Laura Blum

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“Our children are our biographers,” goes the saying, and in Rebecca Miller’s (Personal Velocity, Maggie’s Plan) documentary about her playwright father Arthur, she takes it to heart. The result, Arthur Miller: Writer, leaves just-the-facts inventorying to a more impartial observer and gets up-close and personal with dad.

Thanks to Rebecca’s filmed interviews, we gain a seat at the family table with this icon of the American stage. Early on she lets us know why the role of chronicler fell to her: She was the only filmmaker he’d allow within hailing distance of his soul. That realization launched an on-again, off-again shoot that spanned a quarter of a century until his death in 2005.

The historic home videos show Arthur the carpenter, Arthur the doting relative, Arthur the Connecticut rustic. Seen from Rebecca’s POV, he’s lightyears from the galactic entity who exerted such cultural gravity in post-war America. Yet this is no “Daddy Dearest.” Rather it’s a wise and warm enticement to go off-wing and see for ourselves who the man was, what helped shape him and how his calling evolved. Read on at:

http://www.thalo.com/articles/view/1335/spotlight_on_the_55th_new_york_film_festival