Known for Directing
Claude Miller (20 February 1942 – 4 April 2012) was a French film director, producer and screenwriter. 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 César Award for Best Screenplay, Dialogue or Adaptation for this film. His subsequent 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 Screenplay, Dialogue or Adaptation 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 serial thief entangled with an older lover, La Petite Voleuse (The Little Thief), Miller took over the project, completing the film in 1988. The latter film was a considerable international success, and solidified Miller's status as one of France's major film-makers. On French television, Miller directed dozens of commercials and the six-part miniseries Traits de Mémoire (1976). After a four-year absence, Claude Miller returned to active filmmaking with The Accompanist (1992) and Le Sourire (1994). He had to wait until 1998 for his next major success: La Classe de Neige, the chilling story of a lonely boy on a school skiing holiday, which won the Jury Prize at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival. Later films Miller directed include Betty Fisher et autres histoires (2001) which Peter Bradshaw wrote that Miller "endowed it with the fascination of an exotic, spiky, poisonous flower", 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. The film was selected to close the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. Description above from the Wikipedia article Claude Miller, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Born
February 20, 1942
Died
April 4, 2012 (age 70)
Birthplace
Paris, France
Filmography
74 films, 3 shows


Thérèse
2012 · 1h 50m
country: France
An unhappily married woman struggles to break free from social pressures and her boring suburban setting.


See How They Dance
2011 · 1h 39m
country: Canada
A French video artist traverses Canada on a train that takes her from the east to the west through the snow. This journey leads her to encounter the last girlfriend of her ex-husband, an internationally respected showman who is now dead. Each of the two women will try to understand how the "man of their life" loved and lived with the other. See how they dance.


I’m Glad My Mother Is Alive
2009 · 1h 30m
country: France
Now a taciturn adult, an adoptee finds his biological mother and strikes up a relationship fraught with tension and emotion.


Marching Band
2009 · 1h 35m
country: France
A documentary on American marching bands with a background of the 2008 presidential election.


A Secret
2007 · 1h 45m
country: France
In 1953, a sensitive French boy finds out from a neighbor that his family's Jewish. François Grimbert becomes a physician, and gradually peels the layers of his buried family history which resulted in his difficult upbringing, raised as Catholic by his "Aryan" appearing parents. His athletic father labored to stamp out stereotypical Jewish characteristics he perceived in his son, to keep the family's many secrets, as most relatives fought in World War II, and later were hauled off to labor and death camps by the Gestapo.


Little Lili
2003 · 1h 44m
country: France
This film, loosely inspired by Anton Chekov's The Seagull, weaves a story about sex, family and the business of making films. When the young and overly sensitive filmmaker Julien screens his new DV art-film starring his girlfriend Lili (Swimming Pool's Ludivine Sagnier) --a sexy young local girl--to his famous actress mother Mado, and her lover Brice, an accomplished film director, an unraveling of the delicate peace in their house begins. The graceful beauty Lili, who dreams of becoming a famous actress like Mado, is immediately fascinated by Brice, who gladly falls prey to her charms.


Betty Fisher and Other Stories
2001 · 1h 43m
country: Canada
When bestselling novelist Betty Fisher loses her young son in a tragic accident, her unstable mother resorts to unusual actions to alleviate Betty's grief, actions which set off a chain reaction among a promiscuous waitress and her criminal associates.


Of Woman and Magic
2000 · 1h 20m
country: France
Claire Weygand, a thirty-year-old young woman who is about to defend her anthropology thesis, unfortunately not only feels bad but even worse and worse with each passing day. The migraine attacks she suffers from indeed keep her from working as hard as she should and in despair she decides to consult Doctor Fish. When the medicine the physician prescribes for her fails, Claire, who can't take it any more, asks him to hospitalize her. In hospital, Claire shares her room with Odette, a young woman who has lost the use of her legs and Eléonore, a frightening old woman. The third episode from "The Blindfold" by Siri Hustvedt.


Class Trip
1998 · 1h 36m
country: France
A schoolboy Nicholas always worries about something. When he goes on a school skiing trip, all his visions and nightmares take him over.


Lumière & Company
1995 · 1h 28m
country: France
40 international directors were asked to make a short film using the original Cinematographe invented by the Lumière Brothers, working under conditions similar to those of 1895. There were three rules: (1) The film could be no longer than 52 seconds, (2) no synchronized sound was permitted, and (3) no more than three takes.


Les Enfants de Lumière
1995 · 1h 42m
country: France
This French documentary is comprised of almost 300 clips from the past 100 years of cinema Francaise. The images within the documentary are free flowing and not in chronological order; they are also not hindered with unnecessary narration or lengthy introductions. The film represents the collaborative efforts of a collective of the country's finest filmmakers.


Le Sourire
1994 · 1h 25m
country: France
An old psychiatrist finds out that he is likely to suffer a second and probably fatal heart attack in the near future. As a consequence he becomes determined to seduce Odile, a young woman he first encounters in a railway compartment.


The Accompanist
1992 · 1h 42m
country: France
In Nazi-occupied Paris, a young accompanist named Sophie Vasseur gets a job with famed singer Irene Brice. As Irene's husband Charles, a businessman collaborating with the Nazis, wrestles with his conscience, Sophie becomes obsessed with Irene, taking on the role of maid as well as accompanist, living life vicariously through Irene's triumphs and affairs.


The Little Thief
1988 · 1h 50m
country: France
In a small town in post-WWII France, 16-year-old Janine tries to improve her conditions by any means necessary. Three people—Michel, a married lover; Raoul, a fellow thief; Mauricette, a photographer she meets in prison—will help her learn from her mistakes.


An Impudent Girl
1985 · 1h 36m
country: France
Charlotte Castang is a working-class 13-year-old girl, who lives in a drab, run-down neighbourhood, and is ready to become an adult. Her mother died giving birth to her, and she lives with her crass brother and a father whose attention is elsewhere. Her only friend is Lulu, a sick 10-year-old she regards as a pest. Charlotte is antisocial, bored and dreams of a better life. Her life improves when she meets Clara Bauman, a pianist prodigy.


Deadly Circuit
1983 · 2h
country: France
A P.I. is obsessed with a cute woman, who seduces and kills rich men around W. Europe.


The Inquisitor
1981 · 1h 24m
country: France
Martinaud, an illustrious notary suspected of being the perpetrator of two horrendous crimes, voluntarily agrees to be questioned by Inspector Gallien on New Year's Eve. What initially is a routine procedure, soon becomes a harsh interrogation that seems to confirm the initial suspicions.


This Sweet Sickness
1977 · 1h 42m
country: France
Industrious accountant David Martinaud claims to be visiting his parents every weekend, but it's merely a cover for the labor-intensive refurbishing of his country cottage. The reason for David's secrecy is that his childhood crush, Lise, lives nearby, and, although she's married, he still believes they'll get together. His devotion to the idea borders on mania, and, when Lise's husband is accidentally killed, he quickly spirals out of control.


The Best Way to Walk
1976 · 1h 22m
country: France
In 1960, Marc and Philippe are counselors at a summer camp in the French countryside. One night, Marc finds Philippe dressed and made up as a woman, and from now on, he will keep on humiliating Philippe.


Camille or the Catastrophic Comedy
1971 · 33m
country: France
Camille invites some soldiers to spend a Sunday in the country with her. When they arrive, they find that something is amiss.


La Question ordinaire
1969 · 10m
country: France
A woman wants to film a prisoner being tortured.


Juliet in Paris
1967 · 17m
country: France
A young student, alone in Paris, is engaged in strange and bloody experiences of which she is both the authorizer and the victim.