Rebels & Rule-Breakers

Loves of a Blonde and The Firemen’s Ball reveal his early gift for blending comedy and social critique in his native Czechoslovakia, then under Soviet rule. After emigrating to the U.S., Forman expanded his interest in individual resistance to authority in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, transforming his observational humour into a more dramatic confrontation with systems of control. Amadeus transposed these concerns onto a grander historical canvas, where Mozart’s unruly genius clashes with the rigid hierarchies of imperial Vienna. 

Across these works, Forman remains preoccupied with the fate of the outsider, crafting humane, often darkly comic portraits of people struggling to keep their autonomy within the structures that seek to contain them. Like Mozart, Forman himself was a one-of-a-kind breakout genius and this retrospective showcases his gifts in four digitally restored works that have left their mark on cinema history.