So Miloš Forman turned 85 over the weekend

I didn't realize that director Miloš Forman, who started his career in Communist Czechoslovakia before fleeing to the west and making such classic movies as One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Amadeus, had a big birthday over the weekend. The folks at Radio Prague, unsurprisingly, did know, and ran a piece on it.

The piece is an interview with a British author, Peter Hames, who wrote a book (I haven't read it) on the Czechoslovak New Wave, of which Forman was a part. The interview covers Forman's work both in Czechoslovakia and Hollywood, and is generally interesting and informative, certainly I'd think for people who don't know much about Forman. I liked his comments about Loves of a Blonde and especially The Firemen's Ball, and agree with the author that especially in the latter movie the universality of Forman's humor comes out.

If you want to listen to the interview, the page linked above offers a streaming option. There's also a link to download the MP3 file here; that link is about 5.0MB and a little under six minutes. And as usual Radio Prague's articles are transcripts of the story.