Lee (2023 film)

The origin of the project began when cinematographer Ellen Kuras was at a bookstore in New York and spotted a tome about war photographer Lee Miller.[3][4] Kuras noticed a similarity between Miller and actress Kate Winslet–with whom she had worked in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)–and sent Winslet a copy of the book and kept another copy for herself.[4] Years later, Winslet started developing a movie project about Miller and asked Kuras whether she would like to direct it.[3]

The project was officially announced in October 2015, with Winslet attached to star as Miller.[5] In June 2020, cinematographer Ellen Kuras was set to direct the film–her feature directorial debut,[6] with Liz Hannah adapting the screenplay from the 1985 book The Lives of Lee Miller, written by Miller's son, Antony Penrose,[7] who supported the film and gave Kuras full access to his mother's personal archives, diaries,[7] and even her unpublished work.[4] The screenplay went through several rewrites.[8] It was originally written by John Collee and Marion Hume from a story they developed together with Lem Dobbs, with Liz Hannah joining on later.[4] Winslet also served as a producer on the film.[1] She chose the screenwriters and was also in charge of finances and casting, even personally calling her co-stars.[8]

The most significant development in the film came in October 2021, when Marion Cotillard, Jude Law, Andrea Riseborough and Josh O'Connor joined the cast, with a crew including Alexandre Desplat as a composer, Michael O'Connor as costume designer, cinematographer Paweł Edelman and Ivana Primorac as head makeup and hair artist.[9] In February 2022, Andy Samberg was announced as being part of the cast.[10] He would be confirmed in October 2022 alongside additional castings including Alexander Skarsgård, who replaced Law in the role of Roland Penrose.[1] Winslet wrote a letter to Cotillard asking her to play French Vogue editor Solange d'Ayen in the film.[11] Winslet and Cotillard had previously co-starred in Contagion (2011).[12]

Winslet said she was patronized by male executives when she was trying to get funding for the film.[8] "The men who think you want and need their help are unbelievably outraging. 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?", Winslet told Vogue.[8] During pre-production, Winslet covered two weeks of wages with her own money due to insufficient funds.[8]

Filming began in late September 2022 in Croatia.[13] Production paused for a short period that month when Winslet slipped during filming and was taken to the hospital.[14] The accident happened on the first day of shooting, when Winslet slipped and injured her back while she was rehearsing a sequence where Lee Miller was running down the street in Saint-Malo under bombardment.[8] Winslet decided to keep filming despite her back injury and barely being able to stand up.[8]

Filming also took place in Hungary and wrapped in early December 2022.[15]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 68% of 22 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.3/10.[17] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 58 out of 100, based on 10 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.[18]