LEE : Monday 28th October 2024

I saw the M Rated 'LEE' earlier this week, and this British biographical drama film is Directed by Ellen Kuras in her feature film making debut, and is based on the 1985 biography 'The Lives of Lee Miller' written by Antony Penrose. It saw its World Premiere showcasing at the Toronto International Film Festival in early September 2023, was released in the UK in mid-September this year, in the US at the end of September, has so far grossed US$15.5M and has garnered generally positive reviews. The film was a passion project for lead Actress and Co-Producer Kate Winslet, who started developing the film, and in October 2015, the project was officially announced with Ellen Kuras on board to Direct from mid-2020.

The film opens up during the late 1930's, as Hitler rises to power in Germany. Elizabeth 'Lee' Miller (Kate Winslet) leaves her artistic circle of friends and life behind in France, including Solange d'Ayen (Marion Cotillard), Paul Eluard (Vincent Colombe) and Nusch Eluard (Noemie Merlant), and travels to London after falling madly, and very quickly, in love with the artist Roland Penrose (Alexander Skarsgard), to whom she describes herself as being done 'living a life as the model, the muse, the ingenue, and only good at drinking, having sex, and taking pictures'.

The two embark on a passionate relationship, just as war breaks out in Europe. Already a well regarded photographer, Lee lands a job completing assignments for British Vogue magazine, where she takes photographs of the London Blitz by bringing the chaos and urgency of those air raids to the pages of a popular and well regarded fashion publication. However, she is shocked by the restrictions placed on female photographers, and the attitude of Cecil Beaton (Samuel Barnett) a British fashion, portrait and war photographer also working for British Vogue magazine at the same time. 

As Hitler’s regime takes over large swathes of Europe, Lee becomes increasingly frustrated that her work is constrained by rules dictated by men. Determined to be where the action is, she defiantly pushes back against the establishment and, with the blessing of her friend and Vogue Editor Audrey Withers (Andrea Riseborough), Lee overcomes enormous obstacles to get herself to the frontline of World War II, by using the excuse that as an American citizen she is not governed by stuffy British rules about what women should and shouldn't do. 

And so sent over to Normandy following the D-Day invasion of 1944, Miller was tasked with reporting on what she was told was the newly-liberated town of Saint-Malo. She traveled there only to find that the town was still being heavily fought over. Miller's military accreditation as a female war correspondent did not allow her to enter an active combat zone, but rather than leave she decided to stay, and spent five days on the front lines photographing as much of the Battle of Saint-Malo as she could. Her photographs included the first recorded use of napalm. 

Compelled to document the truth, she turns her lens in the direction of suffering, and slowly begins to reveal the horrific loss of life due to Hitler’s diabolical crimes against the innocent victims of his regime. Miller teamed up with American photojournalist David Scherman (Andy Samberg), a Life magazine correspondent, on many assignments, including the liberation of Paris, the Battle of Alsace, and the horrors of the Nazi concentration camps at Buchenwald and Dachau. 

Scherman's iconic photograph of Miller sitting in the bathtub in Adolf Hitler's private apartment in Munich, with the dried mud of that morning's visit to Dachau on her boots deliberately dirtying Hitler's bathmat was taken in the evening on 30th April 1945, coincidentally the same day that Hitler committed suicide with his wife Eva Braun in his bunker in Berlin. 

Upon returning to London after the end of the war, her husband returns home bearing the latest edition of Vogue magazine in which she expected to see her photographic account and accompanying article on the horrors of what she witnessed in Germany, but there are none. She hurries across to the Vogue offices to see Audrey Withers for an explanation but she is not there, and so tears through a filing cabinet seeking out the negatives of all the images she sent back, and promptly sets about ripping them up and cutting them up with scissors. Audrey appears and explains that she was not allowed to go to print with her images as they were way too graphic. Miller breaks down, and storms out. A short time later sat on the steps outside the Vogue offices Miller speaks of a profoundly traumatic experience when she was just seven years old when she was left home alone with an adult male friend of her family. She says that she has had to live with that shame, fear, and fury, for all of these years and has never told anyone as she was raised to keep secrets. 

Throughout the film we return to 1977 and Miller's home at Farley Farm House, in Chiddingly, East Sussex where she is being interviewed by Antony Penrose (Josh O'Connor) about her time as a WWII photojournalist and recounting the stories behind some of the most influential photographs of that era. Miller is somewhat distant of Penrose only opening up when he agrees to tell her something about his life. At the end Miller says it's your turn and it's then that we realise that Antony Penrose is in fact her son, who tells her that growing up she always was distant, disconnected from him, and almost an obstacle to her life. Miller remarks 'that's disappointing'. She pulls out a box containing a lock of his hair from his very first hair cut, the first book she ever read to him, and the first picture he ever painted. As the camera pulls away, Miller is not there, but spread all over the floor are Lee's photographs that Penrose only discovered after her mothers death in 1977, when he came across them in the attic of Farley Farm House by chance. 

Lee Miller carried out this dangerous work for the sake of the female readers of Vogue magazine, from whom the reality of war was largely kept hidden, and in the process yielded an indelible series of photographs which to this day continue to shape how we view these events.

'Lee' is a fairly detailed character study of this icon of WWII photojournalism that charts her story from the late 1930's through until just after the end of the war. It is at times harrowing, emotional, thought provoking and funny, and Kate Winslet shines in the role of the conflicted, yet thoroughly determined Lee Miller, and appears in almost every scene. Ellen Kuras as former Cinematographer turned Director has crafted a biopic of a woman you may not have previously heard of, but through this film her enduring legacy is granted a new life which she so rightly deserves. Alexander Skarsgard is miscast as Roland Penrose and his dialogue comes across as stilted and barely interested, and Josh O'Connor comes across as the floundering Prince Charles - the role he played in 'The Crown'. Andrea Riseborough, Marion Cotillard and Andy Samberg are all first rate in their roles. 

'Lee' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

AMSTERDAM : Tuesday 11th October 2022

I saw the MA15+ Rated 'AMSTERDAM' earlier this week, and this mystery comedy film set in the early 1930's is Written, Directed and Co-Produced by David O. Russell whose previous feature film making credits include 'Three Kings' in 1999, 'I Heart Huckabees' in 2004, 'The Fighter' in 2010, 'Silver Linings Playbook' in 2012, 'American Hustle' in 2013 and 'Joy' in 2015. This film saw its World Premier showcasing in New York City on 18th September and was released in the US and here in Australia last week week, having cost US$80M to produce, has so far recouped just US$12M and has garnered mixed critical reviews. 

In 1918, Burt Berendsen (Christian Bale) is sent at the insistence of his very well connected and very well to do estranged wife's parents to fight in World War I. While stationed in France, Burt meets and becomes good friends with African-American soldier Harold Woodsman (John David Washington), both under the command of affable General Bill Meekins (Ed Bagley Jnr.) After they sustain severe and multiple shrapnel injuries in battle, including Burt's loss of an eye, the pair are nursed back to health by Valerie Voze (Margot Robbie), an outgoing nurse, whom they form a close bond with also.

When Burt and Harold have sufficiently recovered from their wounds, the three move to Amsterdam, where they live together and become close friends spending their time living life to the full, until Burt announces his return to New York City to be with his wife Beatrice (Andrea Riseborough). Harold, who has fallen in love with Valerie and she with him, also leaves to return to New York City and fulfill his own aspirations, but before he leaves Valerie leaves him unexpectedly leaving just a hand written note bidding him farewell. 

Fast forward to New York City in 1933 and Burt has opened his own medical practice catering to injured veterans of the war and still remains firm friends with Harold, who is now a lawyer, while they have not heard from Valerie since they left Amsterdam some fifteen years previously. Harold asks Burt to perform a post-mortem on Bill Meekins, now a senator who served as the commander of their regiment during the war, at the urgent request of Meekins' daughter Elizabeth (Taylor Swift), who believes that he was murdered. Burt performs the post-mortem aided by nurse Irma St. Clair (Zoe Saldana). The post-mortem reveals that Meekins stomach contained an unusual amount of a grey liquid indicating a mercury laced poison leading them to conclude that this must have been the cause of death. Burt and Harold meet with Elizabeth to talk about the post-mortem results, but she is suddenly killed when a hitman pushes her under the wheels of an oncoming car. The hitman frames Burt and Harold for her death during the ensuing melee, while they flee the scene on foot as the Police arrive.

In an attempt to clear their names Burt and Harold try to determine who had led Elizabeth to hire them. This leads them to wealthy textile heir Tom Voze (Rami Malek) and his antagonising wife Libby (Anya Taylor-Joy). At the Voze residence they reunite with Valerie, and learn that she is Tom's sister and was the one who convinced Elizabeth to hire them, knowing that ultimately they could be trusted. Valerie is now under constant supervision by Tom and Libby, who claim that she suffers from vertigo, a nerve disease and various other ailments though the medications Tom and Libby urge her to take every day could just be the real issue. Tom suggests to Burt and Harold that they should talk to Gil Dillenbeck (Robert De Niro), a famous and decorated veteran who now advocates for WWI veteran's rights and was close friends with Meekins.

Burt's initial attempts to contact Dillenbeck fail, and meanwhile Harold and Valerie spend the day at her home, where they notice the hitman, Tarim Milfax (Timothy Olyphant) maintaining a watchful on their movements. They follow him to a forced sterilisation clinic owned by a mysterious organisation known as the 'Council of Five'. After a fight with Milfax, Harold and Valerie catch-up once more with Burt. Valerie takes them to New York's Waldorf Astoria Hotel where they meet Paul Canterbury (Mike Myers) an MI6 spy, maker of glass eyes and an ornithologist and Henry Norcross (Michael Shannon) a US Naval Intelligence Officer, maker of glass eyes, ornithologist and partner of Canterbury - Valerie's benefactors from Amsterdam who are secretly spies masquerading under their other guises. Paul and Henry explain that the Council of Five are planning to overthrow the American government and that Dillenbeck can help them foil their plot.

The three finally are granted a meeting with Dillenbeck having got past his gatekeeper wife, and who is offered US$40K from a fat middle aged man on behalf of an unnamed benefactor to deliver a speech rallying veterans to forcibly remove President Franklin D. Roosevelt from the White House and install Dillenbeck as a puppet dictator in his place. Dillenbeck agrees and plans to speak at a reunion gala that Burt and Harold are hosting, in order to draw out whoever is behind the plot.

At the reunion event, Dillenbeck instead makes his own speech instead of the one he was paid to say. Milfax, from the rafters directly above the stage has intentions to shoot Dillenbeck for going against the plan, but Harold and Valerie spot him and are able to thwart him in time. Milfax is arrested, while the Council of Five are revealed to be four industry leaders, including Tom, who are fanatically obsessed with Benito Mussolini, Heinrich Himmler and Adolf Hitler and have designs on making America a fascist state, with Dillenbeck becoming the fifth member of the secretive cabal, or so they had thought.

Tom and the other leaders are arrested by Police, but are quickly released as such people in high places often were, and so they in turn slander Dillenbeck in the press following their release. Dillenbeck testifies about the incident to Congress and returns home to live out his life. Harold and Valerie leave the country since they cannot be together in the United States aided by a slow boat out of New York organised quickly by Canterbury and Norcross, but not bound for Amsterdam as it will soon enough be overrun with the Gestapo exclaims Norcross, to which Valerie nonchalantly responds with 'who are they?' Burt wishes them farewell and plans to reopen his medical practice and pursue a relationship with Irma, finally coming out of the shadow of his estranged wife and his over bearing in-laws.

I have to say that I am somewhat surprised by the critical drubbing that 'Amsterdam' has received, because I, and the two movie buddies I went with to see this film, enjoyed this latest quirky comedy thriller supported by an ensemble of fine A-list acting talent. The trio of Bale, Washington and Robbie share a screen presence that is a pleasure to watch and between them they rarely miss a beat, delivering their quips, comedic one liners and sight gags with aplomb, and look as though they're having a great time doing it too. The production values and cinematography are also top notch, and whilst the story line zigs and zags, ducks and weaves, it is nonetheless a work of fiction with a modicum of a true story woven into the at times meandering narrative, but it works and all comes together nicely in the end. This may not be David O. Russell's greatest ever work, but as a story of the power of friendship and love; remembering those that exist on the fringes of our society; and thwarting the enemy at the gates, this is an entertaining enough period romp that merits the price of your movie ticket. 

'Amsterdam' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps. 

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

THE DEATH OF STALIN : Tuesday 24th April 2018.

'THE DEATH OF STALIN' which I finally got around to viewing this week is a highly acclaimed political satire Directed by the Scottish satirist, Writer, Producer and Director Armando Iannucci based on the French graphic novel 'La mort de Staline' by Fabien Nury and Thierry Robin. Starring an ensemble cast, the film was shown at TIFF back in early September last year, went on release in the UK in late October, the US in early March, and here in Australia at the end of March. The film has taken US$16M at the Box Office to date, and has picked up eleven award wins and eighteen nominations including two BAFTA nods, and has been banned in Russia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Kyrgyzstan . . . . can't think why!

It is 1953 and the film starts off with a Mozart piano recital by Maria Yudina (Olga Kurylenko) which is broadcast live over Russian Radio from Moscow. Mid way through the recital Comrade Andreyev (Paddy Considine) who is overseeing the live broadcast of the concert, receives a phone call from a mystery speaker asking him to call Joseph Stalin in seventeen minutes, exactly. Unable to contain himself, partly out of fear and partly out of excitement, seventeen minutes clicks over and the numbers are dialled. Stalin asks for a recording of the concert just as it ends, which will be picked up later that evening from the studio. Needless to say the broadcast was not recorded, so in a mad panic Andreyev orders the gathered and and already rapidly departing guests to be reseated, while he reassembles the accompanying orchestra and Maria Yudina. But many of the audience have already left the building, the Conductor has passed out, and Maria wants nothing of it. So Andreyev brings in passersby off the street to replicate the acoustics, hurriedly replaces the Conductor with another of some repute, and bribes the disgruntled lead pianist, and restarts the whole shebang for the purposes of a single recording for one man . . . but of course, Stalin is no ordinary man!

As the recording is handed over, Maria Yudina slips a hand written note in the sleeve of the record telling Stalin he has ruined the country, that he is a Dictator and that she wishes him dead. As Stalin (Adrian McLoughlin) reads it in his country residence, he is stricken and collapses from a cerebral hemorrhage. He is discovered the next day, laying where he fell and the members of the Central Committee are alerted. The first to arrive are NKVD (the interior ministry for the Soviet Union) head Lavrentiy Beria (Simon Russell Beale), who discovers Yudina's note, and Deputy General Secretary Georgy Malenkov (Jeffrey Tambor). As Malenkov panics given that he is now elevated to Acting General Secretary, Beria guides him to take leadership, hoping to use him as a puppet for his own ends. Then the Moscow Party Leader Nikita Khrushchev (Steve Buscemi) arrives with the rest of the Committee, except for Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov (Michael Palin) whom Stalin had added to his hit list only the night before.

The Committee together call upon a number of Doctors to confirm whether Stalin is in fact dead, and if so, the cause of death. However, because Stalin had all the top class Doctors in Moscow killed, the Committee is forced to seek out any third rate Doctors they could find that were still alive. In the meantime Beria shuts down Moscow, orders the NKVD to take over the city's security duties from the Soviet Army, and replaces Stalin's enemy hit list with his own, granting Molotov a reprieve in the process. With Stalin on his death bed overseen by the Committee, the Doctors and Stalin's composed daughter Svetlana (Andrea Riseborough), and mentally unstable son Vasily (Rupert Friend), the ailing Dictator comes around momentarily, before finally popping his clogs. At which point the Committee members with Svetlana and Vasily, hurry back to Moscow as the NKVD pillage through Stalin's country residence, ransack the place and execute its staff and any onlookers.

Later Khrushchev goes to Molotov's home and attempts to secure his support, only to be visited by Beria at the same time seeking Molotov's loyalty by releasing his wife Polina from prison. Malenkov is in due course named Head of Government although his strings are being pulled by a controlling Beria. At the inaugural Committee Meeting in the wake of Stalin's death, Beria sidelines Khrushchev by suggesting he should take charge of Stalin's funeral much to Khrushchev's disdain but he is over-ruled by a unanimous vote (all votes are carried unanimously BTW, again largely out of fear for the possible repercussions of disagreeing). Beria also puts forward many of the liberal reforms which Khrushchev had planned to introduce, as his own ideas winning him further support from the Committee.

While Stalin's body lies in state for three days in the Hall of Columns, Beria's proposals swing into action including the release of many political prisoners, and the restrictions imposed on the Russian Orthodox Church - both of which earn Beria further support from the masses. Meanwhile, Field Marshall Georgy Zhukov (Jason Isaacs) arrives on the scene demanding answers as to why his Soviet Army troops have been sidelined, relieved of their duties and confined to barracks. Khrushchev then quietly approaches Zhukov, who agrees overwhelmingly to provide the Army's support in a coup to overthrow Beria, but only if the whole Committee concurs.

To undermine Beria's growing popularity, Khrushchev orders the trains back into Moscow so enabling thousands of mourners to travel into the city and to pay their last respects to their former leader by filing past his open casket, around which the Committee stand guard of honour. As he planned, the NKVD guards surrounding the Hall firing on the crowd, killing some fifteen hundred innocents. 

The Committee suggests laying the blame at lower ranking NKVD officers as Beria feels that blame associated with his security services will tarnish his reputation. In retaliation, he angrily threatens the Committee with incriminating documented evidence he has on them all. Molotov is the next to fall in line offering his secret support to overthrow Beria, but again, only if the entire Committee agree to it, including Malenkov. 

The day of Stalin's funeral arrives. Khrushchev tells the Committee and Zhukov that he has Malenkov's support, although at this point this is not true. Zhukov and his men overwhelm the NKVD guarding Beria and arrest him. Khrushchev convinces Malenkov into signing the papers for Beria's trial, which he does reluctantly calling that Beria deserves a fair trial. The entire Politburo find Beria guilty of treason, sexual assault, mass murder and countless rapes in a trumped up on the spot court that descends into a screaming match as Beria accuses the Politburo of hypocrisy. Beria is shot dead in the head by one of Zhukov's men, and petrol is immediately poured over the body and it is ignited where he fell. The ashes are later scattered in the wind. 

In the closing scene and some years later when Khrushchev is now the Leader of the Soviet Union (from 1958 until 1964) he is in attendance with his wife at a concert given by the pianist Maria Yudina, while future leader Leonid Brezhnev (who later succeeds him) watches over his shoulder.

There is no doubt that Iannucci has crafted a fine example of dark historical political satire at its most comically absurd and ludicrous. He has assembled a great cast too that pull off their characters dialogue and actions without missing a beat, and all delivered without a single Russian accent in sight (hearing Stalin speak with an east London accent, or Zhukov with a Merseyside accent only adds to the incongruous comedic effect). The jockeying for position by those within Stalin's inner circle immediately following his death, is both farcical and revealing in the depths that those power hungry schemesters will sink to in order to get ahead, and to stay alive, with Beria being the worst of a bad bunch and rotten to the core. Whilst this is a dark satire, it is based loosely on the political machinations of the totalitarian state at the time where paranoia, fear, famine, poverty, labour camps and widespread executions were the status quo. Naturally, these are hardly topics that would inspire mirth and merriment, but maybe that is Iannucci's end game here - to poke fun at a regime that is a blot on the historical political landscape and for some, still within living memory. And this he does, save for the final ten minutes when the comedy falls away to a more serious tone and the main protagonist gets his comeuppance in no uncertain terms. Worth a look for sure to see a fine assembled cast playing it straight, keeping it grounded and making it believable with farcical and at times frightening consequences.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-