Actor Emile Hirsch (left) with Ang Lee on the set of Taking Woodstock. Photo by Ken Regan
Ang Lee has seamlessly jumped from Jane Austen fare (Sense and Sensibility) to gracefully flying martial artists (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) to giant green comic book superheroes (Hulk) to lovelorn cowboys (Brokeback Mountain) to a film called Lust, Caution (which is basically self-explanatory). With his latest film, Taking Woodstock, Lee shows that his directing chops are harmoniously schizophrenic and that he has a focused connection with any film that he tackles.
“I make a movie to try and find out why I am connected to a certain subject matter,” says Lee. “That’s the way I learn about the world and myself. (The subject matter) is already connected to me and the world to begin with; but finding out why it’s connected is a mystery – like religion. I have faith in it.”
“Other directors develop scores and screenplays at a time,” adds Taking Woodstock screenwriter and producer James Schamus, “You can’t get Ang to read anything else while he’s doing a movie. He’s a serially monogamous kind of director.”
Taking Woodstock is based on Elliot Tiber’s memoir about how him and his family inadvertently spearheaded the iconic Woodstock Music and Arts festival in 1969. Although the movie paints a picture of flower child love, Lee digs deeper into content and explores how Woodstock was more than what was happening on stage. He says that it was a time when we lost our innocence and how Woodstock was like the turning of the page in history. All of this was a grand backdrop for the emotional meat of the movie.
“It’s a family drama,” says Lee. “It was a time when kids were leaving their families to find freedom. It was how life moves on.”
Comedian and actor, Demetri Martin plays Elliot in the film and for him, illustrating this important aspect of Lee’s vision with his on-screen mom and dad (played by Imelda Staunton and Henry Goodman) was a bit of a challenge.
“I knew (Staunton and Goodman) were experienced actors. I was hoping that I didn’t mess up scenes,” says Martin. “Those apprehensions were put at ease because both of them were very warm and seemed to be very excited to be working on the film.”
While trying to “find his character,” Martin took the lead from his co-stars and followed there methodology of acting, but Lee urged him to find a different route.
“I would try to talk about my character but I really didn’t know what the hell I was doing,” laughs Martin. “We were rehearsing with Ang and he kind of led everything to determine the tempo. Henry would have ideas and talk to Ang about it and then I thought that is what you were supposed to do. Later, Ang told me that they were much more experienced and that I didn’t have to do it the way they did it. He just told me to do it. He told me just to be in the present and pay attention and I will be fine.”
Like Martin, Lee is always looking out for personal enrichment with his movies. Whether it is the delving into a pivotal moment in history seen through the eyes of a Jewish family Wallkill, NY or the story of Connecticut suburbanites experimenting with drugs and sex in the ‘70s (The Ice Storm) Lee says he uses issues that he cares about and at the same time, they have relevance during that period of time. With Woodstock there is a clear scope on “change.” In other words: “Barack Obama.”
“It seems like there’s this idea of hope,” says Martin. “I like the idea of a generation mobilizing. It seems that the more people care about something that is larger than themselves, the more it has resonance to that time.”
“When we started this movie, Obama just had put his hat in the ring for presidency,” says Schamus. “Then as we were filming we were seeing what was going on and thought it was pretty cool.”
For Lee, he likes to pay attention to certain phenomenon with cinematic philosophy and although he sees the parallels in Woodstock, he is just as concerned as enriching himself with his work.
“My movies are a way for me to put in my two cents to this country,” says the Taiwanese director. “I just want to make those movies that are important to me.“
It’s no coincidence that they are important to us too.
Dino-Ray Ramos is a fashion, entertainment and pop culture writer based in San Francisco. Read more from Ramos here: http://blog.dinoray.com/
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