Jaroslav Papoušek, silent co-creator of Miloš Forman’s films, died 30 years ago
August 17th marks 30 years since the death of Jaroslav Papoušek (1929–1995), a Czech artist who was at the birth of the film revolution known as the Czechoslovak New Wave. Although his name is not as well known in the world as the names of his colleagues Miloš Forman or Ivan Passer, Papoušek was a key co-author of their early films that gained international recognition.
Born in 1929 in Transcarpathia (then Czechoslovakia, today Ukraine), Jaroslav Papoušek would go on to write the screenplays for the films Loves of a Blonde (1965) and The Firemen's Ball (1967), directed by Miloš Forman. Both films were nominated for an Oscar and became icons of European auteur cinema. Together with Forman and Passer, Papoušek formed a trio that was able to portray the absurdity of everyday life in socialist Czechoslovakia with insight and subtle irony.
An artist with many faces
Papoušek was not only a film screenwriter. He studied sculpture at the Prague Academy of Fine Arts, painted, drew caricatures and wrote prose. His works of art, often inspired by the South Bohemian landscape, were exhibited even after his death, for example at the exhibition Without Shadows at the Gallery of Art Critics in 2020.
Staying home
Unlike Forman and Passer, who emigrated to the USA, Papoušek stayed in Czechoslovakia. He refused offers to leave because he was strongly connected to his family, language and landscape. After political pressures in the 1970s, he withdrew from film and devoted himself to painting.
Jaroslav Papoušek died on August 17th 1995 in Čimelice.
