Kate Winslet is set to star in an upcoming documentary about the life of acclaimed 20th century photographer Lee Miller.
Lee Miller frequented art circles and was a friend and muse of Picasso and Man Ray. Her pioneering photojournalistic work is the subject of the Imperial War Museum’s exhibition, Lee Miller: A Woman’s War, which will showcase unseen and chilling images captured by Miller during the war years.
The Lives of Lee Miller, a biography by her son Antony Penrose, has been selected for production by Hopscotch Features. Winslet has been cast to play Miller, a decision which Penrose strongly supports:
“[Winslet] is gritty, she’s funny, she’s tender and she’s tough. I cannot think of anyone better.”
One of Miller’s most iconic photographs is one she took of herself in Hitler’s bathtub in 1945, with her boots covered in mud from Dachau by the side of the tub. Miller photographed the Dachau and Buchenwald concentration camps, but according to Penrose she cut up the negatives due to trauma.
Hopscotch Features has gained exclusive access to the Lee Miller Archives for the production of the film. The Archives are managed by Penrose, who has said about her photography:
“I barely knew that she had been a photographer during her life. She was so secretive about it, and she deliberately hid all of her work in the attic of our old farmhouse. … So it was an absolute bombshell of a surprise after Lee had died that we went into the attic and found all of this incredible work. But I think she made a deliberate decision to bury her career, and this was partly as a result of her war experiences, and partly as a result of her post-traumatic stress.”
Miller was an iconic photographer and model and was regarded as one of the most glamorous women of her time, but she led a complicated life. Her son has spoken openly of her drinking and hostility in later life:
“Lee drank because she felt unloved and she was unloved because she drank.”
Nevertheless, her mind was respected by those who knew her well. In Penrose’s words:
“Lee was realistic about beauty. Some people say she buried it, lacerated it, drank it away. But I don’t think she was troubled by the loss of it. It was her brain that worked hardest for her, with its rapid-fire, New York wit.”
As yet a title for the film has not been released.
