Spike Lee on his 2 passions, the Knicks and cinema, in Cannes

There’s no sufficient way of explaining what it’s like to be around Spike Lee, but his new film, “Highest 2 Lowest” comes pretty close.

The main character, played by Denzel Washington, is a Knicks fan who won’t tolerate Celtics green in his house. A framed jersey of Jalen Brunson hangs in his Brooklyn apartment. There are movie references peppered throughout, of “The French Connection,” “The Defiant Ones” and “The Sweet Smell of Success.” Yankee Stadium plays a pivotal setting. In one scene, Nicholas Turturro even yells directly into the camera: “Boston sucks!”

“We’re not counting on Boston for box office!” Lee says with a roaring cackle during an interview on a rooftop terrace in Cannes. “We might as well just write that off.”

Some of Lee’s most deeply felt passions — filmmaking and the New York Knicks — have collided at the Cannes Film Festival. The premiere of “Highest 2 Lowest,” a reimagining of Akira Kurosawa’s “High to Low,” came shortly before the Knicks begin their Eastern Conference finals matchup with the Indiana Pacers. Everywhere Lee has gone at the French Riviera festival, he’s gone in blue and orange, including a pinstripe suit on the red carpet.

“It’s a film by a New Yorker who loves New York. But if you’re not that, it doesn’t detract from you enjoying it. You could be from … (Lee raises an eyebrow) … Indiana,” Lee says before letting out a maniacal roar. “Wait a minute, we got to write off another market, too!”

The Denzel fracas on the red carpet

“Highest 2 Lowest,” which A24 releases in theaters Aug. 22 before it streams on Apple TV+ on Sept. 5, was one of the most eventful premieres of Cannes. Washington was surprised with a Palme d’Or. (“That wasn’t acting,” Lee said. “He didn’t know. Only three or four people knew.”) Washington also got in an angry tangle with a photographer on the red carpet after his arm was grabbed.

“I wish I could’ve told that photographer: ‘Do not touch Denzel Washington or it’s going to be a (expletive) problem,’” Lee says, laughing. “The headline, ‘Man on Fire,’ hoooooo! That was a good headline.”

Lee then picks up the digital recorder lying in front of him and says in a calm, professional voice: “Ladies and gentleman, this is a public service announcement. Do not put your hands on Mr. Denzel Washington. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Thank you very much.”

But Lee, 68, has been more than happy to mix it up in Cannes. Before an interview, he taunted European journalists about his adopted Premier League team, Arsenal. At the press conference earlier in the day, he quoted Yoda for his primary message to film students: “There is no try, only do.” Said Lee: “Are you faking the funk or are you serious?”

Lee’s history with Cannes

Lee, who last debuted 2018’s “BlacKkKlansman” in Cannes, tried to avoid saying anything too pointed about President Donald Trump. But couldn’t help himself when asked about the moral decisions that mark “Highest 2 Lowest.”

“I don’t know how much we can talk about American values considering who is president,” Lee told reporters.

Lee was also on an apology tour at the festival. Four years ago, he was the head of the jury that awarded Julia Ducournau’s “Titane” the Palme d’Or. Only Lee, confused by the French-language ceremony, accidentally revealed the winner too soon. “Oh, that’s a big one,” said Lee, shaking his head. “That’s going down in the history of Cannes.”

Just ahead of Lee’s interview with The Associated Press, Ducournau, in Cannes with her “Titane” follow-up, “Alpha,” crossed the terrace to warmly embrace him. Recalling “Titane,” Lee said, “A car impregnates a woman? You gotta win. You got my vote.”

An ode to Kurosawa that’s uniquely Spike Lee

“Highest 2 Lowest” has been referred to as a remake of “High and Low,” but the degree to which it’s a Spike Lee joint surprised festivalgoers. Washington plays David King, a wealthy record label executive whose son, along with the son of his friend and driver (Jeffrey Wright), is kidnapped for ransom. The kidnapper, played by A$AP Rocky, accidentally releases the wrong young man, leaving King with the decision to fork over the $17.5 million ransom for a young man who’s not his son.

The film is, in part, an ode to Kurosawa, whom Lee discovered as a film student at NYU. He credits his “Rashomon” as the basis of “She’s Gotta Have It.” He met Kurosawa briefly once and has an autograph from the Japanese master signed with a paint brush. “I got to shake his hand,” says Lee.

“I grew up with my mother taking me to musicals,” he says. “The Sound of Music” was one. If you listen to that great song by Rogers and Hammerstein with Julie Andrews singing it. What did Coltrane do to it? That’s my analogy. What Coltrane did to ‘My Favorite Things,’ I think that’s what we did with this.”

“Highest 2 Lowest” is less driven as a Kurosawa homage than by Lee’s own obsessions: New York, music, the moral dilemmas of a Black entertainer and, yes, that Boston sucks. Above all, it’s another Lee protagonist forced to do the right thing.

“I’m glad you said that. I never thought about that connected to the decisions David King has to make,” Lee says. “But what you see is the turmoil he’s going through. He’s going through it. A moral decision. Money on one hand, a life on the other.”

A (maybe) last hurrah for Spike and Denzel

More than any recent film of his, you can sense Lee having fun. Back in New York. Back with Denzel. “Highest 2 Lowest” is Lee and Washington’s fifth film together but the first in 19 years after 2006’s “Inside Man.” “It’s not like we had to catch up,” Lee says. “We never lost a step.”

But Lee suspects “Highest 2 Lowest” marks the end of their collaboration — one of cinema’s greatest actor-director pairings, spanning “Mo’ Better Blues,” “Malcolm X” and “He Got Game.”

“That’s what he says,” Lee shrugs, citing Washington’s retirement plans. “And then the other day he’s doing a film with the guy from ‘City of God,’ so. Denzel put that on himself: ‘I’m doing this thing and then I’m retiring.’ I’ll believe it when he hangs it up.”

“Highest 2 Lowest” reaches a blistering crescendo when King confronts Rocky’s kidnapper in a basement recording studio. A kind of rap battle ensues that Lee gives much of the credit to Washington for. The actor improvised many of his lyrics, drawing heavily from Nas. (“That was not scripted,” says Lee. “We had to pay for that!”)

“People don’t understand. Denzel is such a powerful force. Not a derogatory term, but he’s a beast. If you got somebody who don’t got it, Denzel is going to slaughter them. SLAUGHTER,” Lee explains. “Rocky is from Harlem, uptown. So I knew that he’s not going to punk out. He’s going to stand there, feet planted to the ground, as a heavyweight fight, blow to blow to blow.”

For Lee, the scene is a summation of what he loves about moviemaking and what delights him so much courtside at Madison Square Garden.

“People want to see a championship fight, and that’s what it is. That is, in boxing terms, a slugfest,” says Lee. ”That makes great cinema. It makes great sports. You’ve got conflict. It’s a battle, and they’re slugging it out.”