22/20
The production had full access to the Lee Miller Archives, with the full cooperation and trust of Miller’s family
Tale
The story of American photographer Lee Miller, a model who became an acclaimed war correspondent for Vogue magazine during World War II. .. Miller is denied entry to Hitler’s apartment because they are “Officers Only.” War correspondents were given the rank of captain, so technically the U.S.
Army guard should have granted him admission
Lee Miller: [Handing a knife to a girl she had just saved from rape] Next time, cut her.. The closing credits have some “what happened to” explanations; and some of Lee’s original photographs, often along with those that were recreated for the film. Featured in The 7PM Project: Episode aired October 21, 2024 (2024).
Her story is being relayed from the comfort of her British home in the 1960s to a man we assume is just a journalist
Kate Winslet gives a very 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. With the seemingly unstoppable rise of the Nazis across continental Europe, Penrose spends more time on the war effort, leaving her increasingly determined to prove that she is just as capable as her male counterparts. Needless to say, there is plenty of resistance to her participation in combat zones, but thanks to her own perseverance and an alliance with David Scherman (Andy Samberg), she soon becomes actively involved in war photography and by the end is visiting some of the most horrific sites ever constructed, seeing first-hand the truly stomach-churning atrocities left behind by a now-defeated war machine that turned mass annihilation into an art form.
Some willingly, some not so much and some, well, they didn’t live to tell the tale
Indeed, her obvious nervousness and unsympathetic attitude towards him and his task seems to suggest that she sees no value in her memoirs, but as we develop the threads of her life, we begin to sense that there is something more between her and this young man (Josh O’Connor), which sheds a lot of light on the choices made by a woman who probably put her career first. Through the characters Solange (Marion Cotillard) and Nusch (Noémie Merlant), the film also tries to flesh out the stories of those who had to “cooperate” with their new masters. The production and battle settings aren’t quite as effective – perhaps just a little too manicured, the script is a little dry and there’s perhaps a little too much going on, but Winslet shows here that she has plenty of ability to take on a role that would have been easy to cover with bravado, but instead she brings a more considered charisma to her portrayal of a woman whose bloody courage provided some of the most significant imagery of the Second World War.