One of Poughkeepsie’s Most Remarkable Women Gets Major Feature Film
One groundbreaking Poughkeepsie native is about to be the focus of one of the most highly-anticipated films coming out this Fall.
The film Lee stars Oscar award-winning actress Kate Winslet who portrays Poughkeepsie native and Vassar alum, Elizabeth "Lee" Miller.
Lee Miller's Life in Poughkeepsie
Lee Miller was born in Poughkeepsie, NY on April 23, 1907, according to Britannica.
Lee spent some time in Paris studying theater, then returned to New York where she took dance classes at Poughkeepsie's own Vassar College through their Experimental Theater program.
According to an October 1944 edition of the Vassar Miscellany News, Lee brought "new stage theories of stage decoration and lighting acquired in Paris" to Vassar's productions.
Lee would go on to work around Manhattan, eventually becoming a model for Vogue. But her story only just begins there.
LEE The Movie
Outside of her deep well of modeling work and artistic photography, the film LEE focuses mainly on Lee Miller's groundbreaking role during World War II.
The movie LEE stars Kate Winslet, Andy Smaberg, Alexander Skarsgård, and Marion Cotillard, and is directed by Ellen Kuras.
The film follows Lee in the 1940s when she took her photography talents overseas, becoming the first female photojournalist on the front lines of the war. She followed the U.S. Army's 83rd Infantry Division as Vogue Magazine's war correspondent.
Being the first woman on the front lines, Lee Miller faced difficulty gaining access to press briefings on the front despite being a member of the press. She found an ally in Life photojournalist David E. Scherman, who Andy Samberg plays in the film.
Miller captured prominent moments of World War II including hospital scenes from Normandy, the Liberation of Paris, and some of the first photographic evidence of the horrors committed by Nazis at concentration camps during the war. Lee Miller photographed both the Buchenwald concentration camp and Dachau.
The trailer for the film shows Lee advocating for a women's perspective from the front lines. "Why should men get to decide?"
Lee Miller's coverage of the front lines of World War II includes the gore, horror, and intensity of any man's photographs. However, many of Lee's photos capture a deeper, human side of the story.
Lee Miller in Hitler's Bathtub
After the liberation of Dachau in 1945, Hitler's Munich apartment had been requisitioned by the U.S. Army. Lee Miller and fellow photojournalist David E. Scherman gained access to the apartment and staged one of the most iconic photographs of the war.
According to the Lee Miller Archives, this photo had been staged, with Hitler's photo propped up against the side of the bathtub that Lee Miller sat in, bathing herself. Her boots she had worn from the Dachau are front and center with the dirt stamped all over Hitler's white bath mat.
Lee Miller Archives writes, "Unbeknownst to Lee and David at the time, this was also the day that Hitler and his wife, Eva Braun, took their own lives."
Lee Miller would go on to settle at a farmhouse in East Sussex, England. She later passed away in 1977.
SEE ALSO: Amazon Prime Series Filmed in the Hudson Valley Premieres with Rave Reviews
The film LEE is set to be released on September 27th, 2024. Below is a trailer for the film.
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