Carrying the Can

From childhood, Christopher Miles was fascinated by celluloid. This love of the moving image announced itself early: he was just 17 when the BBC screened his first film in 1957. To be a filmmaker, Miles had to sidestep parental plans to enrol him in the family steelworks. He had already been filming in communist China and Argentina when he escaped to Paris where he made his first professional film. Later, working mostly in Europe and America, Miles made a string of intriguing and unusual films, two exploring his obsession with D.H. Lawrence, others bringing works by Jean Anouilh and Jean Genet to the big screen. He writes revealingly of his relationship with his father, of whether he is related to the royal family, and of the host of key figures in the film industry he worked with. Among the stars of his films are Ian McKellen, Ava Gardner, John Gielgud, Susannah York, Franco Nero and Charlotte Rampling. This compelling account goes behind the scenes, setting the films in context and giving the reader a very personal view of contemporary film-making.

Christopher Miles was born in London in 1939, studied filmmaking in Paris, directing his first professional film in 1962. He went on to make some 20 films, working in both cinema and TV. His best-known work is Priest of Love (1981), a feature filmon the life of DH Lawrence, starring Ian McKellen as Lawrence. A later project, Love in the Ancient World (1997) was both a TV series and a book. Miles died in 2023.