"Summer of Sam”, dir. Spike Lee, running time 142’, 1999.
In comparison with mainstream US cinema, Spike Lee's filmography has always been opinionated, hard-hitting and socially-inclined. The filmmaker's radical outlook, his fight for civil rights and the empowerment of Afro-Americans as well as his unparalleled skills as a director and his gift of on-screen story-telling, all of which have contributed to the development of his highly individualised cinematic poetics, impacting the aesthetics of his output. He is a contemporary classic whose new productions are eagerly awaited by critics and anticipated by cinema-goers.
As part of our Miasto Movie in the Summertime series we will screen one of the finest examples of Spike Lee's mastery - his bitter-sweet comedy-drama "Summer of Sam." This is a multi-layered narrative taking place in New York's Bronx, which is known for its flamboyant and heady mixture of socially diverse cultures and ethnicities. It is the residents of this borough - representing a catalogue of different races, genders, nationalities, subcultures and pastimes - that constitute the collective protagonist of this unusual tale.
As his focaliser and his movie's narrative catalyst, Spike Lee chose a distinct and almost momentous period in New York's recent history - the summer of 1977, notorious for its oppressive and discomforting heatwave. In the background, as the movie's soundtrack, disco music segues into punk rock, the then cutting-edge sound freshly imported from England; the almost scorching hot New York air is electric with approaching revolutionary energy, with the social change to come. This pressure-cooker atmosphere is made more tense by the series of breaking news regarding a serial killer, dubbed "the Son of Sam" by the press.
As before, in a number of his other films, Spike Lee treats us to a refined cinematic masterpiece that ought not to be missed if only because of John Leguizamo's and Adrien Brody's performances who prove that they are both more than capable of transgressing their more often typecast roles.
Free Admission
Organiser: Workshops of Culture
Partner: Dominican Monastery in Lublin
"Miasto movie in the summertime" („Miasto movie latem w plenerze”) is part of the „Dzielnice Kultury – Program Rozwoju Kultury w Dzielnicach Lublina” programme.