MILOŠ FORMAN

14 Apr

(18 February 1932 - 13 April 2018)

Czechoslovakian film director, writer and actor Miloš Forman, who has died age 86, following a short illness, had international success in the mid-1960s with his quirky Czech comedies A Blonde in Love and The Fireman’s Ball. Both were nominated for Academy Awards. When his country was invaded in 1968 he fled to the US and was embraced by Hollywood and eventually became a naturalised American citizen. His Cannes festival winner, Taking Off (1971), was a satire on American parents trying to understand their kids by getting stoned. Between 1975 and 2006 he made One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (five Oscars and a Bafta), Hair, Ragtime (eight Oscar nominations), Amadeus (eight Oscar wins), Valmont, The People vs Larry Flint (two Oscar nominations), Man on the Moon and Goya’s Ghosts. Forman’s last film was the Czech musical A Walk Worthwhile in 2009. He was married three times and had four children.

MICHAEL DARVELL

Michael Darvell

Michael Darvell trained as a librarian at Watford and in Surrey before joining Ealing Libraries where he became Music Librarian for the borough. He edited Masthead, the magazine of the University of North London School of Librarianship, The Surrealist, the staff magazine of Surrey County Library, and contributed to the Assistant Librarian and London Librarian professional journals. A freelance film reviewer since 1970, he has written for Film, Films Illustrated, Film Review, Movie Maker and Radio Times, as well as editing Montage, the London film societies magazine, for ten years. A change of career saw him joining What’s On in London as Features Editor and he eventually stepped into the shoes of the late F. Maurice Speed (founding father of Film Review annual) as the magazine’s Editor. From 2007 to 2015, he was co-editor of the Film Review annual with Mansel Stimpson. As well as writing about films, Michael has reviewed theatre for The Stage newspaper, and has written about music theatre and cabaret for the Classical Source and Musical Theatre Review websites. He is also a former restaurant critic for the ViewLondon website. Michael has been a member of the London Film Critics’ Circle since 2005.

MILOŠ FORMAN

R. LEE ERMEY

SUSAN ANSPACH