There is a reason why Spike LeeS latest, “Highest 2 lowest” Opens with “Oh, what a beautiful morning” from “Oklahoma!” Playing over swinging flight views over high -rise buildings in New York. The oldest of five children, Lee was not only influenced by his jazz musician, but he was also his Cinephile -Mor’s movie date. She loved musicals like “Oklahoma!”, “The Sound of Music” and “Bye Bye Birdie”, who inspired Rosie Perez opening “Do the right thing.”
A family friend also took the young smile to see Akurosawa Movies.
“I wanted to see people’s heads hacked, in Samurai movies,” Lee told me at Cannes in May, where “Highest 2 lowest“Premiere out of the competition. At NYU Film The school he appreciated Kurasawa’s entire Oeuvre. “Rashomon” inspired the different perspectives in her first function, “she must have it”, which took home the camera d’Or 1986.
“Highest 2 lowest” marks Denzel WashingtonFifth collaboration with Lee. “We were both shocked that” Inside Man “was 18 years ago,” Lee said. “So the dynamic duo gathered again. Denzel is the world’s largest living actor. My brother Martin Scorsese wants to say the same thing about (Robert) De Niro. Kurosawa said that about (Toshiro) Mifune. You had these relationships where a director and an actor builds a catalog with films. “Mo ‘Better Blues,” “He got games” and “Inside man.”)
As Lee and Washington both know, Cannes sets up Well attended Movies for Oscars. That’s why Washington flew to Cannes after Sunday Matinee during his sold-out Broadway run of “Othello” and made it back for Tuesday night’s performance. The actor was surprised when festival director Thierry Fremaux presented him a Palme d’O or.
As a 70 -year -old, Washington is at the top of his powers, and if the Oscar gods are smiling, he will land his third Oscar (after “Training Day” and “Glory”) for his Bravura performance as a record Mogul who struggles with Legacy, Morality and Family in “The highest two lowest”, LES insights insane insect insured insights. “High and low.”
By the time Lee came to it, the project had gone through development.
Scott Rudin, David Mamet, Chris Rock and various directors had fussed over a new recording. When Washington sent Alan Fox’s resume of the Kurosawa classic to Lee, he jumped in and put it through his computer. The film has its fingerprints everywhere. “It respects the rich material and turns it,” Lee said, “which jazz has made the longest time, where you have a standard and then put it the grilled on it.”
Lee quotes John Coltranes “My Favorite Things” and Miles Davis “My Funny Valentine” as an example of jazz rectory of the classic canon. The film is fantastic in contemporary music, from Scottish Fergus McCready trio to British singer Ayana Lee, both discovery by Lee on Instagram.
“Highest 2 Lowest” is based on a series of sets where Washington’s multimillionary music mogul David King (Stackin ‘Hits Records) is facing a series of intense confrontations and ethical dilemma.
In one scene, his oldest friend and driver (Jeffrey Wright) prays for the life of his son (Elijah Wright), who has been incorrectly kidnapped and held for ransom instead of King’s son (Aubrey Joseph). “He is literally begging on his knees to help get money to save his son,” Lee said. “If you have a movie where someone has to be pussy against Denzel, you have to take some weight or you will wipe the screen.”
Wright meets the moment and then some. “People leave the movie feeling,“ What would I do in this situation? Will I risk everything I have for a friend’s child? “, Lee said.” It puts the audience in a tendency that Denzel Washington’s character is in. It’s a moral dilemma. It puts them right in the movie. “
The film’s Bravura Action sequence (edited by Lee Regular Barry Brown) takes King and carries $ 17.5 million Swiss Franc in a Michael Jordan Black Bag, on the 6 train from Borough Hall to Bronx, when Nypd chases down a series of mopeds that will catch him. The starting point: William Friedkin’s “The French Connection.” (Lee praises both that movie and Stanley Kramer’s “The Defiant Ones” on the road.)
He wanted to show that the kidnapper was a worthy opponent. “I wanted to build the young criminal,” Lee said. “It’s not just as ghetto kid, he’s smart. What is his character going to do? What’s going to make it difficult? The nypd, they’re Following for the drop, so he has to pick a day in the summertime. The drop is going to be in the bronx Rican Day Parade, with the (Late Great) Eddie Palmieri Salsa Orchestra. What Song is He Going to Play? ‘Puerto Rico.’ What happens on that Sunday?
In a climate face-off King and the angry young musician’s kidnapper (a $ AP Rocky) meet finally. “I was convinced that it will be a heavyweight struggle,” Lee said. “They will go toe to their toes, swing, swing. Just like sports are the biggest games they win during the last second, the last inning. You want that confrontation of two actors who go on it, throwing hawks. Now I would never throw anyone less in those scenes with Denzel, and he is just squeezing on anyone, and it is no one.
They also express alternative world views, which is what the film is about. “It’s generating,” Lee said. “You have the old gun sloper and the beginner trying to take down the king. It’s just classic Shakespeare. Then there is music too. In the end, Denzel says:” Your music, I can’t. “He is known as having the best ears in business.
Unfortunately, the A24 will only play “highest 2 lowest” in theaters from August 15 to September 5, when it hits streaming on AppleTV+. This is a kinetic large -scale spectacular that must be seen on the large screen.
