41/20
The production was granted full access to The Lee Miller Archives, with full cooperation and trust from Miller’s family
Line of Events
The story of American photographer Lee Miller, a fashion model who became an acclaimed war correspondent for Vogue magazine during World War II.. Miller is refused entry to Hitler’s apartment because it’s "Officers Only." War correspondents were accorded the Captain rank, so, technically, the US Army guard should have granted her admission.. Lee Miller: [Handing a knife to a girl she has just saved from rape] Next time, cut it off.. The closing credits have some "what happened to" explanations; and some of Lee’s original photos, often alongside the ones which were recreated for the film..
Blimey, that was DARK
Featured in The 7PM Project: Episode dated 21 October 2024 (2024). Have just got home from watching "LEE" at my local Picture House. Well, it isn’t all dark, but by the time you get to the last half hour… oooft.
don’t say you Haven’t been warned
Let’s just say that "feelgood" isn’t a term anyone’s ever going to apply to this one. It’s not like I went in unprepared: I’d seen Kate Winslet doing the promotional chat show appearances, and as I am already a great admirer of Lee Miller’s photojournalism, I knew the kind of subject matter we’d inevitably be exploring, but still… This film presents you with you the hideous fact of Nazi genocide, very convincingly as the revelation it must have been in the moment, without (thankfully) a scrap of sentimentality. Winslet is magnificent in the title role – as is everyone else, to be honest: there are no shoddy performances to be found – and, speaking as a Rolleiflex TLR user myself, it was clear that she had done her homework viz how to wield that lovely machine convincingly.
My only really negative criticism has to do with one, frankly bizarre, piece of casting
There were moments when the nit-picky photography pedant in me did query whether some of the interior photos were being taken in such low light that it was unlikely to have left any usable impression on the relatively slow film stock available in the 1940s, but let& #39;s not quibble! It’s quite a long movie and events are presented in a simple, linear fashion (via a series of chronological flashbacks) with rather uniform pacing throughout – personally, I would have preferred a bit more variation in pace; your taste may differ. The role of Englishman Roland Penrose is given to Swedish star Alexander Skarsgård – whose plucky attempt at an English accent is …I think "variable" is the kindest word for it. It was hard to tell what part of England he was supposed to be from, or indeed what social class, and there were several moments when he didn’t sound any kind of English at all.
I had to suspend my disbelief on some pretty strong elastic whenever he opened his mouth
Ah well… go figure!
