DP Ellen Kuras steps Into the Director’s Chair With Kate Winslet-Starrer ’Lee’
09.09.2023 - 13:31
/ variety.com
Diane Garrett Ellen Kuras is having a full-circle moment. The celebrated cinematographer, who has worked for directors including Martin Scorsese, Spike Lee and Michel Gondry, wanted to be a politically minded filmmaker like Costa-Gavras when she was starting out, but found herself primarily working behind the camera for many years. With “Lee,” a Toronto premiere starring Kate Winslet as famed World War II photographer Lee Miller, she is finally making her debut as a feature film director.
“It’s actually been a pretty smooth glide from the dolly to the director’s chair,” says Kuras, who directed the Oscar-nominated doc “The Betrayal,” commercials and episodes of “Ozark” and “Catch-22” before tackling “Lee.” Her work on the project is an outgrowth of a connection she made with Winslet as cinematographer on “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.” At a bookstore, Kuras spotted a tome about Miller, and, taken by Winslet’s likeness to her, sent the actor the book. Years later, Winslet asked Kuras whether she would like to direct a movie project about Miller that she was developing. “I was like, oh my God, yes,” says Kuras.
“Because Lee Miller I can identify with in so many ways, as someone behind the camera and went out to say something. In a way, it’s a search for truth,” she says of Miller’s desire to document what was really happening in Europe at that time. The key, she says, was finding the right way to frame Miller’s remarkable camera work.
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