Claude Miller

Claude Miller began his film career supporting the leading lights of the "Nouvelle Vague" (New Wave). He also acted in the Jean-Luc Godard classic "Two or Three Things I Know About Her" (1967), served as the assistant director on "Weekend" (1967), and in the late 1960s and early 1970s, worked as production manager on a string of Francois Truffaut-directed works, starting with "Stolen Kisses" (1968) and including "La Nuit Americaine" ("Day for Night") (1973) and "L'Historie d'Adele H." ("The Story of Adele H.") (1975). In the meantime, Miller was directing his first full-length fiction film "La Meilleure facon de marcher" ("The Best Way to Walk") (1975). In the years following, Miller scripted several films - two directed by Luc Berand - and continued to write and direct his own dialogue-driven works. These included "Dites-lui que je l'aime" (1977), about a man who builds a dream house for a married woman he cannot have while being pursued by a woman he does not want; "Garde a vue" ("The Inquisitor") (1981), a nuanced thriller adapted from an English mystery novel; and "L'Effrontee" ("An Impudent Girl") (1985), a plumbing of the irascibility and jealousies of adolescence. The film featured music, the pangs of pre-adulthood, and a very young Charlotte Gainsbourg, an actress he would direct again in "La Petite voleuse" ("The Little Thief") (1988). Both films were impacted by Francois Truffaut in their fascination with erupting youth and the constant use of close-ups, underlining formally the importance of dialogue and individual performance in Miller's work. "The Little Thief" stemmed from an unfulfilled Truffaut project, and like 1992's "The Accompanist," circulated around the theme of thwarted youth yet again. In "The Accompanist," Romane Bohringer was cast as a meek pianist whose initial ecstasy at playing for a famous singer ends up exploding into an intense envy. Miller also co-wrote and directed "The Smile" (1993) and was among the directors contributing to "Les Enfants de lumiere" ("The Children of Light") (1995) and "Lumiere & Company" (1995) before writing and directing "La classe de neige" ("The School Trip"), which shared the 1998 Cannes Jury Prize. The director passed away after a long illness on April 4, 2012 at age 70.