Lee Miller – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

MOVIE OF THE WEEK September 27, 2024: LEE

September 22, 2024September 22, 2024 Jennifer Merin Alexander Skarsgård, Andrea Riseborough, betsy bozdech, biopic, Cate Marquis, Ellen Kuras, jennifer merin, josh o'connor, kate winslet, Lee, Lee Miller, leslie combemale, liz whittemore, loren king, Man Ray, nell minow, nikki fowler, Pam Grady, roadside attractions films, Roland Penrose, sandie angulo chen, sherin nicole

From the dark teenage drama of Heavenly Creatures to the gritty urban gloom of Mare of Easttown, Kate Winslet is no stranger to playing strong, complicated women. She continues that streak here, clearly relishing the opportunity to tell the fascinating story of famed model/photographer/war correspondent Lee Miller in Ellen Kuras’ engrossing biopic Lee. As it follows Miller through the battlefields of World War II, the film makes it clear exactly why Miller and Winslet deserve to be known as legends.

Reviews

LEE – Review by Leslie Combemale

September 17, 2024September 22, 2024 Leslie Combemale Alexander Skarsgård, Andrea Riseborough, biopic, Ellen Kuras, josh o'connor, kate winslet, Lee, Lee Miller, Man Ray, Roland Penrose

“There’s so much life in a person’s eyes, right up until the moment that there isn’t”, says Lee Miller in Ellen Kuras’s new bio-pic Lee. A historic war photographer and iconoclastic personality, Miller captured both sides of that truth with her camera, and her work is a lasting testament to her fearlessness and artistry. She captured some of the most indelible images from the decade that spanned before, during, and after World War II, including uniquely expressing the challenges for women in the war, as well as the tragedy and horror of the holocaust. Award-winning cinematographer Kuras makes her narrative directorial debut with Lee, which tells the story of the decade roughly between 1935 and 1945 from Lee Miller’s perspective.

Reviews

LEE – Review by Loren King

September 17, 2024September 21, 2024 Loren King Alexander Skarsgård, Andrea Riseborough, biopic, Ellen Kuras, josh o'connor, kate winslet, Lee, Lee Miller, Man Ray, Roland Penrose

For those who don’t know much about the fascinating life of Lee Miller, Lee will immediately send you in search for books, documentaries and archives. That alone is a strong endorsement for any biopic. Anchored by a gritty performance by Kate Winslet as the model turned photographer whose work as a war correspondent during World War II yielded some of the first and still chilling images from the Nazi death camps, Lee depicts a life too big for a single film. Still, director Ellen Kuras and Winslet capture Miller’s artistic curiosity and core defiance that made her a woman far ahead of her time.

Festivals Reviews

LEE (TIFF 2023) – Review by Rachel West

September 12, 2023September 13, 2023 Rachel West Andy Samberg, biopic, Ellen Kuras, kate winslet, Lee, Lee Miller, TIFF 2023, wartime photography

Once an artist’s muse, Lee Miller revolutionized the way the world looked at wartime photography. Now, first-time director Ellen Kuras is telling her story in the compelling portrait, Lee, featuring another awards-worthy performance by Kate Winslet. Lee sets out to tell a straightforward story of Miller’s life and it does it quite well. Kuras makes sure that Miller’s story is front and centre at all times. It is her journey we are meant to follow as viewers are guided through her photographs, including her infamous portrait in Hitler’s bathtub.

Reviews

TRAINED TO SEE: THREE WOMEN AND THE WAR – Review by Nadine Whitney

June 8, 2023September 4, 2023 Nadine Whitney documentaries, Katarina Cvitic, Lee Miller, Luzia Schmid, Margaret Bourke-White, Martha Gellhorn, swiss films, war photography, WWII

Some of the most poignant images and reporting from the frontlines of war come from women war correspondents. Women created some of iconic photographs from WWII; from the triumphantly patriotic to the weary angst of soldiers dying in leagues on the front lines, to the sorrowful and horrifying pictures of concentration camps and the victims of the Holocaust. Swiss director Luzia Schmid concentrates on three remarkable women — Lee Miller, Martha Gellhorn, and Margaret Bourke-White — who battled not only sexist bureaucracy and the notion that women were too feeble to be allowed access to battles (unless as nurses) to create some of the most important reporting and visual records of the period. Trained to See is a brilliant visual and narrated document that brings the perspective of ground-breaking professional woman to the fore.

Interviews

Luzia Schmid on TRAINED TO SEE, Women Photographers and War – Nadine Whitney interviews

June 8, 2023June 11, 2023 Nadine Whitney documentaries, Katarina Cvitic, Lee Miller, Luzia Schmid, Margaret Bourke-White, Martha Gellhorn, swiss films, war photography, WWII

Luzia Schmid is a seasoned reporter, director, documentarian, and teacher based in Switzerland. Her previous work includes Lost in Libera and Groundspeed. Schmid’s Trained to See: Three Women and the War is a brilliant and timely documentary focusing on Lee Miller, Martha Gellhorn, and Margaret Bourke-White, three trailblazing women photojournalists whose reporting from the front lines of WWII created a new form of war journalism.

Commentaries General Archives News Women on Film

THE WEEK IN WOMEN: Respect for Maureen O’Hara, Sandra Bullock, Sarah Gavron, Daniel Craig and more – Brandy McDonnell reports

October 26, 2015November 9, 2015 Brandy McDonnell 0 Comments charlize theron, Daniel Craig, emily blunt, Empire, geena davis, jennifer lawrence, John Ford, John Wayne, julia roberts, kate winslet, Lee Miller, Maureen O'Hara, monica bellucci, Our Brand Is CrisisX, Sandra Bullock. Sarah Gavron, Sicario, Spectre, Suffragette, Sylvia Robinson, The Quiet Man, the week in women

RIP Maureen O’Hara. Sandra Bullock seconds Hollywood’s spanking for sexism and ageism. Suffragette director Sarah Gavron talks role models. Kate Winslett to star in Lee Miller biopic. Sylvia Robinson, known as the “Mother of Hip-Hop,” will be the subject of a biopic. And Daniel Craig bonds with Monica Bellucci, his equal in age. Read more in THE WEEK IN WOMEN.