Milos Forman - Valmont (1989) (Mai 2024)
Miloš Forman, (né le 18 février 1932, Čáslav, Tchécoslovaquie [maintenant en République tchèque] - décédé le 13 avril 2018, Danbury, Connecticut, États-Unis), cinéaste néo-tchèque né Wave, connu principalement pour les films typiquement américains qui il a fait après son immigration aux États-Unis.
Quiz
Prêt, prêt, action!
Qui a joué Merry Brandybuck dans les films du Seigneur des Anneaux?
Forman a grandi dans une petite ville près de Prague. Après que ses parents, le professeur activiste Rudolf Forman et une femme au foyer protestante, soient morts dans les camps de concentration nazis, il a été élevé par deux oncles et amis de la famille; dans les années 1960, il apprend que son père biologique n'est pas Rudolf Forman mais un architecte juif. Au milieu des années 1950, Forman a étudié à la faculté de cinéma de l'Académie des arts de Prague. Après avoir obtenu son diplôme, il a écrit deux scénarios, dont le premier, Nechte to na mně (1955; Leave It to Me), a été filmé par le célèbre réalisateur tchèque Martin Frič. Forman était réalisateur adjoint sur le deuxième de ces scénarios, une romance intitulée Štěňata (1958; Cubs).
Tout au long de la fin des années 50 et au début des années 60, Forman a été scénariste ou assistant réalisateur sur d'autres films. Les premières grandes productions qu'il réalise, Černý Petr (1964; Black Peter) et Lásky jedné plavovlásky (1965; Loves of a Blonde), connaissent un grand succès tant au pays qu'à l'étranger - ce dernier reçoit une nomination aux Oscars pour le meilleur film en langue étrangère —Et Forman a été salué comme un talent majeur de la nouvelle vague tchèque. Ses premiers films ont été caractérisés par leur examen de la vie de la classe ouvrière et leur enthousiasme pour un mode de vie socialiste. Ces éléments sont également évidents dans Hoří, má panenko (1967; The Firemen's Ball), qui a exploré les questions sociales et morales avec une douce satire. Lorsque The Firemen's Ball a été interdit en Tchécoslovaquie après l'invasion soviétique de 1968, Forman a immigré aux États-Unis; il est devenu UScitoyen en 1975.
Forman’s first American film was Taking Off (1971), a story about runaway teenagers and their parents. Although not a box-office success, it won the jury grand prize at the Cannes film festival. The movie was also notable for being the last of Forman’s works to incorporate his early themes. Most of his American films are also bereft of the earlier social concerns that defined his Czech films, although he clearly demonstrated his mastery of the craft of direction and showed a remarkable ability to work with actors.
One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) was an independent production that had been turned down by every major studio, but it catapulted Forman to the forefront of Hollywood directors. A potent adaptation of Ken Kesey’s 1962 novel, it starred Jack Nicholson as Randle P. McMurphy, an irrepressible free spirit who cons his way from a prison work farm into a mental hospital. Against his better judgment, he enters into a war of wills with the sadistic head nurse (played by Louise Fletcher). The film became the first since It Happened One Night (1934) to win all five major Academy Awards: best picture, actor (Nicholson), actress (Fletcher), director, and screenplay (Bo Goldman and Lawrence Hauben).
Hair (1979) was Forman’s much-anticipated version of the Broadway musical, but it was a disappointment at the box office, despite receiving generally positive reviews. The director then made Ragtime (1981), a handsomely mounted, expensive adaptation of E.L. Doctorow’s best-selling novel about early 20th-century America. The historical drama starred James Cagney in his first credited big-screen appearance in some 20 years; it was the actor’s last feature film. Ragtime, however, also failed to find an audience, although it received eight Oscar nominations.
Forman rebounded from those mild disappointments with the acclaimed Amadeus (1984), Peter Shaffer’s reworking of his stage success. F. Murray Abraham gave an Oscar-winning performance as the jealous Antonio Salieri, and Tom Hulce earned praise as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The lavish production won eight Oscars, including for best picture and Forman’s second for best director. After that triumph he took a five-year break from directing, reappearing with Valmont (1989), an adaptation of Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’s classic novel Dangerous Liaisons. However, Forman’s version—which starred Colin Firth, Annette Bening, and Meg Tilly—was generally compared unfavourably to Stephen Frears’s adaptation, which had been released the previous year.
In 1996 Forman returned to form with The People vs. Larry Flynt, a biopic of the pornographic magazine publisher whose legal battles provoked debates about freedom of speech. The dramedy featured strong performances, notably by Woody Harrelson in an Oscar-nominated turn as the controversial Flynt, Courtney Love as Flynt’s wife, and Edward Norton as his frustrated attorney. Forman earned an Academy Award nomination for his directing. He also garnered praise for Man on the Moon (1999), in which Jim Carrey channeled the genius of the late comic Andy Kaufman. The fine supporting cast included Danny DeVito, Love, and Paul Giamatti. Less successful was Goya’s Ghosts (2006), a costume drama starring Natalie Portman as a model for the artist Francisco de Goya (Stellan Skarsgård) and Javier Bardem as a church official who rapes her after she is unjustly imprisoned during the Spanish Inquisition. In 2009 Forman codirected the musical Dobre placená procházka (A Walk Worthwhile).
In addition to his directorial efforts, Forman occasionally acted in films, including Heartburn (1986), Keeping the Faith (2000), and Les Bien-Aimés (2011; Beloved). He also cowrote (with Jan Novák) the memoir Turnaround (1994).
