Kate Winslet Looks for Humanity in World War II in ‘Lee’ Trailer
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The trailer for Kate Winslet’s biopic about World War II correspondent photographer Lee Miller, Lee, shows Winslet struggling to hold a camera as bombs explode around her. Wearing a soldier’s helmet, she looks shaken and scared as she questions her life choices in voiceover: “Why does it matter? They’re just pictures.” But the emotion on her face and the trauma she subjects herself to for the pictures suggests the film, which opens in theaters on Sept. 27, will present a nuanced portrait of the photographer.
“You think I went to war so people would know my name?” she pointedly asks a reporter. Then the clip shows a montage of the ups and downs of Miller’s life up until the war, including news footage that makes her decide to go to the frontlines to document what’s happening. “Even when I wanted to look away,” she says, as footage of sad and scared people flicker across the screen, “I knew I couldn’t.” Miller took some of World War II’s most memorable photos including a selfie of her sitting in Hitler’s bathtub.
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In addition to Winslet, the film features Josh O’Connor, Andrea Riseborough, Andy Samberg, Alexander Skarsgård, and Marion Cotillard. Cinematographer Ellen Kuras makes her feature directorial debut with the film, which is based on Antony Penrose’s 1988 book The Lives of Lee Miller. The filmmaker was previously nominated for an Oscar for her documentary The Betrayal in 2009 and is better known for her cinematography on Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Summer of Sam, and other films.
When the film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, Winslet told Vogue that getting it made was difficult since she encountered many men who seemed apathetic and even hostile toward the production. “The men who think you want and need their help are unbelievably outraging,” she told the publication. “I’ve even had a director say to me: ‘Listen, you do my film and I’ll get your little Lee funded…’ Little! Or we’d have potential male investors saying things like: Tell me, why am I supposed to like this woman?”
She also praised young actresses who have been standing up to bad actors in Hollywood after the advent of #MeToo.
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