Lee Miller goes from a career as a model to enlisting as a photographer to chronicle the events of World War II for Vogue magazine as told to an interviewer in 1977.

Elizabeth ‘Lee’ Miller has long been regarded as the most important war correspondent of all time. Her uniquely feminine perspective of World War II and the images that she captured through her surrealist lies of the reality, heroism, heartbreak, and terror of one of the 20th Century’s most defining conflicts still affect audiences to this day. Lee is her story brought to life. A long-held passion project of Academy Award-winning actress Kate Winslet and cinematographer turned director Ellen Kuras, who have longed to do this project for more than twenty years now, see their vision become a reality, and this is a picture that grasps you fully in its embrace and shakes up your emotions with a fury. Kuras takes an innovative and narratively creative approach to the framing of her story and frames it around an artist who is witnessing the events of this turbulent era and recalling and combing via memory. Lee is immediate and visceral in its story, and Kuras sets a pace that allows the audience to absorb every piece of the picture, and they’re sure to get wrapped up in it.

Kate Winslet is an actress of immense power and range, and her focus and commitment to the artistry of her projects have been a defining part of her career. Telling the story of Lee Miller’s turbulent life has been a long-time passion project for the actress, one which she has carried with her for more than 20 years, and now she realises this in this picture. And her impact is powerful. Winslet captures both the free-spirited bohemian artist that lies at the heart of Miller’s soul, along with an unquenching thirst to capture the truth and to be where the action is. But it’s through the course of the film and the unrelenting trauma and horror that she witnesses in this conflict that seems to be ungodly in its rage where the drama truly takes hold.

Winslet captures the reaction and shock of Miller to the events of World War II, and as the realisation of what has occurred following the liberation of Paris and the scarred remnants of what happened during the reign of Nazi Germany is brought into the light, it is almost too much for her to bear. Winslet brings incredible emotion to her performance of Lee Miller, and with director Ellen Kuras, we get an idea of the female perspective of war. As audiences, we are so used to war films that portray these events through the male guise in pictures such as Saving Private Ryan and We Were Soldiers, Lee takes a directly female approach, and Winslet’s perspective as a woman and her eye as a photographer helps to show the conflict from those directly impacted by it, and it is heart-wrenchingly intense to watch. It is in the film’s third act and the resolution of the film’s narrative framing where the true power of Lee’s emotions are realised, and you’ll be on the verge of tears thanks to Winslet’s performances.

Lee is a film that seeks to be true to history, with Miller’s photos and extensive diaries serving to shape its key narrative pieces. We witness her life as a Bohemian artist in France, her work with British vogue, and the sudden shift in climate that results from Hitler’s invasion of Poland and everything that follows with it. Doing everything she can to reach the front line, Kuras does not hold back on the bloodshed, violence, and the worst moments of humanity that Miller personally witnessed but, more importantly, documented. The framing of the discovery of the concentration camps and Miller’s experience witnessing the extreme horror of Dachau, juxtaposed with her visit to Hitler’s and infamous portrait in his bathtub, are the film’s most intense and overwhelming moments, and Winslet captures the true shock and overwhelming feeling of witness humanity’s worst moment, which plays out in the sense of ‘real-time’ in the film’s narrative, and it will move you to your core.

Audiences will see Kate Winslet at her finest in Lee. This film is a profoundly moving and evocative piece of art that touches the heart and spirit, honouring a woman who couldn’t look away from her work.

Image: StudioCanal

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1840s England, acclaimed but overlooked fossil hunter Mary Anning (Kate Winslet) and a young woman (Saoirse Ronan) sent to convalesce by the sea develop an intense relationship, altering both of their lives forever.

Brought to the screen wrapped in burning passion, director Francis Lee’s Ammonite is a gripping historical romantic drama that audiences won’t be able to look away from. Delivering two incredibly heavy performances from two of the best actresses working in Hollywood today, in the form of Academy Award-winning actress Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan, as two women who find deep love in one another, but who have no way of reconciling it. Lee builds a feeling of hope amidst despair, of love battling through hardship and under his direction Ammonite is sure to touch the soul of his audience.

Taking on the lead role of Mary Anning is Academy Award winner Kate Winslet and her performance here is utterly transformative. Winslet disappears into the very shell of Anning, a disgruntled, lonely, bitter and impoverished woman who eecks out an existence finding and restoring fossils, whom she sells to local tourists, all the while being denied the scientific prestige that should be awarded to her. Winslet is almost devoid of emotion as Anning, until the appearance of Saoirse Ronan’s Charlotte Murchison lights a fire inside of her and she can’t help but express her love for her.

As Charlotte Murchison, Saoirse Ronan is also a shell of a woman, but her affliction is one of the soul and when we meet her she is possessed by a deep and bitter melancholy. Neither Mary nor Charlotte particularly warm to each other quickly but as the narrative unfolds we see a deep love form between them, and the danger that such a love can have for two women within this time period. Ronan’s performance is incredibly brave, and this is her most grown-up role to date. As her spirit rises her emotions come to the surface once again, and Charlotte is very much the sun to Mary, giving her the attention and devotion she has long been devoid of.

Ammonite is a very challenging piece of work for both actresses and their attention to the story and their characters is something to be commended. Lee’s film is one of burgeoning sexual energy and explosive intimacy, and we see both actresses fall into the throngs of passion. Both Winslet and Ronan each give themselves completely to their roles within this film, and while they find a fleeting moment of happiness together, each is an entirely different character, and this is where the tension and drama of this story unfolds.

Alongside the intensity of the performances of his actresses, Lee also focuses his attention in on the cold, wet, and overcast coastal region of Lyme Regis, where Mary Anning attempts to make a living as a fossil hunter. And this harsh, inhospitable landscape is a major contributor to the power of this narrative. Shot with particular focus by cinematography Stéphane Fontaine whose lighting is sombre and grey, and brings out a colour palette of cold aquas, navy’s and blues that tease out the cold intensity that surrounds Mary and Charlotte. But this backdrop serves only to push their passions for each other further together with the screen them coming along with warmer tones to symbolise the potency of their love. Watching Ammonite is like watching a piece of Victorian-era art canvas come to life, and the attention to detail that Lee and Fontaine bring to the film makes it grow on the audience even further.

Ammonite is a powerful film of what it means to love and the journeys we go through with the person that we love. With its mix of heavy drama and two stunning performances from it’s leading actresses, audiences can be sure that they’ll be in for a very special film experience where every part demands to be savored.

Image: Transmission Films

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