Michael Žantovský (1949) is a Czech translator, interpreter, psychologist and politician. Following the Velvet revolution of 1989 he was one of the founders of the Civic Forum and, for a time, its press spokesman. In 1990 he became press spokesman and advisor to Václav Havel. Between 1992 and 1997 he served as the Czech Republic’s (in 1992 Czechoslovakia’s) Ambassador to the USA. Later he was elected to the Czech Republic’s Senate. Since 2003 he has served as the Czech Republic’s Ambassador to Israel. As a translator he has focused mainly on modern fiction and drama as well as non-fiction, including books on Madeleine Albright or Henry Kissinger. He has translated short stories and films by Woody Allen, and devoted a monograph to him in 1990.
Photo: Peter Župník Sometime in the early nineties I found myself in New York on a business trip with a friend of mine. My friend is a playwright but at that point he was being president. He is quite keen on films and music so I thought it might be an idea for us to go and see Woody Allen. Woody is a film maker but heÂs also fond of music and has written a few plays too. We rang the bell of WoodyÂs Fifth Avenue apartment but he was not in. It occurred to me that he might […]