After its initial reception in the US, Spike Lee probably thought he would be lucky to get a video screening for Girl 6 at the VSDA convention in Los Angeles this July. Instead, thanks to his very special relationship with Gilles Jacob and the Cannes Film Festival which stretches back over a decade, he is back on the Riviera with a special midnight, out of competition screening for his latest work.
Almost all of Lee's oeuvre has appeared in one section or another, most notably his 1989 in competition hit Do the Right Thing which lost out to sex, lies and videotape, and again in competition two years later when Jungle Fever was eclipsed by the Coen brothers' Barton Fink. This is Cannes though, and Lee is to Cannes what Greg Norman is to the Masters. A man who looks doomed to be the bridesmaid but never the bride; green jackets and Palme d'Ors, or lack of them, appear to go hand in hand.
Happily for Lee, Jacob has saved him the embarrassment of facing up to Francis Ford Coppola and his jury by keeping Girl 6 out of competition. And it may even find a sympathetic audience of festival goers hoping for a cheap sexual thrill, implicit in the title, the subject matter and a midnight screening slot.
The premise behind the film seemed promising enough, at least on paper. Girl 6 tells the story of a young out-of-work black actress, played by Theresa Randle, who discovers that her artistic talents are better employed and rewarded as a nameless telephone sex operator, Girl 6, than as a struggling thespian. Given the film's content - an attractive woman surrounded by amorous suitors - there was even a hope that Lee might be inspired to reprise the form and tone of She's Gotta To Have It, the 1986 film which shot him to international prominence among a certain niche audience of festival firebrands.
She's Gotta Have It was Lee's second film, and established the director as the new voice of black American cinema, a position he continues to hold a decade later almost unchallenged, despite occasional attempts to push him off his pedestal. Since then his career has followed a roller-coast ride of commercial and critical highs and lows, but he remains popular -- for the moment -- with the studios for delivering films on time and on budget.
Lee also soothes Hollywood's social conscience, and although it is a moot point whether Tinseltown actually has one, there is no doubting that the People magazine's attack and the Rev. Jessie Jackson's crusade over industry discrimination, struck a raw nerve. And, in part, this might help to explain why the festival decided to give Lee and Girl 6 a break after seeing the final finished film.
Perhaps the festival lives in the hope that Girl 6 will deliver an all-star supporting cast to the Palais' red carpet, a rumoured anxiety of festival paladins who are supposedly in short supply of bankable names. Among those popping up in Girl 6, many in short cameos, are Quentin Tarantino, playing a New York director who wants to Girl 6 to remove her top; John Turturro as Murray, a theatrical agent; super model Naomi Campbell as Girl 75; Madonna as the boss of a more hard-core phone sex service; and Lee himself as Jimmy the baseball card collector who is Girl 6's neighbour. Then, of course, there is Prince who supplies the music, and a credit that for once does not list him as "the artist formerly known as".
It would be wrong to suggest that Girl 6 has been anything but a commercial and critical failure in the States. Even Lee's most vocal supporters were disappointed by the end result, and the film's uphill struggle to reach US$5 million at the US box-office was just one more disappointment. Coming as it did after Clockers $13 million theatrical box office gross against a $25 million budget; the Majors may start to take a harder look at the filmmaker's commercial credibility. Notwithstanding, Lee's latest Get On the Bus, a project inspired by the Million Man March on the White House, is already wrapped after a three week shoot, and is currently in post-production.
But this is Cannes so the audience and the critics will probably love Girl 6 when they see it tonight. Just as nobody questions Greg Norman's golfing prowess, Lee's talents as a film maker -- when he's on form -- have never been in doubt. He just has to find the right song to sing and perhaps then Lee will have another shot at the Palme d'Or, a prize, even more than the Academy Award, he so keenly covets.
After all, it's not over till the fat lady sings
Christopher Pickard
Prod Co: 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks
Prod/Dir: Spike Lee Scr: Suzan-Lori Parks
Ph: Malik Hassan Sayeed
Prod Des: Ina Mayhew Cos: Sandra Hernandez
Mus: Prince Ed: Sam Pollard
Cast: Theresa Randle, Spike Lee, Isaiah Washington, Jenifer Lewis, Ron Silver.
Running time: 109mins
Int Sales: Fox Searchlight
