The Karlovy Vary Film Festival will screen a newly restored version of Miloš Forman’s “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” celebrating the 1975 masterpiece—the second of only three films ever to win all five major Academy Awards—on the occasion of its 50th anniversary, festival organizers for the upcoming 59th edition announced Thursday.
Michael Douglas, one of the film’s producers and recipient of the Academy Award for Best Picture, will personally introduce the restored version of the New Hollywood landmark at a special gala screening, joined by fellow producer Paul Zaentz—nephew of the late Saul Zaentz, who co-produced the film—as well as members of Forman’s family.
One of the most enduring auteurs to emerge from the Czechoslovak New Wave of the 1960s, Forman was a long-time supporter of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival and—along with Douglas, Zaetz, and actor Danny DeVito, who appeared in “Cuckoo’s Nest”—a recipient of the festival’s prestigious Crystal Globe for Outstanding Contribution to World Cinema.
“We are truly honored to present “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” on its 50th anniversary,” said KVIFF Executive Director Kryštof Mucha, in a statement. “The presence of Michael Douglas, Paul Zaentz, and the Forman family will make this an unforgettable moment in the festival’s history.”
Adapted from Ken Kesey’s novel, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” centers on the rebellious Randle McMurphy (Jack Nicholson), a convict who feigns insanity to escape a prison sentence. Recommitted to a state mental hospital, he finds himself locked in a more profound battle for freedom against the domineering Nurse Ratched (Anne Fletcher), who rules over the ward with an iron fist and enforces her authority by any means necessary.
An anti-establishment classic, the film overcame numerous pre-production hurdles to become one of the highest-grossing films of 1975. Douglas was only 31 at the time; his father, Kirk Douglas, had played McMurphy in the 1963 Broadway play adaptation and retained the rights to adapt Kesey’s book into a film for a decade but was unable to find a studio willing to make it with him, eventually passing the rights over to his son. Douglas then came together with Zaentz to co-produce.
Forman had been Kirk Douglas’ first choice to direct but was previously prevented from doing so by the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Soviet Union and the start of its dreaded “normalization” period, after which he was placed under strict surveillance. Successfully fleeing to the United States, he was later hired to direct by Douglas and Zaentz.
Roger Ebert—who saw the film at its world premiere at the 1975 Chicago Film Festival—praised it with some reservations, later adding the film to his “Great Movies” list. Of Forman, whom he called “one of the great interpreters of American manners and mores,” Ebert wrote, “He sees his adopted land in terms of its best nonconformist and outsider traditions, at a time when conformity is the new creed. His McMurphy succeeds and prevails as a character, despite the imperfections of the film, because he represents that cleansing spirit that comes along now and again to renew us.”
One of the oldest film festivals in the world, and the most prestigious of its type in Eastern and Central Europe, the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (KVIFF) will hold its 59th edition on July 4-12 in the Czech Republic.
