DP Ellen Kuras steps Into the Director’s Chair With Kate Winslet-Starrer ’Lee’
variety.comDiane 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.
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