ONCE UPON A TIME… ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST

Protagonists:

• Milos FORMAN, director
• Michael DOUGLAS, producer
• Léon MERCADET, journalist and writer
• Martin FINK, Associate Producer
• Dean BROOKS, former director of Salem Hospital
• Louise FLETCHER, actress, role of Nurse Ratched
• Christopher LLOYD, actor, role of Taber
• Dr. Prasanna K.PATI, former psychiatrist at Salem Hospital.
• Haskell WEXLER, director of photography
• Vladimir BOUKOVSKI, former Soviet dissident

Portrait of a film: One flew over a Cuckoo’s nest by Milos Forman is Michael Douglas’ first film as a producer. To avoid prison, a convicted offender (Jack Nicholson) is institutionalized in a psychiatric hospital. There, he discovers a prison world ruled by the head nurse (Louise Fletcher) against whom he gradually rebels, dragging his companions with him into revolt. After receiving an electroshock treatment as punishment, he is lobotomized after attempting to strangle the nurse. Before escaping from the institution, his friend, a giant Indian, chooses to kill him rather than see him wandering around like a vegetable.

Portrait of an Era: Based on a cult novel of the American counterculture, the film is a reflection of the anti-authoritarian climate of the 1970s in the West. Schools, prisons, hospitals and the army are accused of being the tools of social control. Meanwhile, in the USSR, the Soviet government imprisons political opponents in psychiatric institutions. Shot in a real psychiatric hospital, in Salem (Oregon), with the participation of the director, nurses and dozens of patients employed as extras or members of the technical team, the film was also an experience for all its participants, mirroring the utopias of the time.

Portrait of a Filmmaker: One flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest is Milos Forman’s second American feature film. Born in the Czech Republic, 43-year-old Milos Forman lived in the United States where he shot Taking off in 1971. His first three films, including Loves of a Blonde, made him the leader of Czech cinema and a thorn in the side of the communist bureaucracy. A worldwide success, One flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest won five Oscars in 1976, a triumph that only Frank Capra had achieved before Milos Forman.