Milena Jelinek Passed Away. I Will Miss Her Sharp Humor and Irony.
Milena Jelinek (left) and Zuzana Justman (second from left), Renata Spisarova-Kotik, Marie Dvorakova. In New York, 2018.
By Zuzana Justman | I met Milena (Milena Tobolova, born 1935) shortly after she succeeded in leaving Czechoslovakia in 1961. She had studied at FAMU [ed. The Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague]. In 1957 her future husband, Beda (Frederick Jelinek, a well-regarded pioneer in speech recognition), who had emigrated to the US after the war, arrived in Prague and attended a screening of a new film "Snadny zivot" ("Easy Life"). At the screening, a childhood friend, Milos Forman, introduced him to the film's screenwriter, Milena. Milena and Beda soon became a couple and planned to marry and live in the US. But Milena, who had actively protested against the communist regime, was not permitted to emigrate, despite the fact that an important professor at MIT, who was Beda’s advisor, wrote to the Massachusetts senator at that time, John F Kennedy, and asked him for help. After Kennedy's inauguration, Milena finally received permission to emigrate and she married Beda.
Milena was always writing. She mainly wrote screenplays of which the best known is the script for "Zapomenute svelto” ("Forgotten Light"). She also wrote the play "Adina" which was produced at the Vinohradske Theater in 2007 and a libretto for "Kafka's Women" which had a workshop production in New York City in 2013. From 1980 until her death, she taught screenwriting at Columbia University.
Milena was highly intelligent and well-read and she never lost her sharp sense of humor and irony. She was always full of ideas and opinions, which were often critical and always original. Whenever I finished reading a book or seeing a film, I immediately called Milena to find out her view on the subject.
She was almost 85 years old and very busy. She continued to teach, wrote screenplays, acted as dramaturg for a Czech television series and planned future projects.
She loved her son, William, her daughter, Hannah, and her grandchildren.
Milena and I were friends for many, many years, and we lived through a lot together. I will miss her terribly,
Zuzana Justman, documentary filmmaker, writer, Holocaust survivor
Milena Jelinek (August 19, 1935 – April 16, 2020), screenwriter, playwright, professor at Columbia University .
To honor the memory of Milena Jelinek, Czech Center New York has published a video featuring Milena in Q&A with Marie Dvorakova, and in memoriam recollection of Milena's friend Renata Spisarova-Kotik. A Tribute to Milena Jelinek: Screenwriter, Playwright, Teacher.
Milena Jelinek, Screenwriter and Educator, Dies at 84 (The New York Times):
She was thrown out of her film school in Prague for a movie called “An Easy Life.” After landing in New York, she became a tough-love screenwriting professor at Columbia University. >> Read more