Lee: The Fascinating Life Story of War Photographer Lee Miller

A One Mann’s Movies review of “Lee” (2024).

A passion project for Kate Winslet, “Lee” lays out the fascinating life story of war photographer Lee Miller. It’s a majestic film and one for which Kate Winslet might well be in with a shout for an Oscar Nomination.

Bob the Movie Man Rating:

Plot Summary:

Lee Miller (Kate Winslet) is an aging Vogue model. She’s looking for “what’s next” (as “The Substance” was not available in the 1930’s… LOL!). With a talent for photography, she adopts the role of a war photographer. However, it’s a patriarchal environment in which ‘only men can go into combat zones’. But Lee is not a lady to take no for an answer!

Certification:

UK: 15; US: R. (From the BBFC web site: “Holocaust images, strong language, sexual violence, brief injury detail”.)

Talent:

Starring: Kate Winslet, Alexander Skarsgård, Andy Samberg, Andrea Riseborough, Josh O’Connor, Marion Cotillard.

Directed by: Ellen Kuras.

Written by: Liz Hannah, Marion Hume & John Collee. (Based on a story by Lem Dobbs, Marion Hume & John Collee and based on the biography by Antony Penrose).

Running Time: 1h 56m.

The Miller’s tale. Winslet, able to act both young and old. (Source: Sky Originals).

“Lee” Summary:

Positives:

A fantastic performance by Kate Winslet.
Some genuinely moving war-time scenes.
Another film highlighting the life of a largely unknown but iconic female role-model.

Negatives:

The modern day interviewing has a payoff…. but frustrates while getting there.

Review of “Lee”:

An incredible story of a women against odds.

World War 2 really was a boost to female empowerment. The women had to pick up many of the reins left dangling as the men went off to fight. In this film, a woman pilot, Ann Douglas (Harriet Leitch) and photographed by Miller, reminds us that the flyers in the war were not just men. But against this background of women stepping forward comes the pushback from the patriarchy. Men set the rules as to what women could and couldn’t do. Lee Miller was having none of that. “Why should the men get to decide?” she rages to her Vogue editor Audrey Withers (the brilliant Andrea Riseborough). Much of the film sees the defiant and passionate Miller pushing against those closed doors and it makes for a great story.

Some great wartime scenes.

The wartime footage is realised splendidly. For example, Winslet’s Miller deep in the action of the battle for St. Malo. Bullets whistle around her ears and she is blown off her feet by a shell. The production design here is top-notch and you really feel you are in the scene. It leads into a scene showing the persecution of alleged Nazi sympathizers. You feel the stress between Miller wanting to intrude on the women’s behalf versus being the impassionate recorder of the events via her lens.

The most disturbing part of the film for many viewers will be the scenes within the Dachau concentration camp. Miller was one of the first to arrive there with the American troops in 1945. One of her most famous shots is of American medics looking into a train carriage full of dead Jewish bodies. As the illustrious Mrs Movie Man pointed out, when you see that you forget that someone had to first climb into there to take the picture. That was Miller! All of these scenes are well done and they are very moving.

Hilter’s bath.

One of the more bizarre photos taken by Miller, reenacted in the film, was herself taking a bath in Hitler’s personal bathtub. It seems bonkers that this actually happened, but the photographic proof is there to see. Miller strips (Winslet has never been shy about getting her body out) and leaving her Dachau-dust-covered boots on a white towel she climbs into the bath. She arranges a picture of Hitler on the bath behind her. Then she then tells fellow journalist Davy (Andy Samberg) to “make sure my tits are covered or they’ll never publish it”!

Winslet: a Best Actress Oscar Nomination?

The window is open. The heavy-hitter Award candidates will start to appear. And “Lee” feels like the sort of film that will get some Oscar attention. And never is this more deserving than the central performance by Winslet. We keep cutting back to the “present day” (which here is the mid-70’s. A young journalist (Josh O’Connor, not being given much to do) is interviewing the aging Miller. In many films like this, the old lady would be played by another actress. (For example, Glenda Jackson playing the old Odessa Young in “Mothering Sunday“.) But here Winslet, with suitable make-up, plays the elderly Lee and manages to do it believably and brilliantly.

This was a passion project for Winslet and it shows. Winslet had a fierce determination to succeed in completing the film and that reflects in the portrayal of Lee Miller. Miller had an even fiercer need to protect women: in rescuing a French girl from GI-rape she gives her her pen-knife: “If it happens again… cut it off” she hisses. Brilliant acting.

The whole never feels like the sum of the parts.

The problem with a biopic like this is that you get such fleeting snapshots of the person’s life. The film shows vignettes of her life: the bohemian and carefree 30’s life on the Cote D’Azur; the home life with her husband Roland (Alexander Skarsgård); the St Malo adventure; the concentration camp; Hitler’s apartment. They are all individually brilliant. But for me, I was itching to get to the next layer down. I wanted to find out the back-story behind all of her friends in wartime Paris for example. What I’m about to say goes against the grain as a “movie man”. But I felt that Lee’s story could perhaps have been better told as a longer-form piece…. a 6 part Netflix mini-series for example.

Does the flashback approach work?

As mentioned above, the film is framed around a 1970’s interview of Lee by a young journalist. This feels rather forced. It’s not helped by the normally reliable Josh O’Connor being a bit too “Prince Charles” in the role. The focus on Lee dives off at one point with Miller questioning him about his backstory. I thought “no, no…. I want to get back to Lee’s story….stop being distracting!” The device does have a payoff, which I didn’t see coming. But I’m not sure the distraction merited the time taken away from Miller’s life story.

*Lee (Kate Winslet) meets future husband Roland Penrose (Alexander Skarsgård). The role was originally intended for Jude Law, but he had to withdraw due to scheduling conflicts.* *(Source: Sky Originals)*

Summary Thoughts on “Lee”

An engaging biopic turning the lens on an extraordinary woman. Without her, we might not today have the Kate Adie’s and the Lyse Doucet’s giving us the female perspectives from recent wars around the world. Curiously, Lee Miller has already had a call-out this year. She was the icon of young photographer Jessie (Cailee Spaeny) in “Civil War“.

This was the directorial debut of cinematographer Ellen Kuras and she does a great job. She has an eye for a shot as smart as Miller herself. But the movie is anchored by a tremendous performance by Kate Winslet who was so passionate about the film that she helped to personally fund it after the money ran dry. So, for that reason alone, it deserves success. Recommended.

It is a “Sky Original” production, so this should be available on Sky Movies before too long. But this is really a film that is worth seeing on the big screen if you are able to.