Dir: Ellen Kuras | US Biopic 117′
Best known for her staggering images of the Second World War Elizabeth ‘Lee’ Miller (1907-77), aka Lady Penrose, was an American photographer and photojournalist who started life as a fashion model in the New York of the 1920s before becoming a war correspondent for Vogue magazine.
One of the most memorable images, taken by her wartime collaborator David E Sherman, a Jewish-American photojournalist, pictures the nude Miller in Hitler’s empty flat in Munich, nonchalantly lounging in the bath, her boots, caked in mud from a visit to Dachau, resting symbolically on the edge. Winslet, who plays Lee with her signature conviction and gusto, is the best thing about a rather underwhelming affair that skips between episodes of this enterprising woman’s life as a creative force who transformed her talents from modelling to photography and art finishing up as a celebrity chef.
The focus for debut feature director Ellen Kuras is Miller’s time as war correspondent for British Vogue during the 1940s’. The film sets the scene in 1930s Paris where the young Miller is fancy free before meeting her husband Anthony Penrose (Alexander Skarsgard) and moving to London where the dark clouds of war are looming. Desperate for a role, she gets one from Vogue editor Audrey Withers. (another nuanced turn from Andrea Riseborough) and we experience the full clout of her talent from then onwards.
Enriched by some of Miller’s iconic photos with witty titles: ‘You Will Not Lunch in Charlotte Street Today’ depicting a smoke-filled street where a sign pinned to a tree reads simply: ‘Unexploded bomb’ the film showcases Miller’s talent and unique female gaze that produced images that captured ‘a thousand words’ at a time where female combat photographers were banned. The director, an Oscar-nominated cinematographer, here acknowledges not only the power of the image but also Lee’s undeniable contribution as a woman.
The film touches on key protagonists such as David E Sherman (Andy Samberg), and the tragic Solange d’Ayen (Marion Cotillard), Miller’s girlfriend in Paris, without really fleshing them out in the context of her life. Her husband Anthony Penrose barely gets a look-in. And why not cast an English actor to portray an edgy English lord when there are hundreds of them who would have been more convincing in the role? While not perhaps the definitive biopic on Miler, Ellen Kuras, an Oscar nominated cinematographer in her own right, certainly recognises her valuable contribution. @MeredithTaylor
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