AD Introduction for Lee

Lee is a 2023 biographical film drama about the American model turned British Vogue photographer Lee Miller, who became an acclaimed war correspondent for the magazine during World War II.

Heading up the star-studded cast Kate Winslet, who also produces, stars in the film as its eponymous subject. She gives a powerful performance bringing to life the headstrong, brave, fiery, tenacious woman who changed the world of photojournalism.

We are first introduced to Lee as a woman in her 30’s. A hard hitting and exhilarating opening scene reveals Lee with her Rolleiflex camera around her neck sprinting through the chaos of a war zone, her heart pounding. Taking cover from gun fire as it ricochets around her, she eyes a lone boot… and readies her camera instinctively knowing it will tell a story. Risking life and limb Lee is a determined artist.

The storytelling is framed through an interview set decades in the future. We next meet Lee in her home in Farley Farm House, Chiddingly, East Sussex in 1977. She’s now in her late 60’s. Her life experiences have hardened her, but the spark of her playfulness remains. She’s being interviewed by a young white man in his 20’s, sat on her stripy sofa with a note pad on his knee. Lee sits before him on a worn armchair in her cottage style lounge with pale pink walls.

She’s continually smoking and drinking throughout their conversation. A glass coffee table with an array of her photographs spread out upon it, divides them. Played by Josh O’Connor the journalist is a tall man with a thoughtful brooding expression. He wears a light brown tweed jacket with a rich chocolate brown turtleneck jumper and washed-out blue jeans. A mop of wavy brown hair frames his oval face, and contrasts with his pale milky skin.

The interview transports the viewer back to 1938, where Lee’s story beings. Carefree, wine swigging, bohemian Miller is on vacation with her famous friends in the south of France, staying with painter Pablo Picasso in his villa. Lee, a tall glamourous white woman with wavy blonde shoulder length hair, is styled in wide legged trousers paired with fashionable blouses. She enjoys the company of her friends and other house guests including…

Solange D’Ayen played by Marion Cotillard is a white woman in her late 30’s who has an effortless beauty with a neat, featured face and a regal dignified air about her. Her shoulder length auburn brown hair is set with a soft wave with a side parting. Solange is married to Jean the Duke of Ayen an aristocratic white man in his late 40’s played by Patrick Mille.

Nusch Eluard played by Noémie Merlant is physically similar to Solange in height, colouring and slender build, both of whom are French. Her heart shaped face is warm and inviting. She has thick dark brown curly hair pinned back from her face. Nusch is married to Paul played by Vincent Colombe a white man in his 40’s, a renowned surrealist poet.

Pablo Picasso throws a picnic in a grassy knoll in the grounds of his villa, this is where we first meet Roland Penrose played by Alexander Skarsgård, a tall dashing, avant- garde English gent and artist. He’s white man in his 40’s with sandy, straight hair brushed over in a side parting and his eyes are a cool cobalt blue. He becomes Lee’s second husband.

When war breaks out Lee meets Vogue Editor Audrey Withers played by Andrea Riseborough when she boldly turns up unannounced at her offices in a formidable stone building requesting a job as a wartime photographer. Audreys’ a prim white woman in her 40’s with a svelte stature. She wears conservative dark coloured neat suits, fashioned with a broach over the top button of her crisp white blouses. Her prematurely greying hairs is pulled tightly back from her pale, angular features. Her cherry- red lips accent her softly lined face. She has a warm personality and becomes a strong supporter of Lee and her work.

David E Scherman is played by Andy Samberg, he’s a fellow photographer who Lee teams up with on war time assignments. He’s a white Jewish man in his mid-thirties with a Brooklyn accent. He wears light brown rimmed glasses. He has a smile that lights up his face and has a dimple in his chin… Secretly, David’s a little bit in love with Lee.

Lee’s story follows her groundbreaking career, struggles, friends and relationships through to the end of World War II. The film is packed full of moving recreations of Lee Miller’s most indelible images of war, which in turn showcase the talents of director Ellen Kuras who is herself an Oscar nominated cinematographer.

Lee airs on Sky Cinema Premiere on 1^st November at 11.50am.

Audio description provided by Penelope Parisi.