The full trailer for Lee — a biopic of photojournalist Lee Miller starring Kate Winslet — has been released giving fans a proper look at the movie for the first time.
The film will be in theaters on September 27 and has been some 10 years in the making. It is the directorial debut of cinematographer Ellen Kuras and tells the story of Miller’s remarkable life.
The trailer shows the heroic photographer surviving shell explosions as she battles to get great pictures on her Rolleiflex camera and battles patriarchal attitudes toward her.
The film, set during World War II, also stars Alexander Skarsgård as Miller’s second husband, Roland Penrose, and Josh O’Connor as their son, Antony, who is himself a photographer and the director of the Lee Miller Archive and Penrose Collection.
A serious Andy Samberg plays David E. Scherman while Andrea Riseborough as Audrey Withers, and Marion Cotillard as Solange D’Ayen.
The movie is based on Antony Penrose’s book, The Lives of Lee Miller, which is part photo essay and part biography of his mother.
American-born Miller became a model in New York City in the 1920s after a chance encounter with Conde Nast. Miller later trained in photography in Paris and was in London when the Second World War began.
Miller documented the Blitz bombing of the U.K. capital and covered the war for Vogue magazine — entering Europe in the final year of World War II where she witnessed Nazi war crimes.
She famously posed in Hitler’s bathtub.
Photography enthusiasts and film fans have been blessed recently with The Bikeriders, inspired by the work of photographer Danny Lyon, playing in theaters now.
Earlier this year, Civil War turned the cinema lens toward photojournalism while also causing a stir.
Although, unlike Civil War, Lee is very much about an actual photographer who did extraordinary things. Lee Miller was a powerful, talented woman in an era where women had to fight tooth and nail to get any opportunities behind a camera.
PetaPixel looked back at Miller’s work last year when Lee made its appearance at the Toronto Film Festival. September 27 is a date worth circling for fans of photography, history, or powerful women like Lee Miller and Kate Winslet.