cover image Turnaround: A Memoir

Turnaround: A Memoir

Milos Forman. Villard Books, $23 (295pp) ISBN 978-0-679-40063-9

Forman writes that being a movie director requires ``innate arrogance,'' but the power and charm of his autobiography, written with Prague novelist Novak, lies in the absence of arrogance. He tells his astonishing life story with self-deprecation and a sense of the ridiculous. At the same time, the mind behind One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest and Ragtime is passionately preoccupied with the fate of his fellow Czechs and their torn country. Born in 1932, Forman grew up in a totalitarian state where all art, especially cinema, was perceived as a propaganda vehicle or a threat. He lost both his parents in the Second World War. From then on, Milos was on his own, building his artistic life with his trademark use of little-known actors and allowing the film to make its own mark. From camping out in a bureaucrat's office in Prague to receiving the Oscar for Amadeus , Forman's is a wonderful political and artistic odyssey. He never loses sight of the contributions made by others to his career, creating loving portraits of Twyla Tharp, James Cagney, Jack Nicholson and Peter Shaffer, among others. The memoir is a treat for movie buffs, cultural historians and lovers of the American dream. Photos not seen by PW. (Feb.)