Miloš Forman, (nascut el 18 de febrer de 1932 a Čáslav, Txecoslovàquia [ara a la República Txeca] - va augmentar el 13 d'abril de 2018 a Danbury, Connecticut, Estats Units), cineasta New Wave, que va ser conegut principalment per les pel·lícules distintivament nord-americanes que va realitzar després de la seva immigració als Estats Units.
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Forman va créixer en una petita ciutat prop de Praga. Després que els seus pares, el professor activista Rudolf Forman i una mestressa de casa protestant, morissin als camps de concentració nazis, va ser criat per dos oncles i amics de la família; als anys seixanta va saber que el seu pare biològic no era Rudolf Forman sinó un arquitecte jueu. A mitjans dels anys cinquanta, Forman va estudiar a la Facultat de Cinema de l'Acadèmia de les Arts de Praga. Després de graduar-se, va escriure dos guions, el primer, Nechte to na mně (1955; Leave it to Me), va ser rodat pel reconegut director txec Martin Frič. Forman va ser ajudant de direcció en el segon d'aquests guions, un romanç titulat Štěňata (1958; Cubs).
A la fi dels anys 1950 i principis dels anys 60, Forman va actuar com a escriptor o assistent de direcció en altres pel·lícules. Les primeres grans produccions que va dirigir, Černý Petr (1964; Black Peter) i Lásky jedné plavovlásky (1965; Loves of a Blonde), van tenir un gran èxit nacional i internacional; aquesta darrera va rebre una nominació a l'Acadèmia a la millor pel·lícula en llengua estrangera. —I Forman va ser reconegut com un gran talent de la Nova Onda Txeca. Les seves primeres pel·lícules es van caracteritzar per l'examen de la vida de classe treballadora i el seu entusiasme per un estil de vida socialista. Aquests elements també són evidents a Hoří, má panenko (1967; La bola dels bombers), que explorava qüestions socials i morals amb una sàtira suau. Quan la pilota dels Bombers va ser prohibida a Txecoslovàquia després de la invasió soviètica de 1968, Forman va emigrar als Estats Units; es va convertir en EUAciutadà el 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).
