Miloš Forman was a film director associated with the Czechoslovak New Wave who won two Oscars after moving to the United States.
Miloš Forman was a film director. According to Czech Television, he died in April 2018 in the USA, where he had moved at the end of the 1960s.[1]
Work
In Czechoslovakia he is linked with the New Wave by the comedies Loves of a Blonde and The Firemen's Ball. Czech Television calls them bitter comedies.[1] In the United States he made his name with the film One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, for which he received the statuette for directing. Another Oscar went to him for the biographical drama Amadeus.[1]
According to Czech Television, his collection of awards includes two Oscar statuettes, three Golden Globes and a British BAFTA award. The Directors Guild of America presented him with a lifetime achievement award in Los Angeles. According to Czech Television, its president ranked Forman among the greatest filmmakers of his time and singled out One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Amadeus.[2]
Náměstí Miloše Formana
Since Friday 12 October 2018, the open space in front of the Prague Intercontinental hotel, known as the piazzetta, has borne the name of Miloš Forman.[1] The decision to link this place with the director's name was taken by Prague councillors in May of the same year. According to the article, it was essentially the only suitable vacant place in the centre that had no name yet.[1]
According to Prague mayor Adriana Krnáčová (ANO), the naming was meant to help prevent the space from being built over. The draft Metropolitan Plan had marked the area in front of the hotel as buildable. Both Prague 1 and Jana Plamínková (STAN), the councillor for the environment, spoke against construction during the discussion. The daily Právo reported the previous year that the company J&T wanted to build an office building there.[1]
Krnáčová said that the city should draw up a proposal for landscaping the space that would commemorate Forman in a dignified way, and that she would also welcome a statue referring to his personality and work. The idea of renaming Výstaviště Praha as Park Miloše Formana, put forward by the businessman and ODA chairman Pavel Sehnal, did not succeed. The heirs at first agreed with it, then distanced themselves from it because Sehnal had included the director's name in his election campaign.[1]