Director who was part of the ‘Czech film miracle’ in the 1960s but made his masterpieces in HollywoodIvan Passer, who has died aged 86, was one of the new wave of Czech film directors who emerged during the social and cultural democratisation of the mid-60s that afforded them unprecedented artistic freedom. With his childhood friend Miloš Forman, Passer co-wrote A Blonde in Love (1965, released as Loves of a Blonde in the US) and The Firemen’s Ball (1967), and directed Intimate Lighting (1965), his brilliant feature film debut.
In that short period, Passer, Forman, Vera Chytilová, Jirí Menzel and Jan Němec, among others, made films that rejected the official state socialist-realist aesthetic and produced eclectic, highly assured features that captured the world’s attention.