At the cinema: "The Photographer" – Gripping portrait of a war photographer

A French city in ruins during the Second World War, the buildings and house fronts are destroyed, rubble and ash everywhere, bullets and shells are raining down and in the middle of it all: Lee Miller (played by Kate Winslet), who manages to get to safety at the last minute and just manages to take a picture before the scene is completely covered in dust and a G.I. drags her away.

It is the opening scene of the film "The Photographer" and it initially sets the wrong track. Although the biopic about the American photographer Lee Miller is not lacking in plot and action - the film poster even makes it look like an action film - things slow down and calm down after that: a cross-fade to the south of France in the late 1930s to give the viewer an understanding of two aspects: Lee Miller's bohemian life before the Second World War between Paris, the Côte d'Azur and her artist friends, such as the photographer Man Ray (Sean Duggan), the journalist Solange D'Ayen (Marion Cotillard) or the poet Paul Elour (Vincent Colombe). It also introduces Lee Miller's future husband, the painter Roland Penrose (Alexander Skarsgård), who also joins the group of friends on the Côte d'Azur.

The narrative framework of the film is formed by an interview situation between 70-year-old Lee Miller, who is visibly getting on in years, and her son Antony Miller. The interview about the World War and the pictures is fictitious, as the son Antony only found the photos and negatives in the attic of the house after his mother's death in 1977. This find, consisting of around 60,000 negatives, prints and numerous manuscripts, forms both the starting point for the posthumous public interest in Lee Miller and her photographic work as well as the narrative starting point and final scene of the film.

A pioneer of photography

With "The Photographer" – in the US original, the film bears the simple title "Lee" – director Ellen Kuras has filmed the remarkable life story of a woman who was an icon not only behind the camera but also in front of it. Lee Miller began her career as a celebrated model in the 1920s, first becoming the muse and then the assistant of Man Ray, one of the most important photographers of the 20th century. But her urge to take creative control herself led her behind the camera. Dissatisfied with her role as a mere object of photography, she became a photographer herself in the early 1930s and her pictures quickly gained recognition. However, it was the Second World War and her work as a photojournalist that led her to document the events. She was one of the few female war photographers to travel around Europe for the American "Vogue" magazine, capturing the horrors of war and leaving a lasting mark on Miller's work.

The film also takes its audience to the front and after just under an hour, the opening scene can be seen again. Now the viewer is right in the middle of the action of the war. Whether in field hospitals, prison camps or officers' quarters, Lee Miller is part of the war as a war reporter. She is accompanied by her American photographer and war reporter colleague David E. Scherman (Andy Samberg) on the one hand and her Rolleiflex, the double-lens medium format camera made in Germany, on the other. Miller took most of her pictures with this camera and the film shows this very well.

In various scenes, the viewer learns how and in what context some of her most famous photos were taken: From the shot of two women in bomb-ravaged London in 1942, to the photo of a dead young woman who took her own life with other Nazis, to her most famous image: Lee Miller in Hitler's bathtub – with a portrait of the Führer on the edge of the tub and her dirty boots in front of it. The iconic photo was taken in Hitler's American-occupied apartment in Munich's Prinzregentenstraße. Although the shot is staged, it beautifully demonstrates Miller's photographic and, above all, media flair for the power of images, especially her images. Strictly speaking, the picture was not taken by her, but by her colleague David E. Schermann, who took it for Miller.

Further historical scenes and shocking images from the liberated Dachau and Buchenwald concentration camps follow. Here, the film allows its leading actress to look not only into the trains and morgues of the concentration camps, but also into the human abysses of the Holocaust. These abysses will occupy Lee Miller for the rest of her life until her death. It is precisely the creation of these images, which are only shown to the viewer in the original in the closing credits, that testifies to Miller's determination to capture the truth even under extreme conditions.

Visually and acting-wise very successful

The film's authentic visual language succeeds very well in capturing the mood of the 1930s and 1940s and bringing it closer to the viewer. The cinematic aesthetics seem to take their cue from Miller's iconic black and white images and make masterful use of light and shadow to capture the oppressive atmosphere of war. The viewer can literally feel the pressure and responsibility that Miller must have felt in her work.

This is conveyed in particular by the impressive acting performance of lead actress Kate Winslet. She succeeds in credibly bringing the multi-layered aspects of Lee Miller's character to the screen, from the euphoric artist before the war to the critical to manic war reporter to the drawn old lady. Winslet plays Miller as a woman who is always fully absorbed in her work and always tries not to lose sight of what is human. She shows Miller's inner conflict between the shock of war atrocities and her professional dedication very impressively.

However, it seems to be the dilemma of a biopic to concentrate on the personal on the one hand and not lose sight of the story on the other. At times, the film tends to focus too much on Miller's emotional and romantic relationships, losing sight of the story of her photographic work. A more balanced portrayal would have given her photographic work even more weight and would make the film even more interesting, especially for photography enthusiasts.

All in all, "The Photographer: Lee Miller" is a visually impressive film that tells the story of an extraordinary woman and photographer who left a lasting mark on both art and war photography. Kate Winslet's acting performance and the visual realization of Miller's photographs make the film an experience worth seeing and a clear recommendation for anyone interested in photography and history.

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