Welcome to the new profile
We're still working on updating some profile features. To see the badges, ratings breakdowns, and polls for this profile, please go to the previous version.
Ratings31
ella-48's rating
Reviews31
ella-48's rating
Have just got home from watching "LEE" at my local Picture House.
Blimey, that was DARK. Well, it isn't all dark, but by the time you get to the last half hour... oooft. Let's just say that "feelgood" isn't a term anyone's ever going to apply to this one.
It's not like I went in unprepared: I'd seen Kate Winslet doing the promotional chat show appearances, and as I am already a great admirer of Lee Miller's photojournalism, I knew the kind of subject matter we'd inevitably be exploring, but still... don't say you haven't been warned. This film presents you with you the hideous fact of Nazi genocide, very convincingly as the revelation it must have been in the moment, without (thankfully) a scrap of sentimentality.
Winslet is magnificent in the title role - as is everyone else, to be honest: there are no shoddy performances to be found - and, speaking as a Rolleiflex TLR user myself, it was clear that she had done her homework viz how to wield that lovely machine convincingly. There were moments when the nit-picky photography pedant in me did query whether some of the interior photos were being taken in such low light that it was unlikely to have left any usable impression on the relatively slow film stock available in the 1940s, but let's not quibble!
It's quite a long movie and events are presented in a simple, linear fashion (via a series of chronological flashbacks) with rather uniform pacing throughout - personally, I would have preferred a bit more variation in pace; your taste may differ.
My only really negative criticism has to do with one, frankly bizarre, piece of casting. The role of Englishman Roland Penrose is given to Swedish star Alexander Skarsgård - whose plucky attempt at an English accent is ...I think "variable" is the kindest word for it. It was hard to tell what part of England he was supposed to be from, or indeed what social class, and there were several moments when he didn't sound any kind of English at all. I had to suspend my disbelief on some pretty strong elastic whenever he opened his mouth. Ah well... go figure!
Blimey, that was DARK. Well, it isn't all dark, but by the time you get to the last half hour... oooft. Let's just say that "feelgood" isn't a term anyone's ever going to apply to this one.
It's not like I went in unprepared: I'd seen Kate Winslet doing the promotional chat show appearances, and as I am already a great admirer of Lee Miller's photojournalism, I knew the kind of subject matter we'd inevitably be exploring, but still... don't say you haven't been warned. This film presents you with you the hideous fact of Nazi genocide, very convincingly as the revelation it must have been in the moment, without (thankfully) a scrap of sentimentality.
Winslet is magnificent in the title role - as is everyone else, to be honest: there are no shoddy performances to be found - and, speaking as a Rolleiflex TLR user myself, it was clear that she had done her homework viz how to wield that lovely machine convincingly. There were moments when the nit-picky photography pedant in me did query whether some of the interior photos were being taken in such low light that it was unlikely to have left any usable impression on the relatively slow film stock available in the 1940s, but let's not quibble!
It's quite a long movie and events are presented in a simple, linear fashion (via a series of chronological flashbacks) with rather uniform pacing throughout - personally, I would have preferred a bit more variation in pace; your taste may differ.
My only really negative criticism has to do with one, frankly bizarre, piece of casting. The role of Englishman Roland Penrose is given to Swedish star Alexander Skarsgård - whose plucky attempt at an English accent is ...I think "variable" is the kindest word for it. It was hard to tell what part of England he was supposed to be from, or indeed what social class, and there were several moments when he didn't sound any kind of English at all. I had to suspend my disbelief on some pretty strong elastic whenever he opened his mouth. Ah well... go figure!
German film director Tomas (Franz Rogowski) and his British commercial artist husband Martin (Ben Whishaw) have been together for 15 years ...quite an achievement, I'd say, given just how immature, capricious and utterly self-obsessed Tomas routinely shows himself to be. Pretty much the only glue holding them together appears to be the fact that, whatever else may have gone stale between them, the sex is still good.
Although the script never explicitly mentions it, it would appear that theirs is an exclusive marriage: i.e. There are no intimations given to suggest that it's an open relationship, in which permission to "play away" has been agreed - so when, out of the blue, Tomas finds himself intensely attracted to a 20-something female schoolteacher called Agathe - an attraction he pursues with typically impulsive selfishness and no regard for anybody's feelings but his own - the impact on Martin (and, in due course, Agathe) is just as seismic as you'd expect.
Essentially what we have here is a portrait of a narcissist, in thrall to his own impulses, manipulative and duplicitous when it suits his purpose, and incapable of facing up to the consequences of his actions. Tomas is a study in arrested development: emotionally he's barely more than a toddler - a little boy who, on seeing a shiny new toy, must have it, and cannot understand why everybody else can't just go with his flow and let him have his way.
It's a tough challenge to play an unlikeable character and still keep your audience invested in them, but Rogowski pulls it off superbly, showing us that Tomas is as much a victim of his destructive personality traits as is everyone else who falls foul of them. As much as I despised Tomas's behaviour, I couldn't help but find myself feeling sympathy for his damaged soul. In that final night-time bike ride through Paris - having lost, by his own actions, everything of genuine value - he is truly heading nowhere.
Addendum: In the course of this movie I learned a frankly jaw-dropping, thing - that, in the 21st century, French schools have appallingly lax security: apparently any random stranger can get on the premises and barge into a classroom!
Although the script never explicitly mentions it, it would appear that theirs is an exclusive marriage: i.e. There are no intimations given to suggest that it's an open relationship, in which permission to "play away" has been agreed - so when, out of the blue, Tomas finds himself intensely attracted to a 20-something female schoolteacher called Agathe - an attraction he pursues with typically impulsive selfishness and no regard for anybody's feelings but his own - the impact on Martin (and, in due course, Agathe) is just as seismic as you'd expect.
Essentially what we have here is a portrait of a narcissist, in thrall to his own impulses, manipulative and duplicitous when it suits his purpose, and incapable of facing up to the consequences of his actions. Tomas is a study in arrested development: emotionally he's barely more than a toddler - a little boy who, on seeing a shiny new toy, must have it, and cannot understand why everybody else can't just go with his flow and let him have his way.
It's a tough challenge to play an unlikeable character and still keep your audience invested in them, but Rogowski pulls it off superbly, showing us that Tomas is as much a victim of his destructive personality traits as is everyone else who falls foul of them. As much as I despised Tomas's behaviour, I couldn't help but find myself feeling sympathy for his damaged soul. In that final night-time bike ride through Paris - having lost, by his own actions, everything of genuine value - he is truly heading nowhere.
Addendum: In the course of this movie I learned a frankly jaw-dropping, thing - that, in the 21st century, French schools have appallingly lax security: apparently any random stranger can get on the premises and barge into a classroom!