First takes of Thirst and Taking Woodsock at Cannes

Now both Thirst and Taking Woodstock have had their press screenings, and reviews and reactions are bubbling up.

At Empire Magazine, Damon Wise wrote a lovely response to Ang Lee’s new film Taking Woodstock.  As he says, he hadn’t planned to see the movie, but now he’s glad he did, calling it “the first truly great movie to receive its world premiere in 2009.” In line with Lee’s other films, Taking Woodstock, according to Wise "is a fantastic coming-of-age movie, even though its hero is well into his twenties. It's a film about identity and family, the past as well as the future – the most exciting thing about it is its optimism…. Lee's film pulls you into it and immerses you in the fearlessness, humanity and full visceral thrill of getting involved in something so primal and communal.” In short, it is about America. Over at Time, film critic Richard Corliss has just seen Park Chan-wook’s Thirst, and seems deeply satisfied. For Corliss, "Thirst — with its irresistible one-line sales pitch: a priest becomes a vampire — is his richest, craziest, most mature work yet. Corliss goes on to detail not only the crazed horror plot, but to highlight the film’s remarkable actors. Of the vampire’s object of affection, Corliss writes, "it's the lovely Kim[Ok-vin], just 22, who is the revelation here. She can play — no, she can be — a creature of mute docility, then searching ardor, then explosive eroticism, then murderous intent. She is Lady Chatterley and Lady Macbeth in one gorgeous, smoldering package."