Christopher Miles
Directing
Biography
Christopher Miles (19 April 1939 – 15 September 2023) was a British film director, producer and screenwriter. Due to ‘A Vol d’Oiseau’ Miles was able to persuade the Boulting Brothers to part finance his first 35mm project The Six-Sided Triangle (1963), which he wrote, directed and co-produced. The film was nominated for an Academy Award. After joining the Grade Organization, Leslie Grade asked Miles to write and direct a film for The Shadows pop group. Rhythm ‘n Greens (1964) which was distributed as a supporting feature throughout the ABC Cinemas circuit. Grade then offered Miles his first feature film, Up Jumped a Swagman (1965) a surrealist musical comedy. At 26, Miles became the youngest feature director working in England, which position he held for another five years. Attracted to the French attitude to the cinema, and their ways of life, Miles made the Rue Lepic Slow Race (1967), and also filmed an original Jean Anouilh screenplay A Time for Loving (1971) and later Jean Genet’s The Maids (1975) for the American Film Theatre. The Maids was shown out of competition at Cannes in 1975.
Known For
A British television anthology of stories, often with sinister and wryly comedic undertones, and a twist at the end. With early episodes written and presented by Roald Dahl, the series featured a plethora of big name guest stars.
Tales of the Unexpected
Following the banning and burning of his novel, "The Rainbow," D.H. Lawrence and his wife, Frieda, move to the United States, and then to Mexico. When Lawrence contracts tuberculosis, they return to England for a short time, then to Italy, where Lawrence writes "Lady Chatterley's Lover."
Priest of Love
A period film, set around an English country house whose owners want to arrange a marriage of convenience between their elder daughter and an aristocratic heir of a hard-up noble family.
The Clandestine Marriage
A European arms dealer meets a liberated woman journalist, who is writing a story about the ridiculous things men do with the armaments during a NATO war games meeting.
That Lucky Touch
A film version of Genet's play. Two maids, Solange and Claire, hate their employers and, while they are out, take turns at dressing up as Madame and insulting her.
The Maids
"Zinotchka", directed by Christopher Miles, was made for the BBC's 'FULL HOUSE' arts programme, which invited 7 directors (the others were Jonathan Miller, Ken Loach, Karel Reisz, Gavin Millar, Ben Rea and Stephen Frears) to make 7 short films from short stories by Anton Tchekhov and James Joyce in 1972.
Zinotchka
The story of an apartment in Paris and the various people that occupy it over the years.
A Time for Loving
Film adaptation from the novel by D.H. Lawrence, discovered after the celebrated author's death in 1930, a romantic love story tells of a prim young English girl who is sexually attracted to a seductively virile gypsy. The climatic dam burst is linked with the consummation of her desire.
The Virgin and the Gypsy
Purporting to be an investigation into the UK's contemporary "brain drain", Alternative 3 uncovered a plan to make the Moon and Mars habitable in the event of climate change and a terminal environmental catastrophe on Earth.
Alternative 3
A dreamy Australian singer comes to London to seek his fortune and falls for a down-to-earth lass and a high-strung debutante at the same time.
Up Jumped a Swagman
The Six-Sided Triangle is a 1963 short film directed by Christopher Miles, starring his younger sister Sarah Miles, Nicol Williamson, and Bill Meilen. It is about a husband who comes home and finds his wife with her lover - told from the perspectives of six different countries (the US, England, Japan, Sweden, Italy and France). The film was nominated for an Oscar for Best Live Action Short Film.
The Six-Sided Triangle
Short film starring and featuring the music of The Shadows