Taking Woodstock at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival

Today's competition features a film by a Cannes regular, Ang Lee, who is making his fourth appearance for Taking Woodstock starring Liev Schreiber and Eugene Levy. Lee is probably best known for his acclaimed film, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. France enters its home-country festival today with Un Prophete, or A Prophet, directed by Jacques Audiard.

Taking Woodstock synopsis:

It’s 1969, and Elliot Tiber, a down-on-his-luck interior designer in Greenwich Village, New York, has to move back upstate to help his parents run their dilapidated Catskills motel, the El Monaco. The bank is about to foreclose; his father wants to burn the place down, but hasn’t paid the insurance; and Elliot is still figuring how to come out to his parents. When Elliot hears that a neighbouring town has pulled the permit on a hippie music festival, he calls the producers, thinking he could drum up some much needed business for the motel. Three weeks later, half a million people are on their way to his neighbour's farm in White Lake, NY, and Elliot finds himself swept up in a generation-defining experience that would change his life, and popular culture, forever.

Un Prophete (A Prophet) synopsis:

Condemned to six years in prison, Malik El Djebena cannot read nor write. Arriving at the jail entirely alone, he appears younger and more fragile than the other convicts. He is 19 years old. Cornered by the leader of the Corsican gang who rules the prison, he is given a number of "missions" to carry out, toughening him up and gaining the gang leader’s confidence in the process. But Malik is brave and a fast learner, daring to secretly develop his own plans...

According to the Cannes Film Festival, actors spotted or expected in Cannes today are: Anne Alvaro, Niels Arestrup, Rosanna Arquette, Monica Bellucci, Richard Berry, Michel Boujenah, Didier Bourdon, Rachida Brakni, Marion Cotillard, Mariah Carey, Robert Charlebois, Abbie Cornish, Guillaume Canet, Mathieu Demy, Cecile De France, Franck Dubosc, Vincent Elbaz, Jeremy Elkaim, Michael Fassbender, Ralph Fiennes, Kerry Fox, Marissa Gibson, Laura Harring, Johnny Hallyday, Lenny Kravitz, Gabrielle Lazure, Jerry Lewis, Pio Marmai, Sophie Marceau, Tonie Marshall, Sarah Marshall, Demetri Martin, Isabelle Mergault, Rowan McNamara, Graham McTavish, Kad Merad, Isabelle Mergault, Paula Patton, Kevin Pollak, Laura Ramsey, Jean Reno, Giovanni Ribisi, Tilda Swinton, Said Taghmaoui, Fred Testot, Sylvie Testud, Gérard Watkins, Rachel Weisz, Felicité Wouassi.

Today's schedule

COMPÉTITION - Grand Théâtre Lumière

8:30am, 3:00pm and 6:30pm : UN PROPHETE (A Prophet) by Jacques AUDIARD - 2h30
12:00 noon and 10:00pm : TAKING WOODSTOCK by Ang LEE - 2h00

OUT OF COMPETITION - Grand Théâtre Lumière

00:30am : NE TE RETOURNE PAS (Don’t Look Back) by Marina De Van - 1h51

UN CERTAIN REGARD - Salle Debussy

11:30am and 4:45pm: SAMSON AND DELILAH by Warwick THORNTON - 1h41
2:00pm and 10:00pm: MOTHER by BONG Joon Ho - 2h09

SPECIAL SCREENINGS – Salle du Soixantième

5:00pm: JAFFA by Keren YEDAYA -1h46

CANNES CLASSICS - Salle Buñuel

2:00pm: LES VACANCES DE MONSIEUR HULOT (Mr Hulot’s Holiday) by Jacques TATI - 1h28
4:00pm: AL-MOMIA (The Mummy) by Shadi Abdel Salam - 1h43
7:30pm: ACCIDENT by Joseph LOSEY - 1h45 (Salle du Soixantième)
7:15pm: PIERROT LE FOU by Jean-Luc GODARD - 1H47

LE CINÉMA DE LA PLAGE

8:30pm: John Erik Kaada 45’
9:30pm: SOUNDTRACK FOR A REVOLUTION by Bill GUTTENTAG, Dan STURMAN - 1h22

Find out more about the 2009 Cannes Film Festival.

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_{Image of Taking Woodstock scene, copyright Cannes Film Festival}