Biography
Director/Writer
Among his nine cinema feature films and supporting cinema features, Christopher Miles has received Golden Globe and Hollywood Oscar nominations, won the British Critics Circle and 1st prize at Oberhausen and San Francisco Film Festivals, and won Diplomas at Taoromina, London, Belgrade, Cannes, and San Diego Festivals. He has also made 10 TV Specials, and over 100 commercials.
Key Credits
THE CLANDESTINE MARRIAGE, PRIEST OF LOVE, THE VIRGIN & THE GYPSY.
FEATURE FILMS
THE CLANDESTINE MARRIAGE
(Feature film - 18th century romantic comedy of money, marriage and morals)
Starring Nigel Hawthorne, Joan Collins, Timothy Spall, Tom Hollander
Screenplay: Trevor Bentham from the play by David Garrick and George Coleman jnr
Portman Entertainment in association with British Screen and the BBC - released by Universal in 2000
DVD Third Row Center 2001
Directed
"……funny, beautifully acted…Hawthorne's performance is breathtaking" The Times
"I do like a film that hangs together, Christopher Miles brings it off with grace, subtlety and an eye and ear for the ridiculous" Evening Standard
PRIEST OF LOVE
(Feature film on the life of D.H.Lawrence and his wife Frieda)
Starring Ian McKellen, Janet Suzman, Ava Gardner, Penelope Keith, John Gielgud
Screenplay: Alan Plater - from the biography 'Priest of Love' by Harry T. Moore
Orion Pictures USA - 1981
Producers: Christopher Miles & Andrew Donally
Directed
"A beautiful film…well worth seeing" Daily Mail
"Honourable and absorbing" The Times
"Priest of Love is an unprecedented delight" Washington Post
" A marvellous love story between an extraordinary man and a very extraordinary woman" Saturday Review USA
"Only rarely is a film so honest, passionate and tender that you come out on a high - this film is a must" Sydney Sun
(A shorter director's cut was released for the Lawrence Centenary in 1985)
(DVD released in 2003 from World Cinema/C'est la Vie)
Diploma - San Sebastian and opening film San Diego Film Festivals (1981)
Diploma - London Film Festival - closing film (1982)
THE MAIDS
(Feature film drama of two French maids who plan, and then murder their mistress)
Starring Glenda Jackson, Susannah York and Vivien Merchant
Screenplay: Christopher Miles & Robert Enders from the Jean Genet play
EMI American Film Theatre - 1975 (DVD 1999)
Directed
"a spell-binding cinematic experience from director Christopher Miles" Daily Mail
"A distinguished addition to the American Film Theatre's stage adaptations with Christopher Miles' version of Jean Genet's bleak and controversial play" The Guardian
"Christopher Miles has been able to use the medium of the cinema magnificently to capture a major work of art interpreted by three incomparable artistes" France Soir - Paris
Diploma - Belgrade Film Festival 1975
Les Yeux Fertiles - Cannes Film Festival 1975
THAT LUCKY TOUCH
(Feature film - a romantic comedy, and the first to satirise the Common Market)
Starring Susannah York, Roger Moore, Shelley Winters, Lee J.Cobb, Jean-Pierre Cassel
Producer: Dimitri de Grunwald with Timothy Burrill
Screenplay: John Briley
EMI with Gloria Films de Grunwald Films - 1976
Directed
"…much appeal in this affable, good-looking comedy deftly directed by Christopher Miles" Sunday Times
"Light comedy is a special art, and there aren't too many people around who are any good at it - jolly Roger is though…… with Christopher Miles we've discovered an outstanding director of comedy" Evening News
TIME FOR LOVING
(Feature film comedy - Three sets of lovers rent the same room in Montmartre at different times during the 1930's))
Starring Joanna Shimkus, Philippe Noiret, Britt Ekland, Susan Hampshire,
Mark Burns, Mel Ferrer, Michel Legrand
Original Screenplay: Jean Anouilh
Rank/London Screenplays - 1971
Producer: Dimitri de Grunwald/Mel Ferrer
Directed
"A bitter-sweet romantic comedy done well by Christopher Miles….'Time for Loving' is one of the very few English films made in France that is worth the channel crossing"
Evening Standard
"Directed with sophistication by Christopher Miles, reunited with his 'Virgin and Gypsy' stars Joanna Shimkus and Mark Burns……it could emerge as a rose among the West End weeds"
Evening News
THE VIRGIN & THE GYPSY
(Feature film - a Rector's daughter rebels against her family by having a
relationship with a gypsy
Starring Joanna Shimkus, Franco Nero, Honor Blackman, Mark Burns
Screenplay: Alan Plater - from the novel by D.H.Lawrence
Rank/London Screenplays -1970 - DVD Arrow films 2007
Producer: Kenneth Harper
Directed
"This is the best film to come from the vast works of D.H.Lawrence and that's saying something! The film is a winner," New York Telegraph
"A beautiful and engrossing film, nothing short of masterly…..Christopher Miles is a director who has an outstanding gift for visual summation? New York Magazine
"Christopher Miles knows everything worth knowing about actors…he makes the cast function with the proficiency and timing of a London rep. company" Time Magazine
"…..a finely made film filled with the kind of information only art can provide about a time passed." Newsweek
"…a film of much quiet distinction, a highly literate and sympathetic adaptation of its original….excellent performances…the period background is beautifully, because unobtrusively captured" The Times
"Director Christopher Miles has turned this short novel into a work that distils visual poetry" Daily Express
"It makes a refreshing change to find a film directed with taste and grace. Director Christopher Miles' debut as a feature director reveals a flair for composition, proportion and craftsmanship" Evening Standard
Voted Best Film of 1970 by British Film Critics
Golden Globe Nomination USA 1970
THE SIX SIDED TRIANGLE
(Cinema short - showing the moment a husband returns home and finds his wife with a lover - and how six different directors might have treated it)
Sarah Miles, Nicol Williamson, Bill Meilen
British Lion Films/Milesian - 1963
Wrote, produced with Sara Bennett and the Boulting Brothers and Directed
"To have all the film-going experiences rolled into one half-hour is rather unnerving, but that is what a brilliantly talented young director, Christopher Miles, does with 'The Six-sided Triangle' - each of these episodes is a satirical delight" Evening News
"..the long drab Bergman meal is very funny, so is the outburst of passionate Italian addressed to Sarah Miles, crisply subtitled after hours and hours "I like your bust"…the observation of film styles is expert but not cliquish" The Observer
"The star is Christopher's sister Sarah, superbly versatile as all six heroines. This wry, sly, witty half-hour film shows a talent worth encouraging" Daily Mirror
"A splendid family affair" Evening Standard
Oscar Nomination - Hollywood Academy Award
Second Prize - Oberhausen Film Festival
TELEVISION DRAMA
NECK
(TV - first drama in Roald Dahl's "Tales of the Unexpected" Series)
Anglia Television
Starring John Gielgud, Joan Collins, Michael Aldridge, Peter Bowles
Screenplay: Robin Chapman from a Roald Dahl short story
Directed
"…the production was neat and stylish and director Christopher Miles encouraged the stars to sparkle in their own inimitable fashion" Daily Mail
ALTERNATIVE 3
(TV - Drama/documentary purporting to show a link between Britain's 'brain-drain', climate change and a human colony on Mars)
Starring Tim Brinton, Shane Rimmer, Gregory Munro, Carol Hazell
Screenplay: David Ambrose from an original story by Christopher Miles & David Ambrose
Anglia Television - 1977 DVD Soda Pictures 2007, re-released 2007 Soda Pictures
Directed
"This Sci-fi drama was totally convincing, certainly the most polished and satisfying production I have seen from Anglia" Daily Telegraph
"Ambrose and Miles have achieved that rare feat of giving television drama an extra dimension" Daily Express
"…superbly done…this spoof deserves to win an award" Evening News
Nominated for 1977 UK Television Drama Awards - BAFTA
Highest rating in Australia 1977
Shown 5 times in 2 months in Canada & Japan
ZINOTCHKA
(TV Drama special based on a Chekov short story of a young boy's first hate)
Starring Charlotte Rampling, Raymond Francis, Madge Ryan
Screenplay: Melvyn Bragg from a Chekov short story
BBC Television - Full House - 1973
Directed
"A beautiful film of this Chekovian exercise in regret remembered, accurately caught. A good exercise in classical direction" The Guardian
"…directed by Christopher Miles, it has a quiet bitter glow of truth and some remarkable performances, not least by Charlotte Rampling" Evening Standard
DOCUMENTARY/DOCU-DRAMA
FIRE FROM OLYMPIA (TV Documentary on the origins of the Olympic Games in Ancient Greece and the UK)
Featuring Daley Thompson, Professor Stephen Miller
ERT TV (Greece) & ET TV (Spain)
Wrote and directed.
"…..Christopher Miles cleverly shows the connection between the ancient and modern games through vase paintings and old etchings"
LOVE IN THE ANCIENT WORLD
(TV documentary - showing that the ancients were having much more fun and knew a great deal more psychologically than we think we do about love and sex)
Featuring Kathleen Turner - Gary Raymond, Vernon Dobtcheff, Allan Corduner,
Milesian Films in association with Primetime and A&E Network (USA) - with Bayerischer Rundfunk
Wrote, produced and directed
" Christopher Miles' thoughtful analysis offers up some fascinating conclusions." Variety
"…bold, provocative documentary" Total TV
LORD ELGIN AND SOME STONES OF NO VALUE
(TV docudrama special using Lord Elgin's own correspondence to examine how he managed to steal the frieze from the Parthenon in Athens in the early 1800's)
Channel 4 Television (UK) Milesian Films ERT 1 - (Greece) 1985
Starring Nigel Havers, Clare Byam Shaw, Julian Fellowes, Hugh Grant
Co-wrote with Brian Clark, produced and directed
"Christopher Miles' fine film recreates the beginnings of the take-away trade with Nigel Havers and Clare Byam Shaw splendid as the Elgins" Sunday Times
Special showing of 10 best archaeological films in the Louvre Cinema - Paris - 1987
DALEY'S DECATHLON
(TV documentary of Daley Thompson winning the European Games and breaking the world record, which also examines the ancient and modern decathlon techniques)
Featuring Daley Thompson, Richard Slaney, Jurgen Hingsen
BBC Television / Home Video Holdings Milesian/Kulukundis Film Productions - 1982
Wrote, produced and directed
"…I believe I've seen the best sports documentary film of 1983" Evening Standard
Diploma - Rennes Sports Film Festival: Runner-up 1983 UK Video Awards
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