- Title: USA: Stars get groovy in Ang Lee's new film "Taking Woodstock"
- Date: 31st July 2009
- Summary: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (JULY 29, 2009) (REUTERS-ACCESS ALL) *** ( BEWARE FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY ** ) EXTERIOR OF SUNSHINE CINEMA ARTIST PETER MAX ARRIVES IN "HIPPIE VAN" ARTIST PETER MAX WITH 'FRIENDS' DIRECTOR ANG LEE WITH WIFE JANE LIN (SOUNDBITE) (English) DIRECTOR ANG LEE SAYING: "Well the timely music we put in in little drops. Mostly recalling the time and the brilliant music and the innocence and that kind of spirit, and of course the music of Woodstock, we hear it in the movie." DIRECTOR ANG LEE TALKING WITH PRESS (SOUNDBITE) (English) DIRECTOR ANG LEE SAYING: "Mostly the top-10s on the list -- I wasn't that hip as a kid! But I saw the event on television news in black and white." COMEDIAN DEMETRI MARTIN (SOUNDBITE) (English) COMEDIAN DEMETRI MARTIN SAYING: "I think Ang was very meticulous trying to make things as authentic as they could be. So in the end you feel like you're a part of something that's trying very hard to be real." COMEDIAN DEMETRI MARTIN TALKING WITH PRESS (SOUNDBITE) (English) COMEDIAN DEMETRI MARTIN SAYING: "No, I looked to the left once, when he wanted me to look to the right, that was about it. But that was pretty much. . . not too much improv. I don't think I changed at all. I don't think there was one word that I changed." ACTOR EMILE HIRSCH WITH GIRLFRIEND BRIANNA DOMONT (SOUNDBITE) (English) ACTOR EMILE HIRSCH SAYING: "It was amazing you know, he really did an incredible job of recreating the kind of spirit of Woodstock, and the kind of '60s energy that people from my generation only heard about and saw in maybe a documentary. So it was kind of fun as someone from another generation to kind of step back and see what it was maybe like and live in that generation -- the innocence and fun, you know." ACTOR EMILE HIRSCH AND WRITER ELLIOT TIBER TALKING WITH PRESS (SOUNDBITE) (English) WRITER ELLIOT TIBER SAYING: "Well, it's my journey and it was a dream, and the dream comes true. And when I saw a screening of it -- the first one -- I see my family and I really cried a lot, cause the actors look and act like my family so it really touched me." PHOTOGRAPHER (SOUNDBITE) (English) WRITER ELLIOT TIBER SAYING: "Freedom -- Richie Havens. When he sang that, it. . . I understood then what it all meant. It was freedom for me: I was a gay man, and I had to be in the closet, and this let me come out, and my parents saw me finally. And it turned out it meant freedom for a lot of people around the world: I've been traveling around the world all these years taking Woodstock with me, so to speak. I get that feedback."
- Embargoed: 15th August 2009 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Usa
- Country: USA
- Reuters ID: LVAKEQQJNBEWIWA04KDXZRZY8L3
- Story Text: Forty years after the fabled concert, director Ang Lee brings Woodstock to the silver screen in "Taking Woodstock."
Forty years after the iconic '60s musical bash, Academy Award-winning director Ang Lee brings the spirit of Woodstock to theaters in "Taking Woodstock."
The new film based on the memoirs of Elliot Tiber premiered on Thursday (July 29) in New York. The comedy stars Demetri Martin as Elliot, who inadvertently played a role in making 1969's Woodstock Music and Arts Festival into the famed happening it was.
In the summer of 1969, Elliot has to move back in with his overbearing parents who are running their dumpy Catskills hotel into the ground. In order to help save the motel from being taken over by the bank, Elliot offers his family business and a much needed public permit to promoters of a wayward concert to generate some much-needed business. Soon half a million people are on their way for "3 days of Peace & Music in White Lake" and the making of cultural history.
Lee, whose films have captured various historical epochs, was drawn to the "innocence" and freedom of the 1960s, but also, the director admits, he wanted to make a comedy.
"Mostly, [the film is] recalling the time and the brilliant music and the innocence and that kind of spirit," Lee said. "And of course the music of Woodstock, we hear it in the movie."
However, the academy award-winner, who was fourteen in Taiwan in 1969, said he wasn't caught up in the music at the time.
"I wasn't that hip as a kid! But I saw the event on television news in black and white," Lee said.
Despite not being influenced with the spirit of the times, Lee's cast were amazed at how their director captured the period.
"I think Ang was very meticulous trying to make things as authentic as they could be. So in the end you feel like you're a part of something that's trying very hard to be real," said comedian Martin, who made his first starring-role in a film.
"He really did an incredible job of recreating the kind of spirit of Woodstock, and the kind of '60s energy that people from my generation only heard about," confirmed co-star Emile Hirsch, who plays recently returned Vietnam veteran Billy.
"So it was kind of fun as someone from another generation to kind of step back and see what it was like and live in that generation -- the innocence and fun," Hirsch added.
For Elliot, who finished his memoir "Taking Woodstock: the true story of a riot, a concert, and a life" in 2007, the completion of the movie was a dream come true and seven years in the making.
"It's my journey and it was a dream, and the dream comes true. And when I saw a screening of it -- the first one -- I see my family and I really cried a lot," Elliot said.
The film features a standout ensemble cast, including Liev Schrieber as a cross-dressing ex-marine named Vilma, and songs from a score of '60s musical icons including The Grateful Dead, The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, and Janis Joplin - plus a new recording of "Freedom" from Richie Havens.
"Freedom -- Richie Havens. When he sang that, it. . . I understood then what it all meant. It was freedom for me: I was a gay man, and I had to be in the closet, and this let me come out, and my parents saw me finally," said Elliot. "And it turned out it meant freedom for a lot of people around the world: I've been traveling around the world all these years taking Woodstock with me."
"Taking Woodstock" opens across the U.S. on Friday, August 28th. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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