Jan Kadar

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BIRTHDAY

April 01, 1918

Budapest, Hungary

DIED

June 01, 1979

BIOGRAPHY

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Began his career after WWII making documentary shorts, then moved to Prague where he made one feature, "Katya" (1950), before teaming up with Elmar Klos in 1952. Despite wary Czech censors, the pair co-directed and co-wrote a number of socially-oriented documentaries and features, noted for their smooth craftsmanship and solid storytelling. They were, however, banned from filmmaking for several years for their depiction of postwar cynicism and housing shortages in "The Three Wishes" (1958). Kadar (who dominated on the set) and Klos (who was more administratively inclined) achieved international recognition for their incredibly powerful Oscar-winning portrait of a man who must "guard" an elderly Jewish woman during WWII, "The Shop on Main Street" (1965). "Adrift", meanwhile, begun in 1968 but interrupted by the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, proved on its release in 1971 to be one of the most haunting depictions of mental breakdown in modern cinema.

After his partnership with Klos dissolved in 1969, Kadar tried his hand in the US and Canada with varying degrees of success. "The Angel Levine" (1970) seemed a somewhat overly sentimental Jewish remake of "It's a Wonderful Life", but both it and Kadar's last feature film, "Lies My Father Told Me" (1975), possessed a certain low-key appeal in their evocation of milieu. Kadar also worked on several TV-movies and served as president of the American Film Institute from 1975 until his death.

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