Rebecca Miller

Early life and education

Miller was born in Roxbury, Connecticut, to Arthur Miller, the dramatist, and Austrian-born Inge Morath, a photographer. Her younger brother, Daniel, was born in 1966. Her father was Jewish, whereas her mother was Protestant. For a time during childhood, Miller practiced Catholicism of her own accord. Her maternal grandparents were Catholic converts to Protestantism. She has said that she stopped thinking of herself as a Christian "somewhere at the end of college". Miller remembered her childhood in Roxbury as being surrounded by artists. Sculptor Alexander Calder was a neighbor; so were choreographer Martha Clarke and members of the experimental dance troupe Pilobolus. Immersed in drawing, Miller was tutored by another neighbor, sculptor Philip Grausman.

Miller attended Choate Rosemary Hall. In 1980, she entered Yale University to study painting and literature. Naomi Wolf, the feminist author, was her roommate. Miller created wooden panel triptychs she described as hybrids of pictographic forms inspired, for example, by Paul Klee and a 15th-century altarpiece. Upon graduation in 1985, Miller went abroad on a fellowship, to Munich, Germany.

In 1987, Miller took up residence in New York City, and she showed painting and sculpture at Leo Castelli Gallery, Victoria Munroe Gallery, and in Connecticut. Miller also studied film at The New School. Mentored by professor Arnold S. Eagle, a photographer and cinematographer, Miller began making non-verbal films, which she exhibited along with her artwork.

Career

1988–1994

In 1988, Miller was cast in the role of Anya in Peter Brook's adaptation of Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard, her first stage role. She originated the part of Lili in The American Plan. Throughout, Miller gravitated toward her role as an independent filmmaker/director. Miller began her acting career with directors Alan Pakula, Paul Mazursky, and Mike Nichols. She played the female lead in NBC's television movie The Murder of Mary Phagan, and supporting roles in feature films, including Regarding Henry (1991), Consenting Adults (1992), and Wind (1992).

In 1991, Miller wrote and directed a short film Florence, starring actress Marcia Gay Harden, about a precociously empathetic woman who acquires the symptoms from others; eventually "catching" a neighbor's amnesia, she forgets her own identity. Florence caught the attention of Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati, and Miller was invited to direct a revival of Arthur Miller's After the Fall. She also directed Nicole Burdette's play The Bluebird Special Came Through Here.

1995–2009

Miller wrote and directed her first film, Angela, in 1995. It is the story of 10-year-old Angela's attempt to purge her soul of sin in order to cure her mentally ill mother. The film premiered at Philadelphia Festival of World Cinema, and screened at Sundance Film Festival. For Angela, Miller received the Independent Feature Project's Open Palm Award, and the Sundance Film Festival Filmmaker Trophy from her peers. The film's cinematographer Ellen Kuras was also honored at Sundance and the Brussels International Festival of Fantasy Film.

Miller's collection of prose portraits of women, Personal Velocity, was awarded The Washington Post Best Book of 2001. Personal Velocity was adapted by Miller for her 2002 award-winning feature film by the same name. She adapted three short stories into a screenplay of three different, although thematically unified short films, which Miller then directed. Each film explores personal transformation in response to life-changing circumstances. Miller credits the poet Honor Moore for help to "bridge the gap between being a writer of scripts and fiction." Personal Velocity: Three Portraits screened at Tribeca Film Festival, the High Falls Film Festival, and the film was successfully released through United Artists. The film earned critical praise from The New York Times as "the work of a talented and highly visual writer." For Personal Velocity, Miller received the Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize and the Independent Spirit John Cassavetes Award in 2002, and the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures Special Recognition for Excellence in Filmmaking in 2003. Cinematographer Ellen Kuras received the Excellence in Cinematography Award at Sundance. Personal Velocity: Three Portraits is part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

In 2003, Miller wrote and illustrated A Woman Who. The book is a collection of images of women, in a variety of scenes, each drawn by Miller with her eyes closed. Also in 2003, she was featured in the IFC Films documentary In The Company of Women, directed by Lesli Klainberg and Gini Reticker. Miller wrote the screenplay for the 2005 film adaptation of David Auburn's Pulitzer Prize-winning play Proof. The film was directed by John Madden, and stars Gwyneth Paltrow and Anthony Hopkins. Also in 2005, Miller directed her film, The Ballad of Jack and Rose, which stars Daniel Day-Lewis, Camilla Belle and Catherine Keener. Shot on location in Nova Scotia and on Prince Edward Island, the film is a textured, sorrowful, coming of age story about a 16-year-old named Rose who has grown up in isolation with her father. The Ballad of Jack and Rose screened at the Woodstock Film Festival and IFC Center in New York. For The Ballad of Jack and Rose, Miller received Honorable Mention from MTV's 2010 The Best Female Directors Who Should Have Won An Oscar.

In 2009, Miller released her fourth film, The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, an adaptation of her 2002 novel by the same name. A nuanced exploration of a 50-year-old woman's adjustment reaction to moving into a retirement community with her 80-year-old husband, the story flows back and forth between the main character Pippa's memories of her freewheeling New York City youth in the 1970s and her present life. Miller directed a star-studded cast which includes Robin Wright, Alan Arkin, Keanu Reeves, Winona Ryder and Julianne Moore. The Private Lives of Pippa Lee premiered at Toronto International Film Festival, and screened at Ryerson University, the Berlin Film Festival, and the Hay Festival.

At the Kerry Film Festival in 2009, Miller was honored with the Maureen O'Hara Award, in recognition for her achievements in film.

2013–present

In 2013, Miller published Jacob's Folly – a complex novel about an 18th-century French rake reincarnated as a housefly in modern-day New York with the ability to enter the other characters’ consciousness and influence them. Critic Maureen Corrigan praised the work, saying, "Miller's writing style is sensuous, and her individual stories expand, opulently, in scope and emotional impact."

Miller wrote a screenplay neo-screwball comedy called Maggie's Plan, based upon an original story by Karen Rinaldi. Miller directed the film, shot primarily in Greenwich Village, in 2015. Maggie's Plan premiered at Toronto International Film Festival Special Presentations, and screened internationally, at the New York Film Festival, Montclair Film Festival, Berlin Film Festival, Dublin International Film Festival, San Francisco International Film Festival, USA Film Festival/Angelika Film Center Dallas, Denver Film Critics Society Women+Film Festival, Miami International Film Festival, and Sundance Film Festival. Sony Pictures Classics distributed Maggie's Plan in theaters. The ensemble cast includes Greta Gerwig, Julianne Moore, Ethan Hawke, Bill Hader and Maya Rudolph. Critic for Vanity Fair, Richard Lawson praised Maggie's Plan as "A smart, goofy delight!" Maggie's Plan was released in movies theaters in 2016.

In 2023, she directed the romantic-comedy film She Came to Me.

Personal life

Miller first met her spouse, actor Daniel Day-Lewis, at a screening of the film adaptation of her father's play The Crucible. Miller and Day-Lewis married on November 13, 1996. They have two sons together. Miller is stepmother to Day-Lewis's eldest son, from his previous relationship with Isabelle Adjani.

Bibliography

• Personal Velocity. Grove Press, New York 2001, .
• A Woman Who. Bloomsbury, London 2003, .
• The Ballad of Jack and Rose. Faber and Faber, New York 2005, .
• The Private Lives of Pippa Lee. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York 2008, .
• Jacob's Folly. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York 2014, .
• Total. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York 2022, .

Filmography

Acting roles

Accolades

References

References

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2. (October 31, 2015). "100 Women Directors Hollywood Should Be Hiring". New York Media, LLC.
3. (July 20, 2015). "Where are the Agents of Change?". MovieMaker Magazine.
4. Tanenbaum, Kayla. (March 11, 2013). "Author Rebecca Miller Talks Male Perspective, Piecing Together a Novel, and Fly Sex in ''Jacob's Folly''". [[Glamour (magazine).
5. Miller, Gerri. (March 14, 2018). "Daughter Documents the Inner Arthur Miller". Jewish Journal.
6. Ratcliffe, Michael. (February 12, 2005). "Arthur Miller". [[The Guardian]].
7. Kampel, Stewart. (September 19, 2013). "Q&A with Rebecca Miller". Hadassah Magazine.
8. (November 1, 2004). "Arthur Miller".
9. (February 1, 2002). "Inge Morath obituary". The Telegraph.
10. Jeffreys, Daniel. (November 22, 1996). "Who's taming whom?". The Independent.
11. Harrison, Rick. (March 1, 2005). "The Miller's Daughter". Independent Media Publications.
12. (February 9, 1996). "Playwright's Daughter Searches for Peace". [[Contra Costa Times]].
13. (February 1, 2002). "Obituary: Inge Morath".
14. Schappell, Elissa. (April 11, 2013). "Rebecca Miller on Writing from a Man's Point of View, Finding Judaism's "Darker Side," and Exposing Her "Innermost Preoccupations" in ''Jacob's Folly''".
15. (December 11, 2002). "Rebecca Miller's career is gaining some speed". [[The Philadelphia Inquirer]].
16. Lipton, Michael A.. (February 26, 1996). "Her Own Woman".
17. Collins, Lauren. (November 23, 2009). "Metamorphosis".
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19. (March 26, 2005). "In the name of the daughter". Salon Media Group, Inc..
20. (October 16, 1992). "Reviews/Film; Meeting the Neighbors Is a Very Big Mistake". The New York Times.
21. (2007). "Regarding Henry". Paramount Home Video.
22. Warner, David. (April 25, 1996). "Miller's Daughter". [[Philadelphia City Paper]].
23. (May 28, 1995). "Dream World : Actress And Director Rebecca Miller Brings Imagination To Life On Screen". Chicago Tribune.
24. "Biography: Nicole Burdette".
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26. (February 23, 1996). "Women on the Verge: Interview with Filmmaker Rebecca Miller". The Austin Chronicle.
27. (July 31, 1995). "Indie Film Project names Miller Gotham Open Palm winner".
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31. (November 22, 2002). "Film Review; Turning the Big Screen into the Small Screen". The New York Times.
32. (February 1, 2002). "''Personal Velocity'': Small wonders". The Guardian.
33. (2005). "Writing The Short Film". Elsevier/Focal Press.
34. (December 6, 2002). "The Quiet, Dynamic Force Of ''Velocity''". The Washington Post.
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36. (May 7, 2002). "TriBeCa Festival Celebrates Film And Resilience". The New York Times.
37. (October 23, 2002). "High Falls Festival Films". City Newspaper.
38. (March 27, 2005). "The Film That Runs in the Family. Both Families, In Fact". The New York Times.
39. (February 14, 2003). "''Personal Velocity'' is up to speed". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
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41. (November 15, 2003). "A Woman Who". Bloomsbury Publishing USA.
42. "In The Company of Women". FF2 Media.
43. (2014). "Film Theory: creating a cinematic grammar". Columbia University Press.
44. (2007). "Roger Ebert's four-star reviews, 1967-2007". Andrews McMeel.
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47. (March 9, 2010). "The Best Female Directors Who Should Have Won An Oscar". MTV.
48. "The Private Lives of Pippa Lee: a novel".
49. (Spring 2009). "Rebecca Miller: Miller's Crossing". Directors Guild of America.
50. (November 26, 2009). "In a Wife's Crème Brûlée, Visions of a Stormy Past". The New York Times.
51. Gritten, David. (July 9, 2009). "''The Private Lives of Pippa Lee'', review".
52. (September 10, 2009). "In Toronto, Directing Is Clearly Women's Work". The New York Times.
53. "''The Private Lives of Pippa Lee''". Berlinale 2009.
54. (May 24, 2009). "Rebecca Miller Talks to Francine Stock: ''The Private Lives of Pippa Lee''".
55. (August 30, 2009). "Miller to be honoured at film festival". The Irish Times.
56. (September 1, 2009). "Rebecca Miller To Receive Kerry Festival Honour".
57. (August 19, 2013). "Book review: ''Jacob's Folly'', By Rebecca Miller".
58. (May 17, 2013). "Fiction Chronicle ''Jacob's Folly'', by Rebecca Miller, and More". The New York Times.
59. (February 28, 2013). "Rebecca Miller keeps her eye on the fly". Los Angeles Times.
60. (March 1, 2013). "Man Turned Fly Seeks Revenge for Bad Reincarnation".
61. (March 6, 2013). "A Fiendish Fly Recalls Kafka In ''Jacob's Folly''".
62. (May 14, 2016). "Director Rebecca Miller aims for the lighter side with ''Maggie's Plan''". The Los Angeles Times.
63. (September 16, 2015). "Director Rebecca Miller: it's never been a more confusing time to be a woman". The Guardian.
64. (May 21, 2016). "''Maggie's Plan'' Director Rebecca Miller on Making a Screwball Rom-Com".
65. (May 18, 2016). "Rebecca Miller Hates the Word "Brunch" but Loves The Hills".
66. (April 29, 2016). "Rebecca Miller Is Brainy, and Very, Very Funny". The New York Times.
67. (September 12, 2015). "Sundance Film Review: ''Maggie's Plan''".
68. (February 7, 2016). "Sundance standouts you'll be hearing more about".
69. (September 13, 2015). "Toronto 2015: Ethan Hawke, Julianne Moore and Greta Gerwig on 'the female gaze' of ''Maggie's Plan''". Los Angeles Times.
70. (September 28, 2015). "Stars Come Out for the New York Film Festival".
71. (April 5, 2016). "The Montclair Film Festival Announces 2016 Festival Program".
72. (February 3, 2015). "Berlin: Ethan Hawke, Bill Hader Join Rebecca Miller's ''Maggie's Plan''". Variety.
73. (February 16, 2016). "''Maggie's Plan'' review: "Excellently crafted and very funny."". Heathside Media.
74. (January 28, 2016). "Much-changed Dublin festival reveals line-up".
75. (April 20, 2016). "10 Picks for the San Francisco International Film Festival, Week One (April 21–27)".
76. (June 8, 2016). "''Maggie's Plan'' – Q & A with Filmmaker Rebecca Miller".
77. (December 11, 2015). "Joshua Marston, Whit Stillman, Taika Waititi Return to Sundance with Protagonist".
78. (September 24, 2015). "Sony Pictures Classics Buys Toronto Comedy ''Maggie's Plan'' (Exclusive)". Variety.
79. (April 27, 2016). "The Cast of Rebecca Miller's ''Maggie's Plan'' on Real-Life and On-Screen Romances".
80. (October 6, 2015). "New York Film Festival: Five Questions for Rebecca Miller". The New York Times.
81. Lawson, Richard. (September 13, 2015). "Julianne Moore Shows Off Her Delightful Comedy Chops in ''Maggie's Plan''".
82. (May 26, 2016). "With ''Maggie's Plan'', Rebecca Miller hits a career peak".
83. Ravindran, Manori. (2023-02-16). "'It's Hard to Get Personal Films Made': Rebecca Miller Makes Her Movie Comeback With 'She Came to Me,' Eight Years After 'Maggie's Plan'".
84. (April 5, 2005). "Rebecca Miller: Intimate relations". The Independent.
85. Dicker, Ron. (January 13, 2008). "A Deliberate Actor Makes Right Calls". Hartford Courant.
86. (November 27, 2009). "Rebecca Miller interview: ''The Private Lives of Pippa Lee'' star tells a universal story". [[NJ.com]].
87. (2001). "Personal Velocity". Grove Press.
88. (2003). "A Women Who". Bloomsbury.
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90. (2008). "The Private Lives of Pippa Lee". Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
91. (2013). "Jacob's Folly : A Novel". Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
92. (July 12, 2022). "Fiction Book Review: Total by Rebecca Miller".
93. (2022-07-12). "In These Stories, Familiar Archetypes Face Unfamiliar Twists (Published 2022)". The New York Times.