Yesterday Spike Lee descended on Cannes to unveil the first images and outtakes from his new picture miracle at St. Anna.
Lee showed eight minutes of the film, which is written by James McBride, and shows the forgotten contributions to the Second World War by African American soldiers.
Miracle at St. Anna chronicles the story of four black American soldiers who are members of the US Army as part of the all-black 92nd Buffalo Soldier Division stationed in Tuscany, Italy during World War II.
They experience the tragedy and triumph of the war as they find themselves trapped behind enemy lines and separated from their unit after one of them risks his life to save an Italian boy.
But not content on just promoting his movie he took a swipe at several of his directing peers including this year’s Cannes favourite Clint Eastwood and Joel and Ethan Coen.
Lee heavily criticised Eastwood’s war effort Flags of our Fathers and Letters From Iwo Jima for not showing, in the two films collective time of four hours, ‘one negro actor on the screen’.
He also had some harsh words for the Coen brothers, who won the Best Director Oscar for No Country for Old Men at this year’s ceremony, claiming that they ‘treated life like a joke’.
He went on to claim that in his movies he treats both life and death with respect.
Spike Lee wasn’t the only one on Cannes with something to protest about as five Myanmar monks marched through movie fans gathered in the town for the festival.
The monks were demanding that the Southeast Asian government open the Burmese boarders to allow foreign aid into the country to help those left wounded and homeless by the cyclone that killed millions.
Two Lovers was also on show last night, but there was no Joaquin Phoenix on the red carpet after his doctor refused to let him fly due to ill health.
Also starring Gwyneth Paltrow, who attended Cannes for the first time, Two Lovers centres around a depressed young man’s life is turned around after he moves back in with his parents and two women enter it a beautiful volatile neighbour trapped in an affair and the lovely daughter of a close family friend.
The film is the third time that Phoenix has teamed up with American director James Gray and this is the third consecutive In Competition film for the director after The Yards and We Own the Night.
