Michael Bergmann is an American writer, director, and producer. Biography Michael Bergmann graduated with a B.A. in Latin from Columbia University in 1975 and studied film concurrently at N.Y.U. Undergraduate Film School. He went on to study at the N.Y.U. Graduate School of Film and Television. He is married to the sculptor Meredith Bergmann. Works In 1995, he made his first commercially released feature, Milk & Money, on 35 mm film produced by RKO Pictures, but as early as 1976 he began making narrative films on video from his own scripts. Bergmann's films are "sexy, surreal and entirely original," (Sam Maser, Program director of the Hamptons International Film festival, 1995) and "unafraid to be both smart and silly," (Lisa Nesselson, writing in Variety, 2002). Milk & Money features performances by Calista Flockhart, Margaret Colin, Marin Hinkle, Olympia Dukakis and Dina Merrill in varied and engaging roles for women. Such roles characterize Bergmann's writing and directing. His prize-winning short in Bed with My Books, which explores the interior lives of older women, was an audience favorite at the Montréal festival. The cast of Milk and Money also includes Robert Vaughn and Peter Boyle. Tied to a Chair features performances by Bonnie Loren and Mario Van Peebles. Best Feature Film, Feature Audience Award, Best Actress for Bonnie Loren – The New York International Independent Film and Video Festival. Bergmann wrote the libretto for Stefania de Kenessey’s opera based on Tom Wolfe’s novel The Bonfire of the Vanities and directed the premiere in New York on October 9, 2015. Style Bergmann has been inspired by the innovative dialogue of Harold Pinter and David Mamet, but says he does not share their concerns. "To be as angry as Pinter you have to be able to see something from a single point of view. The minute you are interested in seeing things from different points of view you lose a lot of forward motion." Bergmann prefers to explore themes and variations which he skillfully interweaves into coherent, emotionally satisfying narratives. He says he loves the Arabian Nights for the ways in which "the emotions are so real they anchor the flying carpets." His films offer preposterous connections, fictional institutions and unresearched statistics that are completely convincing. His flair for the absurd does not, however, carry him into Surrealism. He finds that "the irrational is only interesting if you can understand it." Bergmann directs the transitions