Cycnos | Volume 29.2 - Le Méchant à l'écran. Les paradoxes de l'indispensable figure du mal | II Esthétique et idéologie du mal contemporain

Résumé :

Adapted from a novel by Richard Price, Clockers belongs to the cycle of hood films which emerged in the 1990s. Spike Lee challenges the conventions of the genre in order to produce another image of the ghetto : he character of the dealer does not fit the stereotype of the « bad guy » which the genre and the media promote. Torn between his conscience as a dutiful son and his commitments as a dealer, Strike does not embody that urban violence which rappers sing about. The director leaves his auteurist signature on the film through a musical score that unfolds a metatextual counterpoint to the film diegesis. The singularity of his vision seeps in the interstices between the sound and the image tracks.

Mots-clés : race, stereotypes, violence, gangster films, African American cinema, African American ghetto, bad guys, Brooklyn, Clockers, dealers, drug war, hood films, Spike Lee, rap, reflexivity, soundtrack, theatricality

Date de publication : 2018-07-23