Jiri Menzel, the Czech director who won the foreign-language film Oscar for 1966's Closely Watched Trains, has died. He was 82.
Menzel's wife, Olga Menzelova, posted the news on Instagram and Facebook on Sunday. She said that Menzel had died at home on Saturday.
A cause of death was not given. Menzel was "the bravest among the brave," she wrote, while commending his "courage, with [his] appetite and [his] will to live." A member of the Czech New Wave school of filmmakers alongside Milos Forman, Vera Chytilova and others, Closely Watched Trains was Menzel's feature directorial debut (he had previously acted in films and directed student and short films).
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