Lee: The Past Ever Haunts the Present

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Lee, a biopic about war and fashion photographer Elizabeth “Lee” Miller, opened in theaters last month. Directed by Ellen Kuras, the movie looks at Miller’s life during World War II through a series of flashbacks prompted by a closer-to-present-day conversation with a young journalist. Kate Winslet stars as the complex and courageous Miller; Andy Samberg plays the role of sincere and supportive Life magazine photographer David E. Scherman, who travels with Miller to document a devastated Europe. Andrea Riseborough plays a thoroughly likeable and bold Audrey Withers, editor of British Vogue magazine during World War II.

The film opens with Miller ensconced in a group of artistic friends enjoying sunny southern France. Brief mentions of Miller’s career as a model and her previous relationship with Surrealist artist Man Ray pop up, but the film quickly moves to the effect of the war on life and work. Sponsored by Vogue, with mobility enabled by an American passport, Miller transitions from the magazine’s wartime photographer in London to field photographer at an evacuation hospital in La Cambe, France, following the D-Day invasion. Without spoiling the movie, let’s say that her frontline photography sets her up for a future battle with PTSD.

Miller’s friends and family float in and out of the frame, their appearances highlighting the physical and psychic damages wrought by the German occupation of France. It’s worth noting that the film explores violence committed not just by armies, but by specific individuals—friends and neighbors, for instance—only some of which could possibly be “justified” as an act of war. None of this is good, and none of this is good for Miller, as the film makes clear.

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Even so, Miller has the ability to at least temporarily work through the trauma, and it’s that resilience that brings some of the horrors of the Holocaust out in the open; her photographs taken after the liberation of Buchenwald and Dachau (the latter with Scherman) expose Nazi Germany’s murderous violence to the world.

If you’ve seen Lee and want to learn more about Miller and her work before and during the war, we’re here to help. We’ve gathered a few stories to contextualize her career, 1940s France, and the legacies of wartime violence. You can also explore her photography via the Lee Miller Archives.

The French police arrest the Jews on the orders of the German occupiers and take their personal details, Paris, 1941

Policing the Holocaust in Paris

Matthew Wills

August 25, 2024

Unlike in the rest of Nazi-occupied Europe, the arrest of Jewish people was largely in the hands of ordinary policemen in France, especially in Paris.

English art and radio critic Frederick Laws (left) and American photographer Lee Miller attend a one-night performance of Pablo Picasso's play 'Desire Caught By The Tail' at the Rudolf Steiner Hall in London, March 1950.

Lee Miller, More than a Model

Erin Blakemore

January 17, 2023

Miller photographed the chaos of war’s end in Europe, documenting major battles, the liberation of Paris, and the horrors of Dachau and Buchenwald.

What Life Was Like During the London Blitz

Livia Gershon

August 20, 2018

During WWII, 150,000+ people sought shelter in London's Tube stations each night. Over time, the various stations developed their own mini-governments.

How Veterans Created PTSD

Morgan Godvin

November 9, 2021

Now a cultural staple, PTSD is a newer diagnosis. How have conceptions of trauma morphed and what does it mean for US institutions and society?

Surrealist artists at the first Surrealist Exhibition to be held in London. Back row, from left, are Rupert Lee, Ruthven Todd, Salvador Dali, Paul Eluard, Roland Penrose, Herbert Read, E LT Mesens, George Reavey and Hugh Sykes-Davies. Front row, from left, Diana Lee, Nusch Eluard, Eileen Agar, Sheila Legge and unknown.

Surrealism at 100: A Reading List

Allison C. Meier

September 19, 2024

On the centennial of the founding of Surrealism, this reading list examines its radical beginnings, its mass popularity, and its continued evolution.

The Text That Stoked Modern Antisemitism

Erin Blakemore

August 21, 2020

What's the history of the vicious The Protocols of the Elders of Zion?

A former German defense bunker lies in Marram Grass along a stretch of coastline that was known as 'Utah Beach' during the June 6, 1944 D-Day Beach landings on April 30, 2019 in Audouville-la-Hubert, on the Normandy coast

Conflict Archaeology in Normandy

Matthew Wills

December 11, 2023

The light management of forests in Normandy since WWII helped preserve the remains of German supply depots and other artifacts of war hidden in the woodlands.