His mocking gaze in the official poster, behind the glasses of Mars Blackmon in Lola darling. A dinner menu with fellow jurors built with the titles of his films, Jungle Fever, Malcom X, She Hate Me. A lifetime achievement award to his longtime collaborator, editor Barry Alexander Brown, for their joint work as pioneers in promoting ‘inclusion, diversity and social justice’. It’s time to Spike Lee, first black jury president on the Croisette since 1946, a taboo broken more than a year late due to a pandemic. That he cares about making history is underlined by the details, such as the hat chosen for the press meeting, with an inscription, 1619, which marks the beginning of slavery in America and recalls one of the campaigns that are dear to Mister President: remember the effects of that tragedy and the contribution of African Americans in US history. As for him, he starts by taking off a personal pebble, about his second film in Cannes, Do the right thing, presented in 1989 – the first was Lola darling, Prix de la Jeunesse – but excluded from the palmarès. “A lot of the US press accused me of instigating violence with that film. A couple of weeks ago it was his 32nd anniversary, I wrote it in 1988. When I see Eric Garner, George Floyd murdered, lynched I think of Radio Raheem – the character of Do the right thing killed by the police, ed -. Thirty years later the blacks hope they will no longer be hunted like animals ». He does not hold back at the solicitation of a Georgian journalist who asks for solidarity and commitment to denounce the repression of LGBT + journalists and activists in Tbilisi. “Thank you. This world is run by gangsters without morals, by unscrupulous bastards », he underlines, also referring to President Bolsonaro, summoned by one of the jury mates, the Brazilian director Kleber Mendonça Filho. The others are two other filmmakers, the Austrian Jessica Hausner and the French Mati Diop, and four actors, the American Maggie Gyllenhaal, the South Korean Song Kang-Ho (the father of the family in Parasite by Bong Joon-ho, last Palma d ‘Oro, in 2019), the French Mélanie Laurent, the French Tahar Rahim of Algerian origins, and the singer-songwriter Mylène Farmer.
He is not unbalanced on the criteria for the palmarès. He makes it clear that he will be a democratic president, he is concerned not to take away space from others. And, although barricadero as always, it grants a Christian Democratic touch. «Cannes? It is the largest festival in the world, without taking anything away from the others ». But he throws a dig, he who made the last film, Da 5 Bloods, with Netflix, here platform non-grateful. “Cinema and platforms can coexist. It was once said that TV would kill cinema. They are cycles ». There is also room for memories. “One of the most memorable Cannes festivals has nothing to do with films. It was 1990, the New York Knicks were strong, we were in the NBA final. I flew in from Nice New York for a game and came back. But they lost ». Later, at the official ceremony in a fuchsia suit, he praises the birthday girl (with Palm of Honor) Jody Foster. “I’d like to speak French like you.” On the Croisette he arrived three days ago flaunting the Paris St-Germain tracksuit. For the record, not everyone enjoyed it. But Spike knows how to be forgiven. And he likes to act as a leader. Arriving in Paris, he visited the Cameroon ambassador and secured his presence at the 2022 Africa Cup of Nations.
July 6, 2021 (change July 6, 2021 | 22:05)
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