US director Spike Lee on Highest 2 Lowest, his latest movie with Denzel Washington
Spike Lee talks about his love for Washington and Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa, whose 1963 film High and Low he reimagined
Months have passed since the premiere of his latest work, Highest 2 Lowest, at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, but US filmmaker Spike Lee is still revelling in the memories of the glitzy May 19 event.
“I’ve had a love relationship with the Cannes Film Festival since 1986 – they’ve loved all my films that have been there,” says Lee, 68, speaking on a recent video call from his residence at Oak Bluffs in Martha’s Vineyard, in the US state of Massachusetts.
“May 19, 2025, was a continuation of that. I don’t think it was a mistake that the world premiere of Do the Right Thing was May 19, 1989. I don’t think it was a mistake that May 19, 2025, was Malcolm X’s 100th birthday.
“For me, some things you just cannot explain. They just happen. And to add to that, this is the first time [actor] Denzel [Washington] has ever been to Cannes with a film.”
He pauses: “It was ancestral spirits, whatever you want to call it,” he says, adding with a mischievous cackle, “But not voodoo!”
A reimagining of Japanese auteur Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 thriller High and Low, Highest 2 Lowest stars Washington as a wealthy music mogul whose livelihood is threatened by a life-or-death ransom demand.