MILOS FORMAN

     There has been quite a flood of great directors coming to America from other places. Ang Lee is from Taiwan, David Lean and Alfred Hitchcock were from the UK,  Billy Wilder was from Austria, Frank Capra was from Sicily, Elia Kazan was from Turkey. High on any such list would be the name of Milos Forman, who hailed from Czechoslovakia.
Forman died recently at the good old age of 86, and his film resume is splendid.
The Loves Of A Blonde (1965) was his first effort, shot in his home country. It is the story of a young woman working in a shoe factory and dreaming of a great romance. Forman used a real shoe factory and amateur actors to achieve a gritty realism that impressed film fans and critics. 
The Fireman’s Ball (1967) was also made in a small Czech town, using amateur actors (mostly firemen) to great effect. The plot, such as it is, involves a small town fire department planning a ball and a beauty contest to follow. The hijinks involved in the selection of candidates and in things that happen to call the firemen away are quite funny.
Both of the two films above are part of the Czech New Wave, quite a thing at the time. But then the Russians ended the growing liberalization of the Czechs by military invasion in 1968. Milos Forman fled the tanks and jackboots and came to America. His exile lasted until his recent death, but he found a welcoming film community and made great movies. 
In his first at bat in the US, he hit it out of the park with the wonderful One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest (1975). He won the Oscar for Best Director, and the film won four more Oscars: Best Picture, Best Actor (Jack Nicholson), Best Actress (Louise Fletcher) and Best Screenplay. The film is taken from Ken Kesey’s marvelous book about the inmates of a mental institution rebelling against the tyrannical Nurse Ratched (Ms. Fletcher). This is a very great movie!
Milos Forman’s next effort I would call a noble failure. He tried to bring the Hippy-Dippy musical Hair (1979) to the silver screen. A good effort, but just not a real good movie. 
But then Forman scored again with his adaptation of E.L.Doctorow’s Ragtime (1981). Forman famously talked the legendary James Cagney to come out of retirement to play the fire chief. The film’s several story lines include immigrants, civil rights, the beginning of the movie industry, and women’s place. It went on to become a huge Broadway musical hit with a fabulous score.
In 1984, Milos Forman brought Peter Schaeffer’s hit play Amadeus to the silver screen, and it won a boatload of Oscars. Forman got another for Best Director, F. Murray Abraham won for Best Actor as Mozart’s insanely jealous nemesis Antonio Salieri. This fictionalized account of the boy genius’ career is loads of fun. The actor who played Mozart, Tom Hulce, was alas destined to be one of those “whatever happened to” people. 
Forman got another Oscar nomination for The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996) but lost to Anthony Minghella for The English Patient.
All of the films in this article are available on DVD. All are for adults.