Miloš Forman gives unruly people room to be funny, vain and difficult. We value the attention he pays to everyone around them, even when One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest takes the rebel's side too readily.
Fi1m perspective
In One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), Louise Fletcher's Nurse Mildred Ratched makes an objection look like bad behaviour before anyone has considered it. We found her calm frightening because she seems so unlikely to reconsider. Jack Nicholson's Randle Patrick McMurphy enjoys making trouble, but Forman keeps the other men on the ward worth watching. That attention to people around the star is a strong reason to value him.
His Czech films, Black Peter (1964), Loves of a Blonde (1965) and The Firemen's Ball (1967), established his close interest in ordinary behaviour. He used non-professional actors and encouraged improvisation, looking for the small responses that make a gathering believable. His recurring collaborators included cinematographer Miroslav Ondříček and co-writers Ivan Passer and Jaroslav Papoušek. Forman's attention to faces helped him keep individuals worth noticing within a group.
The move to American features began with Taking Off (1971), followed by the breakthrough of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Adaptations including Amadeus (1984) followed, then the portrait of performer Andy Kaufman in Man on the Moon (1999). Some critics found the American storytelling more conventional and missed the intimacy of the Czech films. Yet the ward in Cuckoo's Nest remains full of men with concerns of their own, even when Nicholson has our attention.
Brad Dourif makes Billy Bibbit's vulnerability difficult to laugh away; William Redfield gives Dale Harding a prickly intelligence. Will Sampson's Chief Bromden has weight without competing for attention. Forman's skill is in allowing these performances to remain distinct while Nicholson supplies so much of the film's energy. McMurphy's vanity and impatience also matter: the rebellion would be less interesting if its leader were easier company.
The weakness is that the film's account of mental illness is too simple, and it favours McMurphy too heavily in his contest with Ratched. Lawrence Hauben and Bo Goldman's screenplay gives Nicholson the greater invitation to win us over. The actors make these people complicated, but they cannot make the film's account of the institution equally convincing. Start with Cuckoo's Nest, but watch Fletcher as closely as Nicholson.
Biography
Miloš Forman was a Czech-American film director, screenwriter and actor. Born Jan Tomáš Forman on 18 February 1932 in Čáslav, Czechoslovakia, he studied at the Film Faculty of the Academy of Arts in Prague. He began directing in the 1960s and became a leading figure in the Czechoslovak New Wave with films including Loves of a Blonde (1965) and The Firemen's Ball (1967).
After emigrating to the United States in 1968, Forman directed One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), which won five Academy Awards including Best Director. He received a second Oscar for Best Director for Amadeus (1984). Other notable films include Hair (1979), Ragtime (1981), The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996) and Man on the Moon (1999). He died on 13 April 2018 in Danbury, Connecticut.
