Breaking Baz @Cannes: Spike Lee Croons Rodgers & Hammerstein On The Beach But Tunes Out As Talk Turns To Him Making A Movie Musical His Next Project
The sound system at the Carlton Beach was blasting out James Brown's 'The Boss' while, incongruously, Spike Lee was engaged in a Rodgers and Hammerstein sing-along.
'There's a bright, golden haze on the meadow,' Lee crooned. 'The corn is as high as a elephant's eye,an' it looks like it's climbin' clear up to the sky.'
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Lee cleared his throat and cried, 'That's juxtaposition, right there. That's juxtaposition.'
I joined him on the 'Oh, what a beautiful mornin'! Oh, what a beautiful day!' chorus. I jokingly suggested that we do 'The Surrey with the Fringe on Top' next, but Lee shrugged that off.
There was a point to the Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein tribute.
Lee's great movie Highest 2 Lowest opens with Matthew Libatique's cameras taking in the Manhattan skyline as the city awakes. 'The skyscrapers are the corn as high as an elephant's eye,' says Lee, smiling as his longtime editor Barry Alexander Brown joins us on a couch.
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They came up with the 'Oh, what a beautiful mornin'' idea early on in the shoot. Funny how a song that landed on Broadway 82 years ago feels as if it could've been written yesterday. Great classic show tunes can be molded like Shakespeare to fit any moment, and boy-oh-boy, Oklahoma's opening number fits Highest 2 Lowest like a glove.
Musicals are on Lee's mind. His next film will be a musical. I asked whether it's going to be Boner, a song and dance about the creation of Viagra. I get straight to the point, and as I'm about to hum James Brown's 'Get Up (I Feel Like being a) Sex Machine,' Lee's having none of it.
'I don't know nothing about a musical,' he says with a glint in his eye as he looks around at revelers enjoying the soiree hosted by A24.
I push some more, and he merrily repeats his mantra: 'I don't know nothing. I don't know nothing about a musical. I don't know, I don't know.'
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He starts talking about working with his old friend Denzel Washington, who he cast as a record executive in Highest 2 Lowest, and how the electrifying scenes between Washington and A$AP Rocky came about. 'It's generational,' says Spike.
'Put Denzel and Rocky in a room with a camera trained on them, and you just capture what happens,' he says.
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A$AP tells me later that he 'loved' acting opposite Washington and 'learned so much' and is eager to find 'the right role' for another film.
I go back to Mr. Spike Lee about the movie musical, but he's giving nothing away. 'How long we known each other?' he laughs. 'I enjoy not telling you.'
When we were younger, we used to get mad at each other. We had a huge fight 30 years ago, but now we just laugh.
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In any case, we're interrupted by Cuba Gooding Jr, and we chat about other stuff.
Element Pictures' Ed Guiney get into a conversation about Akinola Davies Jr.'s sublime My Father's Shadow and how they're already discussing a second film. It's a thriller about oil, politics and corruption that also will be set in Nigeria. 'It's at an early stage,' Guiney cautions. 'The script's still being developed.'
Taraji P. Henson flew in late and missed seeing Highest 2 Lowest. 'It's on my list to see,' she says, going on to tell me that she's in town to host the annual amfAR Cannes gala on Thursday over at the Hôtel du Cap-Eden Roc.
I talk some more with A$AP Rocky, and I can't deny that I'm beguiled by his gold gnashers, which is so rude of me, but I can't help it. We're joined by music producer Gatsby Randolph (Who Is Gatsby Randolph), who kindly invites me to have lunch on his yacht. I cannot fathom whether what Randolph is telling me is bullsh*t or not. He claims he's legit.
In any case, I shall not be taking him up on his kind invitation. I prefer dry land.
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