Milena Jelinek, screenwriter and educator, dies at 84
The First Art Newspaper on the Net    Established in 1996 Tuesday, December 24, 2024


Milena Jelinek, screenwriter and educator, dies at 84
In an undated image provided by Roberta Hershenson, Milena Jelinek in the 1980s. Jelinek, who was thrown out of her film school in Prague for a movie called “An Easy Life” before becoming a tough-love screenwriting professor at Columbia University, died of complications of the novel coronavirus on April 15, 2020, in Manhattan. She was 84. Roberta Hershenson via The New York Times.

by Damien Cave



NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Milena Jelinek spent her youth in Czechoslovakia learning to write under the tutelage of novelists like Milan Kundera and protesting Communism with friends like Vaclav Havel.

She was thrown out of film school in Prague for a movie she wrote called “An Easy Life,” which was deemed subversive. After fleeing to New York, she became a tough-love screenwriting professor at Columbia University, where she was known to warn that becoming a writer makes you fat and a drunk.

That mix of piercing critique, zestful living and an unflinching dedication to story defined Jelinek’s life. She died of complications of the coronavirus April 15 in Manhattan, her son, William Jelinek, said. She was 84.

As a screenwriter, Milena Jelinek was best known for “Forgotten Light,” directed by Vladimir Michalek and released in 1996. The story of a young Roman Catholic priest’s effort to save his church from being closed during the Communist era and his love for a dying parishioner, “Forgotten Light” is regarded as one of the greatest Czech movies of the last three decades.

Jelinek influenced generations of students from all over the world with what a colleague at Columbia’s School of the Arts described as “a European combination of old-world elegance and postwar wariness.”

Hope Dickson Leach, a screenwriter, director and former student, said Jelinek had never talked down to anyone and had always sought to help students find their own voice. On the first day of class, the professor sought to allay the students’ insecurities by telling them to think of themselves as writers, not students.

“She made it clear that the only qualification for being a writer was that you decided you were one, and you wrote,” Dickson Leach said.

Jelinek’s own path was one of Cold War twists and turns. The daughter of a sawmill owner, Milena Tobolova was born Aug. 19, 1935, in Prestice, a small town about 70 miles southwest of Prague. She initially studied languages but transferred in 1955 to the Film and Television Academy, where Kundera taught world literature.

She first rose to prominence with the script for “An Easy Life,” whose depiction of a rock ’n’ roll-fueled student life, deemed decadent by authorities, led to her expulsion from the film school. At its premiere in 1957, director Milos Forman introduced her to a childhood friend, Frederick Jelinek, a pioneering computer engineer who would spend the next three years trying to get her out of Prague.

When he succeeded in 1961, they married, started a family and settled in Ithaca, New York, where Milena Jelinek made three short, absurdist films about trapped housewives while her husband taught at Cornell University.

They later landed in New York City at a moment when Forman and another Czech émigré, Frank Daniel, were building the graduate film program at Columbia. She joined its faculty in the 1980s, teaching writing and script analysis and guiding students to find the triumphs and flaws in everything from “Toy Story” to “North by Northwest” and “Tootsie.”

Her son said she had usually started out every semester despairing about her students’ lack of talent, then came around to think they were all terrific — well, with the exception of one or two.

He said his mother could always see the bleak and the beautiful. “Buck up,” she used to tell her grandchildren. “Tomorrow is never promised.”

© 2020 The New York Times Company










Today's News

April 30, 2020

ARTBnk's New Standard for Fine Art Valuation

China to reopen Forbidden City after three-month closure

Sotheby's to hold vintage barware auction commemorating the 100th anniversary of Prohibition

Bonhams BLUE auction raises over £400,000 for NHS Covid-19 appeal

Tina Girouard, experimental artist in 1970s SoHo, dies at 73

Silver dealer Koopman Rare Art presents online catalogue of antique silver candlesticks and candelabra

Globally acclaimed Indian actor Irrfan Khan dies at 53: publicist

Vietnam draws on propaganda artists in battle against virus

Milena Jelinek, screenwriter and educator, dies at 84

UNC Greensboro announces new Director for Weatherspoon Art Museum

'Nordic Noir' pioneer Maj Sjowall dead at 84

Australia marks 250th anniversary of Cook landing in muted fashion

National Museum of Women in the Arts nominated for Best Social Media Account in 24th Annual Webby Awards

Gardner Museum launches new blog, Inside the Collection, to share hidden treasures, stories

Massive circus side show collection brings $37,500 in Holabird's Big Tent auction

Costumes, masks and props from acclaimed Amazon Prime series 'The Tick' offered by Heritage Auctions

Now playing: The South by Southwest Film Festival, sort of

Eavan Boland, 'disruptive' Irish poet, is dead at 75

UK plans mass singalong for locked-down VE Day

Reinvent the reel: Hollywood mulls new measures to restart shooting

Royal Ontario Museum Senior Curator wins prestigious Costume Society of America award

RIBOCA2 announces exhibition will transform into a feature movie, film set and online series of talks

Porch costumes provide cheer in troubled times

The Best Sites for Playing Online Slots in Singapore

8 Ways to Maintain Good Mental & Physical Health During COVID-19 Quarantine

Wondering Why Use Instagram Ads? Here's The Reason

What do people do for fun in Ireland?

What can you do to make yourself more comfortable and popular on TikTok?




Museums, Exhibits, Artists, Milestones, Digital Art, Architecture, Photography,
Photographers, Special Photos, Special Reports, Featured Stories, Auctions, Art Fairs,
Anecdotes, Art Quiz, Education, Mythology, 3D Images, Last Week, .

 



Founder:
Ignacio Villarreal
(1941 - 2019)
Editor & Publisher: Jose Villarreal
(52 8110667640)

Art Director: Juan José Sepúlveda Ramírez
Writer: Ofelia Zurbia Betancourt

Attorneys
Truck Accident Attorneys
Accident Attorneys
Houston Dentist
Abogado de accidentes
สล็อต
สล็อตเว็บตรง
Motorcycle Accident Lawyer

Royalville Communications, Inc
produces:

ignaciovillarreal.org juncodelavega.com facundocabral-elfinal.org
Founder's Site. Hommage
to a Mexican poet.
Hommage
       

The First Art Newspaper on the Net. The Best Versions Of Ave Maria Song Junco de la Vega Site Ignacio Villarreal Site Parroquia Natividad del Señor
Tell a Friend
Dear User, please complete the form below in order to recommend the Artdaily newsletter to someone you know.
Please complete all fields marked *.
Sending Mail
Sending Successful