Lee Miller (April 23, 1907 - July 21, 1977) was an American photographer and photojournalist. Miller was a fashion model in NYC in the 1920s before going to Paris, becoming a fashion and fine-art photographer there.
During WWII, she was a war correspondent for “Vogue,” covering events such as the London Blitz, the liberation of Paris and the concentration camps at Buchenwald and Dachov. Her reputation as an artist in her own right is due mostly to her son’s discovery and promotion of her work.
Now, a film based on her 1985 autobiography “The Lives of Lee Miller” is showing during the Dietrich Theater’s Winter Film Festival.
The film portrays a pivotal decade in the life of Lee Miller. Miller’s singular talent and unbridled tenacity resulted in some of the 20th century’s most indelible images of war, including an iconic photo of Miller herself, posing in Hitler’s private bathtub.
Miller had a profound understanding and empathy for women and the voiceless victims of war. Her images display both the fragility and ferocity of the human experience.
Above all, the film shows how Miller lived her life at full-throttle in pursuit of truth, for which she paid a huge personal price, forcing her to confront a traumatic buried secret from her childhood.
“Lee” is an impactful and compelling film about the renowned photographer. This film also gives us what could possibly be one of Kate Winslet’s best performances in her career.
This thought-provoking film sheds light on the life of the brave and talented
photographer. Throughout the film, you can recognize some of her iconic images and some reveals about her life that a lot of people may or may not know about her.
“Lee” also delivers some truly harrowing war moments that were also captured through Miller’s lens. Quite a few of those moments can also be quite empowering and we see how Lee Miller has been able to make a name for herself during the horrors of the Second World War.
As stated before, Winslet gives a tremendously incredible performance in this film. Her portrayal of Lee Miller is emotional, raw and intense when it needs to be. There’s a scene towards the end where we see that her photographs of the war weren’t published and her performance in that moment is simply emotional. The entire sequence where we see Miller and Davy Scherman (Andy Samberg) realizing they were actually at Hitler’s residence (and where the infamous photo was taken) also has an empowering feel to it.
Winslet was also nominated for a Best Actress Golden Globe and surprisingly didn’t receive an Oscar nomination for her performance, which she should’ve gotten.
So, during the Winter Film Festival, do make sure to add “Lee” to your list of films to check out!
Cast: Kate Winslet (Lee Miller); Alexander Skarsgard (Roland Penrose); Marion Cotillard (Solange D’Ayen); Andrea Riseborough (Audrey Withers); Noemie Merlant (Nusch Eluard); Josh O’Connor (Anthony Penrose); James Murray (Colonel Spencer); Andy Samberg (Davy Scherman)
Writer/director: Liz Hannah (writer) (Hulu’s The Girl from Plainville; The Post); John Collee (writer) (The Return; Hotel Mumbai); Marion Hume (writer); Ellen Kuras (director)
Trivia: The film is based on “The Lives of Lee Miller,” the only authorized biography of Lee Miller’s life, written by her own son, Antony Penrose, and published in 1985. The production was granted full access to The Lee Miller Archives, with full cooperation and trust from Miller’s family.
“Lee” had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 9, 2023. The film has also earned some accolades, such as the Women in Film Honors (for Winslet and Kuras), the British Independent Film Awards and the British Academy Film Awards, along with Winslet’s Golden Globe nomination.
MPAA: Rated R for disturbing images, language and nudity (running time 117 minutes)
Film Festival: Feb, 28 at 5 pm; March 3 at noon; March 7 at 2:30 pm; March 13 at 4:30
Based on "The Lives of Lee Miller," the only authorized biography of Lee Miller's life, written by her own son, Anthony Penrose, and published in 1985.
During pre-production, Kate Winslet personally paid two weeks of the crew's salaries with her own money due to the film's small budget.
The production was granted full access to The Lee Miller Archives, with full cooperation and trust from Miller's family.
Lee Miller was one of just four female photographers accredited as official war correspondents with the US armed forces.
Kate Winslet was a hands-on producer on the film, responsible for everything from finances to script, casting, camera angles and finding new locations. Winslet also worked closely on casting, personally calling many of her co-stars asking them to star in the film.
Several of the stills that appear in the film are, in fact, photographs that Kate Winslet took on set.
On the first day of filming, Kate Winslet was rehearsing a sequence where Lee Miller was running down the street in Saint-Malo under bombardment in 1944, when she suffered an accident and slipped and injured her back. Winslet decided to keep filming and returned to the set that same week despite her injury, having three huge hematomas on her spine and barely being able to stand up due to the pain.
Kate Winslet previously worked with Ellen Kuras on Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) and A Little Chaos (2014), on which Kuras served as the cinematographer. Winslet and Kuras had talked about collaborating further, and the opportunity finally came about with this film. Kuras was at a bookstore in New York when she spotted a book about Lee Miller and noticed an uncanny resemblance between Miller and Winslet, she then sent Winslet a copy of the book and kept another copy for herself. Years later, Winslet bought an antique table that was owned by Miller; she then rediscovered the book on her shelf and talked with Kuras about it again. Winslet then started developing a movie project about Miller and asked Kuras whether she would like to direct it and Kuras accepted it.
Some of Lee Miller's iconic photographs were recreated in the film, such as the famous photo taken of her in Hitler's bathtub in 1945.
Solange d'Ayen (portrayed by Marion Cotillard) is the only main character whose fate after the war wasn't mentioned at the end of the film. Little was known of her life before this film was released. After working as the fashion editor for French Vogue magazine for nearly 20 years until the 1940s, she stopped working for Vogue after she was released from a Nazi prison and struggled with grief following the deaths of her son and husband during the war. In 1949, she managed the fashion house of Robert Piguet. In 1954, she formally accused SS officer Helmut Knochen of having kidnapped her husband. Knochen was sentenced to death by a Parisian military tribunal in 1954, but was later pardoned by French President Charles de Gaulle and released in 1962. Solange died in Paris on 3 November 1976 of unspecified causes at the age of 78.
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