Taking Off w/Forman on hand tonight at Film Forum

Wrapping their Madcap Manhattan series tonight, Film Forum will screen Milos Forman's often name checked but rarely played debut American feature, Taking Off. Perhaps the Czech wildman's most formally off kilter narrative, it features Buck Henry and Lynn Carlin as a pair of squares searching desperately for their daughter, who has disappeared into the bohemian East Village with various lefty and druggie types. Made long before Forman entered his "cinema of quality" phase (something even the most uncompromising or inventive European directors have always halfheartedly embraced or furiously struggled against when coming to America), it's a small dynamo of a film. Having recently screened at one of Cinema Nolita's final weekly screenings, tonight offers the chance to see it in a rare 35mm print with Mr. Forman on hand before the 7:20 showing.