Adapted from the biography The Lives of Lee Miller by Antony Penrose, Lee is the 8-year passion project of star and producer Kate Winslet. Also starring Andy Samberg, Marion Cotillard, Josh O’Conner, and Alexander Skarsgard, Lee follows the exploits of Lee Miller’s time as a photographer and correspondent on the front lines of World War II.
Born in Poughkeepsie, New York 1907, Lee Miller lived a life driven by art and desire. As a model and muse of surrealist photographer and artist Man Ray, Miller made a name for herself as one of the industry’s most sought-after talents, befriending the likes of French Vogue fashion editor Solange d’Ayen (brought to life in the film by the magnetic Cotillard), Pablo Picasso, and Jean Cocteau.
By the time the Nazis began invading Europe and planting roots of genocidal mania, Miller had become bored and directionless. At the height of the war, married to surrealist painter Roland Penrose (Skarsgård) and struggling to find meaningful work, Miller enlisted in the war effort as a front-line correspondent for British Vogue. This is where Lee kicks into gear.
Told as a split narrative, Lee intercuts footage of Miller on the warfront with an elderly Miller sitting in her England farmhouse recounting her time in the war. Starting out on the fringes, overlooked and unappreciated as a woman, Miller spent her early days on military bases documenting the efforts of the doctors and nurses caring for those injured in conflict. Eventually, pairing up with fellow photojournalist David Sherman (Samberg) from Life Magazine, Miller made her way into the depths of the war, documenting the horrors of the Holocaust.
Travelling across France, Hungary, and Germany, Miller and Sherman’s photographs of the war included images of destroyed towns, corpses of Nazi generals and their families, the so-called “cattle trains” that transported Jews to Nazi death camps, and the piles of bodies in the bowels of the Buchenwald and Dachau camps. One of the most famous photos of Miller, taken by Sherman, showed her naked and posed in Adolf Hitler’s bathtub, with mud from the Dachau camp smeared on the tiled floor and his portrait staged in the corner. It was a graphic and unapologetic visual of one of humanity’s lowest points in modern history.
Now, it goes without saying that Winslet is incredible. Knowing an embarrassingly little amount about Lee Miller and her contribution to art, culture and history, I still felt as though what was being portrayed on screen by Winslet was accurate and authentic. Winslet is gritty, opinionated, bold and unforgiving, yet she is simultaneously soft and compassionate, showing the multitudes that women have inside them.
I also wish this didn’t have to be said, but the fact that Winslet is being allowed to be sex positive on screen as a nearly 50-year old woman is so refreshing. While her age in the film is only ever alluded to, it’s clear that Miller was past what society would have considered her prime and it feels liberating to see that her spirit remains unblemished and undeterred by this misguided and sexist concept. Winslet is an absolute force on screen, bringing the fearless and driven Miller off the pages of her son’s biography with care and precision.
Backed by a sublime supporting cast, the key standout among them is unquestionably Andy Samberg. As the only person we see as much as Winslet, Samberg carries a heavy load as her friend and working companion, David Scherman. Known primarily for his writing and acting work on long-running sketch series Saturday Night Live, as well as poorly received comedy films like Hot Rod and That’s My Boy, Samberg eventually found a foothold with audiences as the goofy yet capable Detective Jake Peralta on beloved comedy series Brooklyn Nine-Nine.
In Lee, Samberg finally gets the space to prove he’s more than his CV might have you believe. Long-time Samberg fans like myself have known this for a while; despite being a well-established funny-man, Samberg’s acting has always carried some level of nuance and it’s so satisfying to see him explore that side of himself as David Sherman.
In a sea of recent wartime dramas that explore the lives of soldiers, generals, and dictators, a film like Lee carves a necessary space for women, reminding viewers that they were more than just housewives, munitions makers, or bystanders. That some, like Miller, saw that this was a moment in time that needed to be documented and that by doing so, we may prevent those atrocities from recurring (spoiler alert: we didn’t).
A film like Lee might be a little slow moving and unsatisfactory for viewers wanting a biographical drama with big highs and lows that culminate in some feel-good ending; ultimately, Lee is not here to scratch that itch. Lee is merely a representation of how Lee Miller lived her life – present and unflinching.
Lee is in cinemas from October 24.