Maven's Nest
Reel Life: Flick Pix
Audiences can now have an indelible impression of Lee Miller’s forceful personality and her significant photographic work.
By Nora Lee Mandel
LEE
Directed by Ellen Kuras
Written by Liz Hannah, Marion Hume, and John Collee, inspired by Antony Penrose’s biography The Lives of Lee Miller
Produced by Kate Solomon, Kate Winslet, Troy Lum, Andrew Mason, Marie Savare, and Lauren Hantz
117 mins. Rated R.
With: Kate Winslet, Josh O’Connor, Andrea Riseborough, Andy Samberg, Alexander Skarsgård, Marion Cotillard, and Samuel Barnett
Release in U.S. theaters on September 27 by Roadside Attractions and Vertical
The opening scenes of Lee quickly time-travel through the extremes of Lee Miller’s extraordinary life: she’s in uniform amidst a ferocious World War 2 battle; she’s older and haunted by PTSD during an “interrogation” at an English manor; then, she’s getting naked at a hedonistic gathering of intellectual artists in the south of France. As “Lee Miller”, Kate Winslet, in her years-long dream project, intensely embodies all these varied facets, and more, to show Miller’s consistent drive to reveal important stories beyond herself and society’s limits on aging women.
What “Miller” resents as an “interrogation” is an interview by a young man (Josh O’Connor) seeking to understand her photographic archive. In a voice-over narration that continues throughout as responses to his questions, she sets the context from 1938: I’d been a model, a muse, an ingenue. I was good at drinking, sex, and taking pictures. Life was fun. I did all three as much as I could. We see her relaxed, posing her female friends in France, including “Nusch Éluard” (Noémie Merland) and “Solange d’Ayen (Marion Cotillard). Hanging out with artists, talk turns to the rise of Hitler, and she bristles at how patronizing the men are of her concern. But she gets distracted by falling in love with handsome British artist “Roland Penrose” (an uncharacteristically bland Alexander Skarsgård), who claims to be impressed by her “real photographic work”; she teases if he meant her nudes.
“Miller” settles down with “Roland” in London, but is restless even before she worries why her French friends can’t be reached. At British Vogue, photographer “Cecil Beaton” (Samuel Barnett) recognizes her, but is dismissive: We don’t hire older models. Editor “Audrey Withers” (Andrea Riseborough) apologizes for his misogyny: He never could hide his disappointment that women get old. When The Blitz strikes, they realize they can fulfill government priorities to buck up women’s morale with photo shoots “to carry on” amidst the ruins.
American Life Magazine photographer “David E. Sherman” (Andy Samberg, creditable in what may be his first dramatic role) comes by one of “Miller”s shoots and gives encouraging advice. They hit it off as a professional team of equals and they embed together with frontline American troops from France across the European theater. Her consciousness of the impact of Nazi occupation is raised that the liberation of Paris isn’t all joy (let alone the violence of an American soldier and against women accused of collaboration). She finds her distraught friend “Solange”: They are all gone. You weren’t here. You don’t know. Other old friends also warn her: So many people are gone. They don’t come back. They just disappeared. With an American’s limited awareness, “Miller” is confused: To where?
Structured around locations where Miller’s empathetic war photographs (and a famous humorous one) in Vogue were among the first to reveal the “where”, debut feature director Ellen Kuras, working with cinematographer colleague Pawel Edelman (Aftermath), meticulously recreates those scenes, including use of a Rolleiflex camera. “Miller” is able to approach women and children who macho photo-journalists ignore, from nurses to Dachau survivors. We see her guts and grit to get up-close perspectives, shots that the British government would censor as not upbeat for post-war recovery and she in frustration tries to destroy.
The conclusion ties together her personal and professional lives with the archival photographs and background on what happened to her and the other real people portrayed in the film. If viewers hadn’t known of Lee Miller or her work before, audiences can now have an indelible impression of her forceful personality and her significant work.
So, nu: my commentary on any Jewish women.
9/27/2024
Nora Lee Mandel is a member of New York Film Critics Online. Her reviews are counted in the Rotten Tomatoes TomatoMeter:
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My reviews have appeared on: FF2 Media; Film-Forward; Lilith, FilmFestivalTraveler; and, Alliance of Women Film Journalists and for Jewish film festivals. Shorter versions of my older reviews are at IMDb's comments, where non-English-language films are listed by their native titles.
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