Courtney Love posted a touching tribute to legendary film director Milos Forman, who died yesterday. Forman directed Love in The People vs. Larry Flynt and Man on the Moon. She claimed that Milos great her the greatest love and highest points of her life other than her late husband Kurt Cobain and their daughter Frances Bean Cobain.
Milos, you were my first role model for what a real man was. Against all odds, and a horrified studio, you plucked me from an audition and used your own money to get me bonded and insured, based on my word that I would not do drugs (I did not) Doing a good film is fun but Milos made it a joy. I was so free, so blessed, and so supported. I discovered what being treated like a princess was for the first time. He was always gentle and always brought out my best. I was surrounded by love on both of my films with him, and other than Kurt and Frances, they remain the highest points in my life.
Playing for 100k people is awesome but it’s nothing compared to being directed by this tender man, who had also seen such hardship growing up – his mother died in Auschwitz and his father rumored to have been killed by the KGB. He was once jailed for going to an Ella Fitzgerald concert along with his best friend, the young playwright (and future Czech President) Václav Havel. He was a genuine auteur and not a baby when it came to casting – zero compromise. I recall on the set of Man on the Moon I was sent into his trailer as he dined over his steak (medium rare), his wine (always Pétrus), and cigar (illegal Cuban) to argue casting Chicago. He wanted me and Bebe Neuwirth and he wasn’t budging. I was fighting for a huge popstar and he looked at me with his twinkling, crinkling, tender eyes with a flash of irony – and maybe pissiness – and said, “You tell ME about CASTING, Miss Courtney Love?” I shut my trap then and there.
Milos accepted me and my demons. He introduced me to my extended family – Edward, Woody, Danny and the wonderful Jim Carrey. We have lost a cinema giant, my heart goes out to his beautiful and loving wife Martina, their children Jim and Andy, and the rest of his family. To all of us who he put on the map and to all of us who watch Amadeus or Cuckoo’s Nest over and over and over – the joy that man gave was unparalleled only by the joyous way he chose to the joyous way he chose to live his life. Milos, I’ve told you a million times, but I’ve never loved a human being the way love and admire you.
Purely, joyously and devastated,
Your Courtney.”
