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Lee Miller: [Handing a knife to the girl she just saved from rape] Cut it next time
Line of Events
The story of American photographer Lee Miller, a fashion model who became a renowned war correspondent for Vogue magazine during World War II. The production was given full access to Lee Miller’s archive, with the full cooperation and trust of Miller’s family. Miller has refused to enter Hitler’s apartment because it is “for officers only.” War correspondents were given the rank of captain, so technically the US Army guard should have let him in.
Featured on The 7PM Project: Episode 21 October 2024 (2024)
The closing credits feature some “what happened to” explanations; and some of Lee’s original photos, often along with those that were recreated for the film. It is a partial biography of photojournalist Lee Miller (Kate Winslet), set in 1977 and 1938–1945. The film’s story is structured as an interview with Miller by a young man (Josh O’Connor) in 1977.
Her friends include Jean (Patrick Mille) and Solange d’Ayen
Successive flashbacks to Miller’s life begin in 1938 and then follow her, a former American model who has turned to photography as an art form and spends time with an artistic crowd in France, where she has lived for a time. She meets Roland Penrose (Alexander Skarsgård), a Quaker artist and poet in Britain. He is also part of her artistic community, and they begin a relationship.
We learn more about her motivations towards the end of the film
Miller moves to London, where she gets a job at British Vogue, edited by Audrey Withers (Andrea Riseborough). "Lee" depicts some of her dramatic experiences, resulting in unforgettable photographs of battles, the capture of Berlin, and the death camps, often alongside Life magazine photographer David Sherman (Andy Samberg). Miller’s personality is complex and sometimes impulsive, as she copes with chain smoking and drinking.
There are too many characters with shallow development, leaving Winslet alone
is too one-dimensional, although Kate Winslet’s strong performance portrays a complex and troubled personality. The lack of context also detracts, as her past is unclear (she was married to an unnamed man throughout the war), and we learn nothing about her life after the war (she married Roland). Thus, "Lee's" the limitations stem from how several screenwriters made adaptations from the 1985 biopic.