Milos Forman

R.I.P. excellent charactor Actor Vincent Schiavelli

I caught an advance screening of Goya's Ghosts last Friday. The film should be trickling into theatres over the next few weeks. It's pretty good (not great), yet another Forman biopic, this time concerning Francisco Goya and others during revolutiontime in Spain.* Natalie Portman's in it. It looks like she's angling for an Oscar--not only is her part a duel role, she also spends a good chunk of her screentime ugged-up with bad teeth, stringy hair, the works. She's also not very good. However, Javier Bardem was superb, as were Michael Lonsdale and Stellan Skarsgård.

*Parallels are even drawn between the french invasion and a current quagmire for those who pay attention.

revolutiontime

More a civil war. As for the parallels, I'm seeing that in other places as well (recently historical overviews of the Napoleonic era in general, etc.) It appears to be the snooty version of Vietnam comparisons.

let me guess its about a wild individualistic hedonist who is destroyed by the conservative mediocracy of his contemporaries

Well, Yes and No. There is a individualistic hedonist who is ultimately destroyed by his own arrogance and, well... the conservative mediocracy of his contemporaries. Though it isn't Goya, who serves more as a connective tissue, a reporter chronicling the events as they go down. It's funny though, because the first scene sets Goya up to be that first character, but alas, it doesn't pan out.

I just saw People vs. Larry Flynt and was kinda disappointed by it.

But you gotta admit, Courtney Love was well-cast.

Boy, I hope she doesn't get typecast. :(

HAHAHAHA

Yeah, v. well cast, though later reasearch did not help me discover whether IRL wife dressed like one of the first spo0o0o0ooky club folx at the Batcave.

there are a couple funny sequences but overall yeah its a squandered opportunity. lolz @ Courtney Oscar-talk when that came out

OMG you're kidding.

I think the Xtian conversion scene was the best. I don't know, based on interviews with Forman, I thought it'd be this totally triumphant celebration of free speech and challenging censorship & whatnot, whereas, it kind of ... was dissatisfying in that department. Made me wish I'da just rewatched "Pleasatville" for that kinda vibe. That movie does it for me every time.

Edward Norton was mighty attractive, tho.

TAKING OFF is still unavailable on dvd or vhs.

Taking Off playing tnite at NYC's Film Forum, guess I have to go.

TAKING OFF is still unavailable on dvd or vhs.

was issued on region 2 dvd earlier this year - uses many of the same stylistic tricks as Firemen's Ball and Blonde in Love, w/out ever quite matching them for poignancy or humour. Still worth a watch, tho.

RIP Miroslav Ondříček (tho I think If.... and O Lucky Man! are my faves that he shot, not the Formans)

http://deadline.com/2015/03/miroslav-ondricek-dies-cinematographer-behind-amadeus-was-80-1201400839/

RIP

TAKING OFF is still unavailable on dvd or vhs.

Apparently music rights are holding it up (at least in Region 1). I saw it in a double feature with AUDITION (1964). ILM types might especially be interested in its portrait of pop music behind the Iron Curtain--lots of domestic songs that sound just enough like their Western inspirations to tip them into the uncanny valley.

And I'm sorry to see the man go, but he did have a respectable run of work.

"Cuckoo's Nest" is one of my all time favourite movies. I really need to see his Czech films

Dangerous Liasions is by far the best of his post-Czech international successes

(I meant his take on DL; should never type w/one thumb)

Cuckoo's Nest, D L, Amadeus all great movies. I absolutely loathed that Larry Flint travesty.

I don't think any of those Oscar winners are great films, but they're fun to watch for being ribald.

(by Oscar standards)

I'd re-watch any of them, I suppose I just meant "great" as thoroughly enjoyed them much more than most other dross in the last 20 years!

Never had any interest in Amadeus, but I think Cuckoo's Nest--because of the performances, because of the moment--is a pretty great movie. (This is unfair, but I'm guessing it's an improvement on the book.) I've always meant to see his two well-known early films, but they just never seem to play in Toronto.

I agree it's an improvement on the book, and as a crowd pleaser it can't be beat (I think it and Forrest Gump are the only Best Picture winners that are also the highest-grossing films of their respective years).

Amadeus > Cuckoo's Nest

too brute-eh

Reducing films to one fantastic image:

http://i.imgur.com/88jCL.jpg

I wouldn't One Perfect Shot that movie, really.

I always get Taking Off, Little Murders, and Getting Straight confused--a quick check tells me that Taking Off is the one I haven't seen.

Amadeus belongs on the stage, and even there it's a trifle.

roundup

https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/5552-the-daily-milos-forman-1932-2018

I've seen The Loves of a Blonde bigged up on here so many times and still haven't got round to watching it.

I'd forgotten about later should-have-been-betters like Man on the Moon and Larry Flynt. He was directing so infrequently they felt like events at the time, and Carrey and Harrelson were good. They just didn't seem to say with me for very long. The first produced a great song and video, though (not directed by Forman).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_JnCWT-_O8

I was looking up Sarah Paulson (because I just spent the entirety of a very bad movie thinking she was Kristen Wiig) and came across this--Netflix is producing a prequel about Nurse Ratched?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt7423538/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_1

Louise Fletcher gave such an iconic performance, not sure how this is going to work

The description's amusing: "A young nurse at a mental institution becomes jaded, bitter and a downright monster to her patients." So it's basically Better Call Saul--she starts out as Florence Nightingale, but her patients, or bureaucracy, or some personal betrayal will ground her down and turn her into Mussolini.

watching it again after decades, it’s interesting to see that One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest has some of the beguiling homeliness of Milos Forman’s two great Czech films, Loves of a Blonde and The Firemen’s Ball, both of which I’ve only seen recently

I remember being really affected by the theremin in the soundtrack at the time, but it didn’t seem like a big component of the film now

I don't know if Brad Dourif understood at the time what being a stutterer meant or how exactly to act the part, but he leaned in to the role in a very engaging way

Amadeus was amazing, too. F Murray Abraham got all the accolades for the film, but Tom Hulce was more mesmerizing I thought.

he portrayed someone immature, with bad sartorial taste and an inability to read social situations, as well as someone with musical genius and an incredible arrogance, all believable as part of the same persona

the soundtrack of the film was great. I'm reminded of my music teacher saying that all music is Mozart

RIP Louise Fletcher. from the NYT: Although Ms. Fletcher’s most famous character was a portrait of sternness, she often recalled smiling constantly and pretending that everything was perfect when she was growing up, in an effort to protect her non-hearing parents from bad news.

That control of emotions, which she only broke through reluctantly in the film, defined the greatness of that performance

I know I've been the only poster in this thread for the last six years, but wanted to post my thoughts here again since the Amadeus thread has been reactivated
I loved Forman's Loves of a Blonde (1965) and especially The Firemen's Ball (1967), his last films as part of the Czech New Wave.

Hair (1979), with John Savage, Beverly D'Angelo and Treat Williams was an artifact of it time but it is enjoyable to see it again 45 years later.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) and Amadeus (1984) were definitely Forman's best films in my opinion though, the Academy got it right with those

My favourite is Taking Off, such a beautifully contained film, but saying so much about a moment in our culture, and not resorting to any easy answers.

Just to post very much in character--and to avoid being an annoying gadfly in the Amadeus thread--I do think Cuckoo's Nest is the better film by a factor of about four.

I've only seen the Czech films - both atmospheric and enjoyable in a pretty mild way.