Jungle Fever

Flipper Purify is an architect living in Harlem, married, with a daughter and a career going well. The new secretary at his office, Angie, is Italian American from Bensonhurst. The moment anything starts between them it stops being about the two of them and spreads across two neighbourhoods: his wife, her father, the church, the coffee shop, the street, everyone has a view and almost none of it concerns the relationship itself. The film's claim is that this is not love but curiosity about each other. Spike Lee has the characters say so outright, and the hardest passage is the long scene of the women talking in a kitchen. The subplot is the strongest thing in it. Flipper's brother Gator is an addict working his family for money. Samuel L. Jackson plays Gator. Spike Lee wrote and directed. Wesley Snipes plays Flipper and Annabella Sciorra plays Angie. It screened at the 44th Cannes Film Festival on 16 May 1991. For Jackson's performance the jury specially revived a supporting performance award that was not being given at the time, and handed it to him. Who it is for: anyone who likes Spike Lee and films that talk directly about race and class. Who it is not for: anyone expecting a balanced love story. The central relationship is deliberately underwritten, the argument scenes run long, and the film cares more about the surroundings than the couple.