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Spike Lee essential films for aspiring directors.


Some dubious choices from the list. No Silents represented, nor many foreign classics, while Mel Gibson somehow gets to occupied a spot on Spike list. The list also just strikes me as little too bland, at least for my own particular idiosyncratic taste.

First, there are too many on his list. After four or five, particularly if its off the cuff, it becomes a list of one's preferences and tastes rather rather than a strictly considered sample.

With the operative words being aspiring directors three films came immediately to mind and I wondered if Spike had them on his list. Only one: Rashomon.

Not surprising that he left out many of his very successful contemporaries.

This is just a quick note to thank Dark Imbecile for doing a great job in the big task of tidying up, removing dead links, updating Spike Lee's filmography and adding forum and web resources to the first post!

Lee's next feature will be a "SINGIN', ALL DANCIN' MUSICAL" based on an Esquire article about the creation of Viagra.

The Fanciful Norwegian wrote: Tue Nov 17, 2020 6:12 pm Lee's next feature will be a "SINGIN', ALL DANCIN' MUSICAL" based on an Esquire article about the creation of Viagra.

This sounds more promising thatn Prince of Cats.

Good New Yorker interview with Lee, in which he touches at one point on a new project:

Vinson Cunningham wrote:...I saw in Deadline that you wrote the script for a musical about Viagra?

Co-wrote. My co-writer, his name is Kwame Kwei-Armah. Black British guy. It’ll be my first singing-and-dancing, swinging musical. And it’s about how Viagra came to the world, no pun intended, through Pfizer.

He’s made musicals before so I’m curious what his distinction on this is?

It's his first musical about swingers?

To the surprise of pretty much nobody (as he cheerfully acknowledged himself), Lee has endorsed Zohran Mamdani for New York Mayor.

Is that bad?

It's a statement of fact; whether you regard it as "good" or "bad" depends on your opinion of the gentlemen concerned.

If your opinion of Mamdani is positive, you'll regard it as good news; if it's negative, you'll regard it as bad news. If you dislike both Lee and Mamdani, you might conceivably regard it as good news (since you'll be convinced that others share your dislike and that this will rebound negatively on Mamdani's campaign), but if you like one and not the other, you'll most likely regard it as bad news.

Does that cover everything?

Sorry I asked.

I think it's a good idea the politics thread got put on ice.

The Curious Sofa wrote: Mon Aug 18, 2025 4:16 pm I think it's a good idea the politics thread got put on ice.

Agreed.

The Curious Sofa wrote: Mon Aug 18, 2025 4:16 pm I think it's a good idea the politics thread got put on ice.

This is precisely why I answered that question in the way that I did!

MichaelB wrote: Mon Aug 18, 2025 5:57 pm

The Curious Sofa wrote: Mon Aug 18, 2025 4:16 pm I think it's a good idea the politics thread got put on ice.

This is precisely why I answered that question in the way that I did!

I didn't think anything else.