SHE'S GOTTA HAVE IT, written and directed by Spike Lee

So, She's Gotta Have It just came on as the local Saturday night movie. Usually it's weird horror films from the 50s/60s/70s, so this is a surprise.

Apparently this was Lee's first feature-length film, and he plays a part in it (Mars Blackmon.) It came out in 1986. I've never seen it before, and actually I haven't seen most of Lee's films. As it happens, Clockers and Do the Right Thing are on my DVD mail-rental queue right now.

I remember going to see He Got Game in the theater, with my sister. It came out in 1998, so I must have been 15, my sister 13 1/2. We were visiting our grandparents in Florida for the summer. They dropped us off at the theater, and came to pick us up when the movie was over. I remember it clearly, because this couple in the row across the aisle from us actually had sex during the movie. Nothing like that had ever happened to me (well, near me) before. My grandparents never would have dropped us off if they'd known it was the kind of theater where that could go on without anyone complaining about it---I mean, it's not like the couple was even trying to be discreet---and of course we didn't tell them. I remember feeling kind of scandalized and kind of scared and kind of exhilarated.

Wow, She's Gotta Have It just went into color and then back to black and white.


Update 11 pm: Awwww. Wow again. I loved it.
(The TV dubbing-over of the profanity was hilarious, though.)

Here's a little article about Lee and his work.

*

I'm so glad I went to the Tucson Festival of Books today. I'll write about it soon here. I'm planning to go again tomorrow, if I can follow through on waking up early again.