Oscar-Winning Czech Director Jiří Menzel Dies at Age 82

Oscar-winning Czech film director Jiří Menzel has died aged 82 after battling serious health problems for a long time, his wife Olga Menzelová said on Sunday.

“Our dear Jiri, the bravest of the brave. Your body left our mundane world in our arms last night,” she wrote on Instagram.

She added, “I am also grateful to you for the last three years, as hard as they were. You kept always helping me with your courage, with your appetite and your will to live, and with your humor. I wish for you “a pretty little cloud” as you often used to say… Death cannot end anything. I believe we will meet again, in whatever way. It simply must be so because I feel it cannot be otherwise. I caress you. We love you, from the bottom of our hearts, and forever.”

Menzel was part of the Czech New Wave of filmmakers of the 1960s that included One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Amadeus director Milos Forman and avant-garde director Vera Chytilova.

Menzel studied film production in Prague, graduating in 1962.

His first feature film Closely Watched Trains was based on a novel by Bohumil Hrabal. Following the film’s Oscar win, Menzel collaborated with the novelist numerous times.

Menzel shot the film in the wake of a political meltdown known as the Prague Spring, a loosening of communist influence that was crushed by Soviet-led armies in August 1968.

The film was banned by authorities, and it only returned to the screen after communism was toppled in the Velvet Revolution of 1989.

It won the Golden Bear award at the Berlin international film festival in 1990.

Menzel’s 1985 film, My Sweet Little Village, was nominated for an Oscar and a number of his other movies have become classics for Czech film watchers and directors.

In addition to directing, he had over 80 film and TV acting credits including Martin Sulik’s The Interpreter and the Jan Hrebejk’s 2000 film Divided We Fall, which was nominated for an Oscar.

Menzel had been cared for at home by his wife after health problems followed a 2017 brain surgery and meningitis. She commended Menzel’s “bravery, taste, extraordinary will to live and humor” in an online post on Sunday.

He is survived by his wife and two daughters, Anna Karolina and Eva Maria.