A Night With Kate Winslet at a Vogue Screening of Lee
As cold November evenings go, it was a memorable one. On the last Saturday of the month, actors, designers, editors and filmmakers gathered for an intimate screening of Lee, the new Sky Original film starring Kate Winslet as the pioneering war photographer, who famously covered WWII from the frontlines for Vogue.
Co-hosted by Anna Wintour, Chioma Nnadi, and Winslet herself, the screening was held in the cosy embrace of Ham Yard in Soho, and was as much a celebration of Miller’s extraordinary life and legacy as a model, writer and photojournalist as it was an opportunity for cast members and friends to come together over a film which was nine years in the making.
Saturday night at the movies wouldn’t be complete without refreshments, and guests—including designers Nicholas Daley, Christopher Kane and Marco Capaldo, actors Simone Ashley, Daisy Ridley, Tom Bateman, and Vogue’s global editor at large, Hamish Bowles—kicked things off by catching up over flutes of Laurent-Perrier, winter spritz sloe gin cocktails and raspberry-topped pink 75s, all while enjoying a private view of an exclusive Lee Lee exhibition.
This was a rare opportunity to see costumes worn by Winslet in the flesh—like her US army overalls and the sherpa gilet she wore to play an older Lee—next to photographs she took on set using the same model Rolleiflex camera as Mill and a selection of original personal images and wartime reportage, which many scenes in the film recreate. There’s the sun-drenched picnic in France where Miller met her future husband, the surrealist artist Roland Penrose, played by Alexander Skarsgård in the film; there’s even David E Scherman’s original contact sheet of the now iconic photograph of Miller bathing in Hitler’s tub in Munich, 1945. Thoughtfully laid out, the exhibition served as a stirring opener for what was to come.
Guests filtered into the blue-walled screening room and were offered fuchsia macarons and boxes of buttery popcorn, before Winslet took to the stage to introduce the screening. “This slightly feels like the party at the end of a really extraordinary road that it has been for me in putting this film together,” she told the audience. “It has been nine years since I had my first ever conversation with Antony Penrose, Lee Miller’s son. In 2015, I drove to Farleys house in East Sussex, and we met, and our friendship began.” Penrose, who was also in attendance on the night, only discovered his mother’s previous life as a war correspondent after her death in 1977, having found the pictures in the attic at Farleys.
Winslet continued: “And quite soon after that, I saw the wonderful Anna at an event in New York, and she said, ‘I hear you’re making a Lee Miller film.’ I kept thinking, oh, is it really going to happen? Now Anna’s asked me and I’m going to have to do it.” The room erupted with laughter.
“This film was remarkable for me, because I endlessly called in favors and just rang around and asked people to show up,” Winslet continued. “And they did. This cast showed up, they keep showing up for me and so many of our crew did the same. Michael O’Connor, our brilliant costume designer, is here. I’ve known him since I was 22 years old. Gemma Jackson, our brilliant designer I’ve known since I was 25. And so this film is really built on great relationships, both old and new. My new relationship with Kate Solomon, my producing partner, who really got this over the line. Thank you, Kate, for absolutely everything. And Antony Penrose and everyone at Farleys, your love and trust has been a beacon of light for me. So, thank you for being here. I really hope you enjoy the film.”
Finally, the lights dimmed, and Lee took the audience through the different chapters of her extraordinary life: her time living in France; meeting Scherman from Life magazine, who would go on to become a great friend; the treacherous days and nights spent in war zones; her journey into the harrowing Dachau concentration camp, as well as the later stages of her life at Farleys, Miller’s family home near Lewes. We learn that Miller was fiery, clever, determined—but she was also troubled, grappling with alcohol and drug use and childhood trauma—something Winslet articulates with care. When asked about capturing Miller’s nuanced character at this specific stage of her life in an interview in the October 2023 issue of Vogue, she remarked: “I’ve been through a lot, so there are corridors of emotions I can access that I simply didn’t have when I was younger.”
The film captures the horrors that Miller endured, but offers moments of levity, too—such as an introduction to British Vogue’s wartime editor, Audrey Withers, in Vogue House. “Don’t be so territorial, Audrey,” says legendary fashion photographer Cecil Beaton over a spread of magazine pages. “Don’t you mean editorial?” Withers replied, garnering chuckles from the current Vogue editors in attendance at the screening. Overall, Lee is a captivating portrait of a woman who was committed to telling the truth, regardless of the personal cost, who went on to have a profound impact on photojournalism.
Step inside the special screening, below.
Lee is available to watch now on Sky and NOW in the UK.
Photo: Hunter Abrams1/25Dana Strong, Kate Winslet and Anna Wintour.
Photo: Hunter Abrams2/25Erdem Moralıoğlu and Chioma Nnadi.