Through four decades and 30 films, Spike Lee, raised in Brooklyn, has established himself as the type of director whose work cannot be reproduced. The traits that make his work unique can be clearly seen: the hot and often political subject matter, the mix of humor and drama, those iconic floating dolly shots, and a no-nonsense approach to stylistic experimentation.
Without a doubt, Lee he took inspiration from his favorite works. The IndieWire medium compiled a list of 10 films that the director has declared as his favorites on several occasions. Meet them all:
Rat’s Nest (Elia Kazan, 1954)
Two of the movie heroes of Lee They are Elia Kazan, the filmmaker from Hollywood’s Golden Age known for his bold and socially conscious works, and Kazan’s writing partner, Budd Schulberg. In a 2018 interview for GQ, Lee he talked about his love for his movie On the Waterfrontstarring Marlon Brando as a former boxer trying to stand up to the corrupt union bosses at his dockside job. Spike Leewho would become friends with Schulberg before the screenwriter’s death in 2009, praised the film for its great acting, cinematography, direction and writing.
A Face in the Crowd (Elia Kazan, 1957)
Another joint film by Kazan and Schulberg. It starred Andy Griffith in his film debut as a drifting folk singer who becomes a TV celebrity and loses his soul in the process.
Lee He said in his GQ interview that Schulberg had a “crystal ball” in writing the film’s plot: “It’s really about the media, how they can be harmful, how they can be dangerous, how they can make people people create anything.”
Dangerous Streets (Martin Scorsese, 1973)
Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro rose to fame with Dangerous Streets, a crime thriller about petty thieves in New York. In his interview for GQ, Lee He said that he saw the film with his mother, and that it was one of the first films that pushed him to dedicate himself to the cinema. “At that time he didn’t want to be a filmmaker. He didn’t even know movies were being made,” he said. Lee. “You were just going to the movies. But that movie blew me away.”
Later, the director met Scorsese when he projected after hour at New York University, and introduced himself to his future friend by telling him the story of how dangerous streets inspired him.
The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton, 1955)
It’s the only film from acclaimed director Charles Laughton, but his dark and beautiful story of a serial killer preacher is considered one of cinema’s essential films. In his interview for GQ, Lee He said that he fell in love with the film while studying at film school; the homage to Robert Mitchum’s character in Do the Right Thing would be famous, where Bill Nunn’s Radio Raheem wears Love-Hate knuckle rings identical to Mitchum’s tattoos and gives a speech about the duality between the two concepts. “A very, very terrifying movie. I love it,” he said Lee. “Robert Mitchum, that character he plays? Terrifying.”
Lawrence de Arabia (David Lean, 1962)
when doing Malcolm X, Lee wanted the film to look huge. In his interview for GQ, he said that he turned to the films of British filmmaker David Lean, known for his large-scale epics. He and his cinematographer, Ernest Dickerson, studied Lean’s films, especially Lawrence of Arabia, by watching a restored version of the film at the Ziegfeld Theatre. “It was unbelievable,” Lee said. “He had a new copy, he redid the sound, the color, and so it definitely influenced us.”
Rashomon (Akira Kurosawa, 1950)
Rashomon narrates the murder of a samurai through numerous contradictory accounts. It is possibly the Japanese director’s most influential work, as it paved the way for other films to experiment with linearity and perspective. In an interview in Vulture in 2015, Lee said his first film She’s Gotta Have It was inspired by Kurosawa’s multi-point-of-view story.
“The whole Rashomon story, where there’s a rape and a murder, and you have witnesses: everyone gives their own version of what happened, and the public is left to form their own opinion,” he said. Lee. “Well, that’s the same thing in She She’s Gotta Have It, where you have these three men who are in love with Nola Darling, and they give Nola’s version of her.”
Dog Afternoon (Sidney Lumet, 1975)
As one of New York’s leading directors, it’s no wonder Lee loves a movie for how it captures the city. One of his favorites is dog afternoon: Sidney Lumet’s film about a botched bank robbery set against the backdrop of the hottest day of the year. “It’s a different kind of bank robbery, but it really shows New York City, and it’s a great movie,” he said. Lee a Vulture. En The perfect plan, Lee paid homage to the film by having actress Marcia Jean Kurtz reprise her role as one of T’s hostagesburns of dogs
Ganja & Hess (Bill Gunn, 1973)
In 2014, Lee premiere Da Sweet Blood of Jesus: a horror film and a remake of Bill Gunn’s 1970s film Ganja & Hess. Lee it stuck close enough to the original story of an anthropologist-turned-vampire and his ill-fated affair with a mortal woman that Gunn, who died in 1986, received co-writing credit for the adaptation. In an interview with Vulture, Lee he referred to the original film as a “huge cult classic”, saying he first saw it at film school at New York University; he also described the remake of it as an attempt to “pay homage” to the late Gunn.
The Wire (HBO, 2002-2008)
Though not a movie, HBO’s acclaimed series about cops, drug dealers, government workers, schoolteachers, journalists, and other Baltimore citizens has the honor of being one of the few small-screen projects to feature. Lee praised throughout his career. “It’s epic, you know,” Lee said in an interview with Vulture in 2015. “Five years, great storytelling, the whole thing was very complex.”
James Bond movies with Sean Connery (1962-1971)
In 2018, Lee revealed at a screening of The KKKlan Infiltrator that his first great film love was James Bond. Specifically, growing up Lee felt an affinity for the six films in which the first Bond starred, Sean Connery. When Connery died in 2020, Lee paid tribute to the Scotsman on Instagram: “Some of [mis] My earliest memories of my late mother taking me to the movies were James Bond joints. Several times mom had to blindfold me,” she wrote. “No disrespect to the other actors who later played 007, but to me Sean is my type, he kicked a lot of ass and got names, all the pretty girls, gadgets electronics, and he also made jokes!”.
2023-05-14 20:39:04
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