Spike Lee admits: “I love Adriano Celentano’s song”

CANNES – The last time Spike Lee walked into the Cannes Film Festival press room, he had to apologize for “making a mess” after accidentally revealing the winner (Julia Ducournau’s Titane) at the beginning of the closing ceremony. Quite coincidentally, just yesterday, Ducournau presented her new film, Alpha and today, he returns not as a clumsy Jury President, but as the flamboyant director of his latest film, Highest 2 Lowest, screening out of competition. The press conference often veered more into basketball than cinema territory, with Spike showing up in a tracksuit, cap, and New York Knicks jersey.

A remake of Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 film High and Low, the film reunites the director with longtime collaborator Denzel Washington. The actor plays a music titan, known for having “the best ear in the business,” who becomes the target of a blackmail scheme and finds himself caught in a life-or-death moral dilemma. Washington didn’t attend the press conference but was present at the premiere the previous day, where he received an honorary Palme d’Or, which came as a surprise.

“Denzel and I didn’t realize our last film together, Inside Man, came out 18 years ago. We were shocked, it feels like yesterday,” the director commented. “It’s a blessing to make films that people love, and that’s been the case with our past work,” Lee said about Washington. “I think this is it—five. He’s been talking about retirement, even though he’s just done another deal. But five films together, they stand up.”

Though Highest 2 Lowest is a thriller, it also celebrates a deep love for music. One particularly unique moment is the inclusion of Adriano Celentano’s faux-English track Prisencolinensinainciusol. Lee didn’t even attempt to pronounce the title, asking the Italians in the room for help. “One of the things technology has allowed is that we artists don’t have to move between L.A. and New York anymore. Many of the people who worked on this film I found on Instagram. I saw the clip, loved the song, and said: we have to use this music. So I contacted the right people to include it in the film. We ended up using an orchestral version. The song is sung by Anna Lee—no relation, despite the last name—I met her on Instagram too.”

For one of the most politically engaged filmmakers in the U.S., questions about the Trump administration and its tariffs were inevitable. “Nobody’s working. People are suffering—those whose lives depend on the film industry. That guy just said he wants to impose a tariff on films made outside the U.S. I don’t know how that’s going to work. I don’t have the right answer,” Lee said, referring to a time when he refused to shoot Do the Right Thing in Baltimore. “There are things that can’t be replicated. It’s a vibe, an energy. So I’ve been very lucky to shoot films, especially those set in New York.”

Speaking of New York, co-star Jeffrey Wright didn’t hold back: “Nobody tells New York stories like Spike Lee. Nobody films it like him. There’s an intimate connection between who he is and what his city is. It’s simply extraordinary. We shot in Brooklyn, the Bronx, Manhattan. Everywhere we went, Spike knew someone, on every corner, every street.”

Lee also gave Wright the opportunity to work with his son, Elijah: “I’m grateful to Spike for that. I think the film is about the father-son relationship, just like Wes Anderson’s The Phoenician Scheme is about a father-daughter one. I actually shot both films at the same time. I think I’m the only person in the world who’s worked on a Spike Lee set and a Wes Anderson set simultaneously.”