With our free press under threat and federal funding for public media gone, your support matters more than ever. Help keep the LAist newsroom strong, become a monthly member or increase your support today.
Milos Forman, Orphan, Immigrant and Oscar Winner
Listen
0:00
Czechoslovakian-born Milos Forman fled Soviet tanks, continuing his film making career in the U.S.
(
Bertil Ericson, AFP / Getty Images
)
Milos Forman has won three Oscars for best director and has recently made films in Spain and Germany.
(
Rob Boren/ AFP / Getty Images
)
Czech-born filmmaker Milos Forman is an Academy Award-winning director, but his life story, as Forman tells Terry Gross, is no less dramatic than his cinematic success.
Born in 1932 in a small town near Prague, Forman experienced war at a young age, when Nazi armies marched on his country. Though Forman continued to live in Czechoslovakia under Gestapo rule, his Jewish father and Protestant mother were sent to Auschwitz, where they perished.
Sponsored message
After the war, Czechoslovakia came under communist rule, and Forman attended the Prague Film Institute. He began his film-making career during the "new wave of Czech cinema" that coincided with a liberalization of the communist regime.
After Warsaw Pact tanks invaded the increasingly liberal Soviet satellite in 1968, Forman took refuge in the U.S. year later. By then he was an experienced director. His second American film, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, earned him widespread fame and an Oscar for best director. Forman went on to win an Academy Awards for directing Amadeus, a loose biography of Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and received an Oscar nomination for The People vs. Larry Flint.
In recent years, Forman has directed films in Germany and Spain. His latest film, Goya's Ghosts, will be released on DVD, February 26. Currently, the Museum of Modern Art in New York is running a two-week retrospective of Forman's films.
Copyright 2022 Fresh Air. To see more, visit Fresh Air. 9(MDA1OTI3MjQ5MDEyODUwMTE2MzM1YzNmZA004))
At LAist, we focus on what matters to our community: clear, fair, and transparent reporting that helps you make decisions with confidence and keeps powerful institutions accountable.
Your support for independent local news is critical. With federal funding for public media gone, LAist faces a $1.7 million yearly shortfall. Speaking frankly, how much reader support we receive now will determine the strength of this reliable source of local information now and for years to come.
This work is only possible with community support. Every investigation, service guide, and story is made possible by people like you who believe that local news is a public good and that everyone deserves access to trustworthy local information.
That’s why we’re asking you to stand up for independent reporting that will not be silenced. With more individuals like you supporting this public service, we can continue to provide essential coverage for Southern Californians that you can’t find anywhere else. Become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
Thank you for understanding how essential it is to have an informed community and standing up for free press.
Your support for independent local news is critical. With federal funding for public media gone, LAist faces a $1.7 million yearly shortfall. Speaking frankly, how much reader support we receive now will determine the strength of this reliable source of local information now and for years to come.
This work is only possible with community support. Every investigation, service guide, and story is made possible by people like you who believe that local news is a public good and that everyone deserves access to trustworthy local information.
That’s why we’re asking you to stand up for independent reporting that will not be silenced. With more individuals like you supporting this public service, we can continue to provide essential coverage for Southern Californians that you can’t find anywhere else. Become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
Thank you for understanding how essential it is to have an informed community and standing up for free press.
Senior Vice President News, Editor in Chief
