Music and love down on the farm

TAKING WOODSTOCK Cert 15 Quad, Derby Market Place Tomorrow, 2pm

"IF you can remember the 60s, you weren't there," goes the old line.

Thank goodness, then, for Oscar-winning director Ang Lee and screenwriter James Schamus, who collaborate again on this recreation of Woodstock, the festival that defined a generation.

Rather than recreate the music performances, the film unfolds through the eyes of the Jewish family who invited hundreds of thousands of music-loving strangers to their sleepy corner of Bethel, New York.

It's a fascinating yarn, adapted from Elliot Tiber's celebrated memoir Taking Woodstock: A True Story of a Riot, a Concert and a Life.

Elliot (Demetri Martin) – born Teichberg – goes home to hen-pecked father Jake (Henry Goodman) and harridan mother Sonia (Imelda Staunton) to help the family's ailing motel.

Learning that a music festival is looking for a suitable location, Elliot contacts its organiser Michael Lang (Jonathan Groff) and puts him in touch with a neighbouring farmer.

The Woodstock committee takes up residence at the El Monaco Motel as a stream of hippies passes through.

For the Midweek Treat, Quad has teamed up with the Derby Telegraph to offer an old-style midweek matinee. Each Wednesday at 2pm, Qt's film critic Nigel Powlson introduces a film at a bargain admission price of £5 (£4 concessions) including a free tea or coffee and biscuits.

NEXT WEEK: Britain braces itself for war in Glorious 39 (Cert 12A) on Wednesday, December 9, at 2pm.