The life of a New York couple takes a strange turn after the disappearance of their teenage daughter. In his first film made in the United States, Miloš Forman creates a critical portrait of the 1970s’ American family in the spirit of the rebellious Czechoslovak New Wave.
Jeannie Tyne runs away from the family home to take part in an audition. For her ageing parents, the search for their teenage daughter becomes a unexpected opportunity to try and prove to themselves that they can still do crazy things. A classic story about rebelling children turns into a comedy about parents trying to catch up with their kids, who are never as simple as they seem.
An incisive study of the American 1970s, Taking Off explores the crisis of bourgeois culture underscored by the rise of the hippie movement, which the older generations are clumsily trying to keep up with. Forman’s ironic and almost documentary perspective was a success in Europe and earned him the main prize in Cannes. In the US, however, it was a box office failure, and left Forman out of work. Today, Taking Off is believed to be one of his greatest achievements.
The film will be introduced by the artist Misha Buster, author of the books Hooligans-80 and Fashion Perestroika.
Taking Off
Director: Miloš Forman
1971. 93 min. 18+
