Miloš Forman

So, I stand by the translation.

and one more thing if you don't feel like listening to the entire speech it's all right there's a little bonus waiting for you at the very end of this episode so you can fast forward and you'll hear the voice of the legendary czech film director miloš forman and if you ask why well he was posthumously awarded the order of the white lion czechia's highest state decoration this year And I had the privilege of interviewing him quite a few years ago when I was working in the United States, and I thought this would be a fitting opportunity to revisit those conversations.

But first, here is Czech President Petr Pavel's 28th of October speech in full in English.

Czechast, a podcast in English about all things Czech.

That was Czech President Petr Pavel speaking at Prague Castle on the 28th of October, 2026, on Czechia's Independence Day.

And now, as I promised, a little bonus.

I went back to my archives and dusted off an interview I recorded in English back in 2008 with the legendary Czech film director Miloš Forman, who was posthumously awarded the Order of the White Lion, Czechia's highest state decoration this year.

Miloš Forman had already made a name for himself in Czechoslovakia in the 1960s as one of the leading figures of the Czechoslovak New Wave with unforgettable films such as Loves of a Blonde and The Fireman's Ball.

But it I think it begs.

This is a really roundabout way to getting one of to one of the fundamental questions of Milos Forman's Fireman's Ball from 1967.

Yes.

Right.

Yeah, it was a really good documentary.

I enjoyed it.

And it makes you like Milos Forman.

Yeah.

because his doctor said, look, you're retired, you need to take your mind off things and do something.

So he came back in Milos Forman's 1981 film Ragtime, made a couple of other films then before he passed.

But yeah, it's just, there just didn't seem to be

any boundaries with him.

One is with Geraldine Monalis, who works to preserve the memory of Czechoslovak World War II veterans in the United Kingdom.

And the other is with Andreas Halskov, author of a new book based on scores of interviews with people who knew the great Czech film director Miloš Forman.

But first, among this year's recipients of the Grazias Agate Awards, presented by the Czech Foreign Ministry for promoting the country's good name abroad, was Geraldine Manolas.

She is a British Czech citizen and granddaughter of Czechoslovak wartime officer Bohuslav Schulz, who served with Czechoslovak forces in Britain during the Second World War.

Thank you very much indeed.

And Geraldine Manolas was speaking to my colleague Ruth Frankova.

In the second part of our show now, we meet the author of a new book about Czech cinema legend Miloš Forman.

For the book, directed by Miloš Forman, author Andreas Halskov interviewed scores of people who knew or admired the late two-time Oscar winner, including such names as Michael Douglas, Robert De Niro and Courtney Love.