Lee: The WWII Photojournalist History Forgot

Lee Miller practiced journalism at a time when reporters drank like fish, told the truth, and didn’t care about anyone’s feelings, especially their own. Frankly, for Miller, those things were all basically intertwined. She lived hard, but documented even harder truths, most notably the crimes against humanity committed during the Holocaust. Yet, she died in relative obscurity. Fittingly, Miller’s career is chronicled, warts and all, in Ellen Kuras’s Lee, which opens tomorrow in theaters.

In the early thirties, Miller was a former model-turned fashion photographer, greatly enjoying the Bohemian lifestyle Europe offered. However, most of her smart-set friends were still deeply concerned regarding the rise of Hitler. That was especially true of Roland Penrose, a gallerist and poet, who much more serious about life than her other friends, especially when it came to her.

Settling down in London with Penrose, Miller pitched her current events and slice-of-life photojournalism to British Vogue, where she was championed by Audrey Withers, partly because she recognized Miller’s talent and partly because she annoyed the insufferable Cecil Beaton.

Soon, Miller publishes legit coverage of the war’s homefront impact to high acclaim. Yet, getting to the war itself proves tricky, because of 1940s attitudes. Nevertheless, when she finally reaches France she finds her greatest ally in a male rival, David Scherman of Life magazine, with whom she developed a healthy collaborative relationship and a somewhat odd but scrupulously platonic friendship.

Together they covered the liberation of Paris and documented evidence of the mass murders committed at Buchenwald and Dachau. Obviously, these scenes are horrific, but Miller had other reasons for her depression and emotional detachment, as will be revealed in the wrap-around interview segments (which are conspicuously stilted).

Regardless, reviewing Miller’s career should be a “teachable moment” for contemporary “journalists.” One can only wonder how the acerbic Miller would react to American Vogue’s infamous puff-piece profile of Syrian First Lady Asma al-Assad, which described the First couple as “wildly democratic.”  Miller was a thorny figure, but her WWII journalism is impeccable.

Clearly, Lee also serves as a showcase for Kate Winslet, who plays the cynical photojournalist like a cross between Katharine Hepburn and Elaine Stritch, which works rather more often than not. She definitely makes the most of Miller’s humor and attitude when telling the less intelligent around her what-is-what. Her chemistry with Alexander Skarsgard’s Penrose is a bit flat, but she develops an understated but compelling rapport with Andy Samberg, playing Scherman. Andrea Riseborough has some nice moments as Moneypenny-ish Withers.

The concentration camp scenes are handled with all due sensitivity, but perhaps they might even be too delicate and restrained. However, the battle scenes vividly convey the confusion and chaotic peril of war, especially for those who are in harm’s way, but not carrying weapons. Recommended for its treatment of Miller’s vital work and her prickly persona, Lee opens tomorrow (9/27) in theaters, including the LOOK Dine-In W57th.