G he Leneadary Lee Miller: Photogra piss 1929-1904, to Feb. 20 at Narth Van's Presentation House Gallery. Layne Christensen News Reporter Ichristensen@nsnews LEE Miller was a great beauty and an extraordi- nary talent. Classicaliy beautiful, talent- ed and driven, she struggled with the dual and often oppos- ing roles of artist and muse during her lifetime. Publishing magnate Conde Nast put her on the cover of Vogue . Jean Cocteau cast her as the fernale lead in his film Blood of a Poct. With Surrealist artist and photographer Man Ray, her lover and mentor, she invented the solarization tech- nique of photography while still in her early 20s. She worked as a portnitist and fashion photographer in Paris. Her photographs from the front tines of the Second World War brought her recognition as the only woman combat photu- journalist to cover the war in Europe. She documented the fighting in Luxembourg and Alsace and the horrors of Dachau and Buchenwald. She was in Hungary for the execution of Prime Minister Lazlo Bardossy. She billetted in both Hitlez's and Eva Braun’s houses in Munich after the Liberation (a photograph of her in Hitler’s bath ran in Life magazine). She was great friends with Picasso, Jean Cocteau and Colette. Miller opened the wor!d’s eyes through pictures yet her life was a closed book to her only son. “We were never mother and son.” says Tony Penrose, whose father was British artist Roland Penrose. A documentary film-maker and dairy farmer in Sussex, England, Penrose, 53, was in Vancouver last week to speak about the exhibition of Lee Miller's mother’s work, cunning at the Presentation House Gallery to Feb. 20. There were just wo photographs of his mother’s hanging in the family home, on an 850- acre dairy farm outside of London — the same farm Penrose manages today. Dead Snails, photographed while Miller was living in Egypt in the 1930s, and Sand Tracks , also from that era. Miller, who suffered sexual abuse as a child and struggied with alecholism as an adult, was emotionally remote, recalis Penrose. It was his first wife Suzanna who, he says, took a keen interest in “Lee” and brought them closer together in the years before Miller's death in 1977. It was also Suzanna who discovered the boxes of old photographs and negatives that are the legacy of Miller's extraordinary tal- ent and which were te become, in the past 20 years, an important part of Penrose’s life and work. He has published the definitive biography of Lee Miller (1985), directed and produced a documentary of her fife for Britain's Channel 4 TV (1988) and co-founded the Lee Miller Archive, Located at his farm. Penrose is currently writing a book about his father. “Suzanna wanted to find photos for our kids,” Penrose recalls of the discovery of the old photos, among the most remarkable of which were those Miller had caken during the war. “She wasn't going to be stuck at home doing nothing,” Penrose now says of her mother's drive, which had the result of distancing her from her son. “She wanted to be where the real reality was. She wanted che authenticity of it.” 8 Park Sc Tilford Cineplex 200 — 333 Brooksbank, North Vancouver (935-3911) Girl Interrupted (PG) — 1, 3:50, 7:15, 9:55 pan. Down to You (not yet rated) — 1:20, 3:20, 7:25, 9:30 p.m. Stuart Lattice (G) — 12:25, 2:45, 6 p.m. End of the Affair (14A) —~ 1:15, 3:25, 7, 9:15 p.m. Snow Falling on Cedars (14A) — 1:05, 3:40, 6:55, 9:35 p.m. American: Beauty (14A) —— 7:40, 10 p.m. The Hurricane (PG) — 12:30, 3:30, 6:45, 9:50 p.m. 2:10, 4:40, 7:15, 9:30 p.m. West Vancouver (926-6699) @ Esplanade 6 Cinemas & Fifth Avenue Cinemas 200 W. Esplanade, North Vancouver (983-2762) The Talented Mir. Ripley — Fa, Mon-Thu 7:05, 9:50 Sat/Sun 2:36, 4:20, 7415, 9:50 p.in. Supernova — Fri, Mon-Thu 7:20, 9:40 Sat/Sun 1:40, 4:20, 1:15, 4:10 p.m. Tue 4:10 p.m. PICTURED in a 1932 self-portrait, Lee Miller was a classic beauty who entered the world of photography as a model to the great photographers Edward Steichen, Hoyningen-Huene and Arnold Genthe. Galaxy Quest — Fri, Mon-Thu 7:15, 9:30 p.m. Sat/Sun 8 Caprice Park Royal South 2116 Burrard at 5th, Vancouver (734-8700) Magnolia (14) — 7, 10:30 p.m. Sar/Sun/Tue 3:15 p.m. The Talented Mr. Ripley (PG) —- 6:55, 9:45 p.m. Sat/Sun A 1930 solarized photo shows the technique Invented with Man Ray. photos Lee Atiler WHILE living in Cairo in 1936, Miter tock the pho- iograph Sand Tracks. ke NEWS photo Mike Wakefietd THE extraordinary work of Lee Miller was little known to her son, Tony Penrose, before the photographic artist’s death in 1977. Tue 4 p.m. @ Park Theatre 3440 Cambie at 18th, Vancouver (876-2747) Sunshine (PG) — 7:30 p.m. Sat/Sun 12:30, 4 p.m. Sweet & Lowdown (PG) — 7:05 p.m. The Insider (14A) — 9:05 p.m. Anna and the King (PG) — 7:40 p.m. The World is Not Enough (PG) — 7, 9:20 p.m. @ Hollywood Theatre 3123 West Broadway, Vancouver (738-3211) Stigmata (14) — 7:30 p.m. The Thomas Crown Affair (14A) — 9:20 p.m. B Pacific Cinematheque 1131 Howe St., Vancouver (684-3456) Pietro Germi — The Latin Loner: This weekend The Railroad Man (1956) with Germi in the lead opposite Luisa 7:20, 9:40 Toy Story 2 — Fri, Mon-Thu 7 p.ra. Sat/Sun 1:46, 4:30, 7 p.m. Any Given Sunday — 9:15 p.m. Play It to the Bone — Fri, Mon-Thu 7:10, 9:45 Sat/Sun 1:50, 4:25, 7:10, 9:45 The Green Mile — Fri, Mon-Thu 7:45 Sat/Sun 2, 7:45 The Cider House Rules (PG) — 7:05, 9:35 p.m. Sat/Sun 1:30, 4:20 p.m. Tue 4:20 p.m. (no 7:05 p.m. skow Mon, Jan. 24 and Wed, Jan. 26) Wed 9:55 p.m. only All About My Mother (14A) —7:10, 9:25 p.m. Sat/Sun 1:45, 4:30 p.m. Tue 4:30 p.m. (no 7:10 p.m. show Thu, Jan. 27) Thu 9:55 p.m. only Angela’s Ashes (144) — 6:50, 9:40 p.m. Sat/Sun 1, 4 p.m. Della Noce sereens tonight at 7:30 p.m.; Saro Urzi won the best actor award at Cannes for Seduced and Abandoned (1963) with Stefania Sandrelli, Saturday, Jan. 22 at 9:30 p.m. Virna Lisi and Nora Ricci star in The Birds, The Bees and the Italians (1965) the third work in a wilogy of award-winning Germi satires that included Divorce Italian Style and Seduced and Abandoned. Birds screens tonight at 9:35 p.m. and Saturday at 7:15 p.m.