A Fire Burning Crown Jewel
By the time Lee Miller lowered herself into the piping hot water of Hitler’s bathtub on the day of the liberation, the freezing ice-cold frost of trauma had spread through her body far beyond repair. Still, she managed to savor the moment by having herself photographed in the tub in his abandoned apartment in Munich, her boots staring out from his white bath mat covered in the layers of dust from the camps at Buchenwald and Dachau as she once described, “great dusty spaces that had been trampled by so many thousands of condemned feet—feet which ached and shuffled and stamped away the cold and shifted to relieve the pain and finally became useless except to walk them to the death chamber.” It was there that she had photographed burned corpses and piles of bodies. Yet, in that moment her freezing body stabilized in the aquatic warmth of temporary satisfactional triumph.
The name Lee Miller has reached many ears over the decades since her contribution to a world that was all too eager to forget the brutality of what she uncovered. Kate Winslet’s 9-year passion project in the making makes way for a new generation of admirers for the late hero. It’s saddening that many people don’t know who Lee Miller was but the film Lee makes it so that those who didn’t grasp the essence of her spirit amongst a society we’ve never really outrun get to know her. I’d like to write about who Lee Miller was but I think I ought to make a point about what people being lost to history means by saying nothing. Let audiences see Lee and have them see for themselves if they knew of her. If they didn’t, it’s not their fault. Generations before us have a way of making us forget what ought never to be forgotten.
Before seeing Lee, audiences need to know that the magic Winslet always brings to her craft comes full circle and that she can be relied on to deliver with the same victorious fire she always brings to the table. Winslet herself is a big enough reason for audiences to flock to the cinemas to see her in anything. Do yourself a favor and watch her most recent Stephen Colbert appearances beforehand, it will only increase your appetite for Lee on the big screen.
Alexandre Desplat’s score haunts the phantom-like backgrounds Lee often finds herself in and Ozark cinematographer Ellen Kuras's direction makes me eager to see where her vision will take her next. Andy Samberg, Alexander Skarsgaard, Andreas Riseborough, and Marion Cotillard excel in crucially significant moments throughout Lee Miller’s odyssey. Cotillard is particularly memorable in a heart-shattering performance smackdown in the middle of Lee’s journey and will never leave your heart. Lee of course is Winslet's crown jewel to behold, to wear, to flaunt, to bathe, to dream. Lee is one of those very rare indies that can only fully be understood after screenings. I’m so proud to have seen Lee at the Cape Cinema, a venue that stood before the war that caused Lee Miller to depart on a journey that would define history as we know it.
There are no happy endings in war. No happily ever after, no kept promises, no reassurances. All that remains is internalized pain amongst the ruins of what was once so pure and unbreakable. Lee is about more than the hero. Lee is about the fire-burning passion she represents that we all must be brave enough to pursue. Only through the flames of what we crave to look away from lies the truth and the truth is always there… Waiting for audiences to validate it. Go chase that fire and see Lee! We’re all in deep sleep and don’t realize it. Lee will awaken all of us sleeping beauties and/or perhaps the vacant zombies. That is the power of cinema at its finest.
Lee. Mymovies.it, Jan. 2024, pad.mymovies.it/filmclub/2024/05/022/locandina.jpg. Accessed 7 Oct. 2024.
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