the Moon, the life story of comedian Andy Kaufman. He followed that with Goya’s Ghosts (2006), about painter Francisco de Goya. With Jan Novák, Forman wrote Turnaround: A Memoir in 1994. –biography.com