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Based on “The Lives of Lee Miller,” the only authorized biography of Lee Miller’s life, written by her son Anthony Penrose and published in 1985
Tale
Based on “The Lives of Lee Miller,” the only authorized biography of Lee Miller’s life, written by her son Anthony Penrose and published in 1985. Miller is refused entry to Hitler’s apartment because it is “officers only.” War correspondents were given the rank of captain, so technically the US Army guard should have allowed her entry.
Lee Miller: [Hands a knife to a girl he has just saved from rape] Next time, cut it
The closing credits contain some explanation of “what happened to”; and some of Lee’s original photos, often alongside ones that were recreated for the film. Kate Winslet gives a rather effective performance here as the eponymous photographer who originally came to London to be with her husband Roland Penrose (Alexander Skarsgård) and to work for the formidable Audrey Withers (Andrea Riseborough) at Vogue magazine as a fashion photographer.
Her story is relayed from the comfort of her British home in the 1960s to a man we assume is just a journalist
With the Nazis’ seemingly unstoppable rise across continental Europe, Penrose spends more time on the war effort, making her increasingly determined to prove herself as capable as her male colleagues. Needless to say, there’s a fair amount of resistance to her being sent into combat zones, but through her perseverance and alliance with David Scherman (Andy Samberg) she soon finds herself actively involved in war photography and eventually visits some of the most gruesome sites ever constructed, seeing first-hand the truly shocking atrocities left behind by a now-defeated war machine that has turned large-scale annihilation into an art form.
Some willingly, some less so, and some, well, didn’t live to tell the tale
Indeed, her obvious nervousness and antipathetic attitude towards him and his assignment seem to suggest that she sees no value in her memories, but as we unravel the threads of her life, we begin to sense that there is something more between her and this young man (Josh O’Connor), which puts quite neatly into perspective the choices made by a woman who arguably put her career first. Through the characters of Solange (Marion Cotillard) and Nusch (Noémie Merlant), the film also attempts to give some substance to the story of those who had to “cooperate” with their new masters.
Images that still send shivers down your spine today
The production and battle scenes aren’t all that effective, perhaps a little too polished, the script is a little dry and perhaps there’s a little too much of it, but Winslet shows here that she has the ability to play a role that would have been easy to fill with swagger, but instead brings a more considered charisma to her performance as a woman whose bloodthirsty courage provided some of the most significant images of the Second World War.
