“Lee” profiles the legendary war photographer Lee Miller

Before plunging into Lee Miller's formidable WWII photography, director Ellen Kuras begins "Lee" with Miller's Vogue and Vanity Fair modeling career amidst her luxurious love life in Paris and London, lending this film poignant gravity. Based on Miller's actual, bifurcated career, Lee's contrasting worlds before and during WWII heighten the cinematic experience, especially given Lee's conscientious witnessing of atrocities. 

Adapting "The Lives of Lee Miller," a remembrance by Lee's son Antony Penrose, Kuras says, in an October 2024 "American Cinematographer" article, "I wanted us to feel like we were next to Lee . . . feeling her heartbeat and hearing her breathing as she's going through all of this." Cinematographer Pawel Edelman achieved director Kuras' aim, moving eloquently "from the sunny and idyllic palette of peacetime to a darker and desaturated look as Miller's work takes her farther into Europe" (American Cinematographer, October 2024, 24.) Chronologically, scenes in southern France, Paris, London during the Blitz, and Budapest yield to the dark, heartbreaking moments in WWII and Dachau. There cold and rain dominate, dreadful weather reflecting the horrific concentration camp. Miller refused to look away, intent on presenting the full horror of the Holocaust. Notably reenacted as well is David Scherman's iconic photo of Miller in Hitler's bathtub.  

In unexpected ways, events connect individuals over the years. But as the driving force in every scene, Kate Winslet embodies Lee's passion and talent with unparalleled intensity. The emotional continuum she navigates presents a daunting challenge, and Winslet's performance renders every nuance aesthetically powerful. In press notes Winslet, also the film's producer, describes Lee as "a life force to be reckoned with."

Superb supporting actors play important roles as well: notably English Surrealist painter Roland Penrose (Alexander Skarsgård), Life magazine's photojournalist David E. Scherman (Andy Samberg), Paris Vogue fashion editor and close friend Solange D'Ayen (Marion Cotillard), British Vogue editor Audrey Withers who will need to champion Lee's war photography (Andrea Riseborough), and journalist Antony (Josh O'Connor.) The narrative framing device has an elderly Lee answering Antony's questions as flashbacks fill in details of the important individuals in Lee's life.

"Lee" insists we all confront historical and contemporary events with Lee's empathy, a value critical for a better world. "Lee" is streaming now on several platforms.