It is fair to say that Spike Lee is not your average director. The 64 year old New Yorker, for example, calls his movies joints. He always wears sneakers. He is a dedicated fan of the New York Yankees baseball team. And this year he is the first black director to preside the jury of the Cannes Film Festival. For the opening of the festival the director who is famous for his love of the colour purple wore a hot pink suit and combined it with custom made Nikes of which only five pairs exist. Well, you won’t see Wim Wenders or Quentin Tarantino dressed up like this.
Another thing that sets him apart: When he works on a scripts he doesn’t use a computer. „Well, I like to write. I don’t type. Pen to paper,“ he says. It for sure comes in handy that right in time for his current job in Cannes the German luxury brand Montblanc released their new Meisterstück Spike Lee Edition honoring the director with his very own Meisterstück pen. Limited to only 500 pieces worldwide the edition consists of a Meisterstück fountain pen that is decorated with Lee’s stylized eyes and glasses in purple and his signature etched into the 18 karat gold nib. In order to use the pen in appropiate fashion there is also a notebook that has the purple glasses and eyes design printed on its black leather and a glass jar of purple ink. It’s a full package to celebrate his purple reign.
Since Lee’s achievements are plenty, the Meisterstück edition is well deserved. Back in 1989 he told us to „Do The Right Thing“, his breakout film that actually premiered in Cannes and was met with huge controversy. He gave Denzel Washington his best role with „Malcolm X“, he got on the bus in „Get on the Bus“, did a remake of Park Chan-wook’s South Korean classic „Oldboy“, a movie that everybody loves to hate. Lately he re-imagined Aristophanes’ ancient Greek play „Lysistrata“ as „Chi-Raq“, a drama about gang violence in modern day Chicago, and finally got his well deserved Oscar for „BlacKkKlansman“ in 2019 after being nominated four times before.
„Well, I like to write. I don't type. Pen to paper“
All in all Lee directed 24 feature films, did about ten documentaries, and in 2017 he took his second feature film „She’s Gotta Have it“ from 1986 and transformed it into a series for Netflix. And let’s not forget all the music videos he shot for Grandmaster Flash and Melle Mel, Prince, Michael Jackson, Public Enemy, Eminem, the Killers and of course Eros Ramazotti. In the video for „Cose della vita“ from 1993 Lee even makes an appearance as a photographer taking pictures while Ramazotti is busy making out with a couple of ladies. Those were the days.
His whole career is a constant shift of tones and themes and genres in order to push some boundaries which is why he is so well prepared for his jury presidency. Who will get the Palme d’Or in the end? The 82 year old Paul Verhoeven for his delightfully demented nunsploitation extravaganza „Benedetta“ about two campy nuns in 17th century Italy who have the hots for each other and Jesus? Or Leo Carax’s deeply puzzling rock opera „Annette“ with Adam Driver as an unfunny comedian and Marion Cotillard as an overly dramatic opera singer that have a child that somehow happens to be a wooden doll with disturbingly large ears that becomes a child star sensation? Or Wes Anderson’s very symmetrical „The French Dispatch“ which appears to be a homage to The New Yorker and features all of the director’s trademarks? Or maybe Nabil Ayouch’s Morrocan drama „Haut et fort“ about a former rapper who starts to work in a cultural centre in a working-class neighbourhood in Casablanca and teaches the kids how express themselves through rap and to free themselves? Whichever films wins in the end it is safe to say that Lee should have a great time. And he will be taking notes. Not typing on a keyboard. Pen to paper.