S Viswanath
Czech-American film director Caslav, Czechia born Jan Tomas‘Milos’ Forman’s celebrated cinema classic One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, which marks its 50th anniversary, is being feted by Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (KVIFF) at its 59th edition, being showcased at the festival’s ‘Out Of The Past’ section.
The 1975 landmark film, which Japan’s iconic auteur Akira Kurosawa appreciated as one of his 100 favourite films, and picked by BBC as among 100 Greatest American Films in its 2015 poll and big time international awards winner, including the Academy (Oscars) Awards, will see its newly restored version being screened at KVIFF this July.
What makes this milestone moment even more monumental is that one of Hollywood most popular actors and producers – the octogenarian Michael Douglas, who as one of the producers of the film picking the Academy Award for Best Picture will be in attendance to personally introduce and present the resorted film at its special gala screening, wherein at hand will be Paul Zaentz – nephew of late Saul Zaentz, who had co-produced the film with Michael Douglas, with Milos Forman’s family in company at the august occasion. Paul Zaentz, who worked closely with Milos Forman on 1984 Amadeus and Goya’s Ghosts (2006), The English Patient (1996) and The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999).
The special screening of the film with the invited guests sees KVIFF toasting its long-standing ties with the film and its director and those associated with it who have all been the honoured by the film festival with its most prestigious Crystal Globe for Outstanding Artistic Contribution to World Cinema (Milos Forman -1977, Michael Douglas & Saul Zaentz 1998, Danny DeVito 2007).
Incidentally, Wellington, New Zealand born Oscar &Golden Globe winning actor Russell Crowe will receive the coveted Crystal Globe for Outstanding Artistic Contribution to World Cinema at this the ensuing 57thKarlovy Vary International Film Festival. The occasion will also see the award-winning actor showing off his musical talents with his band Indoor Garden Party, performing at the festival’s opening night concert.
In felicitating Russell Crowe for his stupendous achievements, the KVIFF will present the 20thyear anniversary screening of Peter Weir’s 2003 Oscar (2) winning adventure film Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, which earned the actor Golden Globe nomination for his portrayal of Captain Aubrey.
According to KVIFF Executive Director Krystof Mucha not only was the festival truly honoured to “present One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest on its 50th anniversary,”but also that “the presence of Michael Douglas, Paul Zaentz, and the Forman family”would make it “an unforgettable moment in the festival’s long chequered history.”
Basedon Ken Kesey’s novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nestthe American comedy-psychological drama, whose produced rights were passed on to son Michal Douglas by dad Kirk Douglas, centres round as a new patient Randle McMurphy, a rebellious gambler, incarcerated at the mental institution administrated by an domineering,passive-aggressive Nurse Ratched, who intimidates her patients and maintains an iron fisted control through fear, for statutory rape of a 15-year-old girl (which he claims he committed under the assumption she was 18-year-old), with five previous convictions for assault, after feigning mental illness.
His defiance of authority challenging the rigid confines of the mental institution has been described as a powerful parable of freedom versus control, making a turning point in Forman’s career and paving the way for his later international successes, such as 1984 Amadeus.
The film went on to etch Oscar history as only the second to pouch all five major Academy Award categories: Best Picture (Douglas &Zaentz), Best Director (Forman), Best Actor (Jack Nicholson), Best Actress (Louise Fletcher), and Best Adapted Screenplay (Lawrence Hauben &Bo Goldman).
The 135 mins film sees a veritable battle of wits, wills and power struggle between nurse Ratched who sees in McMurphy’s lively, rebellious presence threat to her supreme authority, reciprocating by confiscating and rationing patients’ cigarettes and suspending their card-playing privileges. The film, which premiered at the Sutton and Paramount Theatres in New York City on November 19, 1975, was the second-highest-grossing film released in 1975 in the United States and Canada at $109 million, and one of the seventh-highest-grossing films of all time at the time.
In an interview with The Guardian’s Phil Hoad producer-actor Michael Douglas had said “we filmed it (One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest) at a real mental hospital and some of the patients joined the crew. I didn’t realise until later that many of them were criminally insane.We had an arsonist in the art department.”
What Michael Douglas describes as his father Kirk Douglas’ failed attempt to develop it into Broadway play after acquiring the rights to Ken Kesey’s novel in the early 1960s with him (Kirk) playing the lead character, RP McMurphy, and later tried for years to turn it into a film, but never got any momentum, finally saw success in son’s hands.
As Variety’s A D Murphy said of the film in his review: “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” is brilliant cinema theatre. Jack Nicholson stars in an outstanding characterisation of Ken Kesey‘s asylum anti-hero, McMurphy, and Milos Forman‘s direction of a superbly-cast film is equally meritorious. Louise Fletcher is excellent as the arch-nemesis ward nurse of the piece.”
S VISWANATH is a veteran film critic who officiates as JURY at several National & International Film Festivals. He deputises as CHIEF CINEMA CURATOR/PROGRAMMER & CREATIVE ADVISOR for Bengaluru International Film Festival (BIFFes). He also curates & advises on the selection of shorts & documentaries for Bengaluru International Short Film Festival (BISFF). Mr Viswanath is the author of “RANDOM REFLECTIONS: A Kaleidoscopic Musings on Kannada Cinema”.
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