Claude Miller
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Claude Miller (20 February 1942 – 4 April 2012) was a French film director, producer and screenwriter.
Career
Claude Miller was born to a Jewish family. A student at Paris' IDHEC film school from 1962 through 1963, Miller had his first practical cinematic experience while he was in uniform, serving with the Service Cinéma de l'Armée. From 1965 until 1974, Miller worked in assistant and supervisory capacities for many of France's major directors, including Robert Bresson and Jean-Luc Godard.
His principal mentor was François Truffaut, under whose tutelage Miller directed a trio of shorts and La meilleure façon de marcher (The Best Way to Walk, 1976), his first theatrical feature, a coming-of-age drama which bore traces of Truffaut's Les Mistons (1957) and The 400 Blows (1959). Miller received César nominations for best director and writing for this film.
Subsequent Miller-directed films can also be perceived as homages to Truffaut, many even using the same production personnel. The following year he made Dites-lui que je l'aime, for which he received a second César nomination for Best Director. He won a César Award for Best Writing in 1981 for Garde à vue, and the Louis Delluc Prize in 1985 for L'Effrontée, for which he received another César nomination for Best Director. In 1983 he directed Mortelle randonnée. When Truffaut died in 1984 during the preparation of another feature about a confused adolescent, La Petite Voleuse (The Little Thief), Miller took over the project, completing the film in 1988. On French television, Miller directed dozens of commercials and the six-part miniseries Traits de Memoire (1976).
After a four-year absence, Claude Miller returned to active filmmaking with The Accompanist (1992), The Smile (1994) and La Classe de Neige, for which he won the Jury Prize at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival. Later films Miller directed include Betty Fisher et autres histoires (2001), La Petite Lili (2003), and A Secret (2007). At the time of his death he was working on an adaptation of François Mauriac's Thérèse Desqueyroux.
Filmography
- 1969 : La Question ordinaire (short)
- 1971 : Camille ou la comédie catastrophique (short)
- 1976 : La meilleure façon de marcher
- 1977 : Dites-lui que je l'aime
- 1981 : Garde à vue
- 1983 : Mortelle randonnée
- 1985 : L'Effrontée
- 1988 : La Petite Voleuse
- 1992 : L'Accompagnatrice
- 1994 : Le Sourire
- 1998 : La Classe de neige
- 2000 : La Chambre des magiciennes
- 2001 : Betty Fisher et autres histoires
- 2003 : La Petite Lili
- 2007 : A Secret
- 2009 : Marching Band
- 2009 : Je suis heureux que ma mère soit vivante co-directed with his son Nathan Miller
- 2010 : Voyez comme ils dansent
