The Guardian World News

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• Tsunami hits Japans after powerful earthquake
• Gaddafi takes key towns in Libya
• Muslim hearing 'is like reality TV'
• Feud claim as US kills Karzai's cousin
• Saudi police open fire on protesters
• Fred Goodwin gets superinjunction
• Gbagbo rejects diplomats' efforts
• Unions slam Hutton pension plan
• Andrew urged to have rights lessons
• Giffords to attend shuttle launch
• Blatter set for Fifa presidency battle
• MPs 'misled' over phone hacking
• Italy moves to sue judges for errors
• NZ 'accidental millionaire' in court
• Bradley Manning speaks out about his prison ordeal
• Me and Mrs Hemingway
• Nicolas Roeg: Bad timing
• Deviant sex intrigues me
• The lighter side of youth crime
• Hollywood's acting curse
• Chris Patten: 'I hardly ever watch TV'
• Burkina Faso film festival
• Errol Morris: two sides to a scandal
• The US's new psychedelia

Tsunami hits Japans after powerful earthquake Posted: 10 Mar 2011 10:44 PM PST Quake measured a magnitude of 8.8, triggering warnings of tsunami as high as six metres and shaking buildings in Tokyo A series of powerful earthquakes have struck north-east Japan on Friday afternoon, triggering warnings of tsunami as high as 10 metres and shaking buildings in Tokyo. The first earthquake struck at 2:46 pm local time and measured magnitude 8.8, according to the US geological survey. Within 30 minutes the same region was rocked by two more big quakes of slightly lower intensity, Japanese news reports said. The first quake, Japan's biggest for seven years, struck at a depth of six miles (9km) about 80 miles of the eastern coast, according to Japan's meteorological agency. The Pacific tsunami warning centre in Hawaii said a tsunami warning was in effect for Japan, Russia, Marcus Island and the Northern Marianas. A tsunami watch has been issued for Guam, Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia and Hawaii. All flights in Japan were grounded immediately after the quake while officials checked for runway damage. Strong tremors were felt in Tokyo about 30 minutes after the quake. Newsreaders in the capital wore helmets as they gave updates, while office workers rushed out of buildings on to the street. Television showed a building on fire in the Odaiba district of Tokyo, although it was not immediately clear if the blaze was connected to the earthquake. Other footage showed water levels rising quickly in the coastal town of Miyako in Iwate prefecture on Japan's north-east Pacific coast. Public broadcaster NHK showed cars, trucks, houses and buildings being swept away by tsunami in Onahama City in Fukushima prefecture. TV news presenters repeatedly warned people on the Pacific coast to head for higher ground. The quake is one of several to have struck north-east Japan this week, including one of magnitude 7.3 on Wednesday. In 1933, a magnitude 8.1 quake in the area killed more than 3,000 people. Last year fishing facilities were damaged after by a tsunami caused by a strong tremor in Chile. Japan is one of the most seismically active countries in the world, accounting for about 20% of the world's earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater. Japan Natural disasters and extreme weather Justin McCurry guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Gaddafi takes key towns in Libya Posted: 10 Mar 2011 12:44 PM PST • Rebels retreat from Ras Lanuf and Zawiya • Regime warns of full-scale military action • Nato in paralysis as US blocks no-fly zone • Navy chief says Britain ready to send more ships The Gaddafi regime has issued a defiant warning that the "time for action" had arrived as a sustained military assault forced the defeat of Libyan rebels in the strategically important town of Zawiya and their retreat from Ras Lanuf. Amid squabbling among EU and Nato leaders on the eve of an emergency European summit on Libya in Brussels, Muammar Gaddafi's son said that a new offensive would be launched within days. "It's time for liberation. It's time for action," Saif al-Islam told Reuters after the defeat of opposition forces in the town of Zawiya, 30 miles from Tripoli, and the rout of rebels in the town of Ras Lanuf. He added: "We are moving now." The tough rhetoric from the Gaddafi regime – and its apparent success on the ground against the rebels – set the scene for a difficult emergency EU summit where leaders are expected to clash on the military and diplomatic response to the gravest crisis on their doorstep since the collapse of Yugoslavia. Fears among Libyan opposition groups that they will be defeated by the time Europe and the US agree on a course of action were heightened when: • Nato was left paralysed as the US joined Germany in blocking the imposition of a no-fly zone supported by Britain and France. Robert Gates, the US defence secretary, said at a meeting of Nato defence ministers in Brussels that contingency planning for a no-fly zone would continue, before adding "that's the extent of it". Adding to the sense of diplomatic and political disarray, the AFP news agency reported that French president Nicolas Sarkozy will propose air strikes on Gaddafi's command headquarters to EU leaders. There was no confirmation by Sarkozy's office. • Britain and France, which led the calls for today's emergency summit in the face of scepticism from Germany, differed on how to deal with the rebels. William Hague shared the irritation of some of his counterparts at a foreign ministers' meeting in Brussels when it was announced in Paris that France was recognising the Transitional National Council as the "only legitimate representative of the Libyan people". Hague spoke by phone with Mahmoud Jabril, the council's special envoy, who is expected to attend tomorrow's EU summit. But Hague pointedly said: "That leadership are legitimate people to talk to, of course, but we recognise states rather than groups within states." • David Cameron and Sarkozy are also expected to clash today over the future of EU funding for north Africa and the Middle East. Britain wants to withhold £1bn in annual EU support for the region unless greater democracy is introduced. France is strongly opposed to the proposal which it regards as an assault on funding which benefits Francophone countries. • The Royal Navy is preparing a series of detailed contingency plans that could see more British ships being sent to the Libyan coast if ministers require them, the Commander of the Fleet has told the Guardian. In an exclusive interview, Admiral Sir Trevor Soar said that one option available to the government would be to deploy the Response Force Task Group – a new type of flexible unit that comprises up to six different support and warships. Cameron and Sarkozy tried to give the EU summit a sense of direction by submitting a series of proposals in a joint letter to Herman Van Rompuy, the council president. Their demands included the immediate departure of Gaddafi "and his clique", sending a "clear political signal" that the transitional council is seen by the EU as "valid political interlocutors" and for Gaddafi to call an immediate halt to the use of force against civilians. The leaders of Britain and France wrote: "This deliberate use of military force against civilians is utterly unacceptable. As warned by the security council, these acts may amount to crimes against humanity. All those involved in deciding, planning or executing such actions must know that they will be held accountable." The differences within the EU came as the US director of national intelligence, James Clapper, told Congress the rebels may face defeat because Gaddafi's forces are considerably better equipped. Clapper told the Senate's armed services committee the insurgents were in for a "tough roll" and in the longer term "the regime will prevail". He said: "We believe Gaddafi is in this for the long haul. He appears to be hunkering down for the duration." Washington tried to reach out to the rebel groups when Hillary Clinton announced she would meet opposition leaders in the US and during an overseas tour next week to France, Tunisia and Egypt. "We are standing with the Libyan people as they brave bombs and bullets to demand that Gaddafi must go – now," Clinton told a House panel in Washington. But her belated intervention came as the momentum in the conflict seemed to be shifting from the rebels, who only a week ago were advancing on Gaddafi's home town of Sirte, to pro-regime forces who have used aircraft, artillery and rockets to halt the rebels. In the last two weeks pro-Gaddafi forces have crushed dissent in the capital, Tripoli, and used tanks to stamp out opposition in Zawiya. With the capital and surrounding towns in western Libya increasingly secure, it had been expected that Gaddafi would turn his attention next to halting and then turning back the rebel advance from the east. Although the pro-Gaddafi forces struggled to defeat a numerically far smaller number of defenders in Zawiya, the regime has a huge military advantage in terms of tanks and rocket launchers and, crucially, modern attack aircraft which the opposition lacks. Its elite units – particularly the Khamis Brigades led by one of Gaddafi's sons, are far better trained and equipped than the often disorganised rebel forces. Gaddafi's son said the renewed offensive, which has been building for several weeks, would be launched following the refusal of rebels to negotiate or lay down arms. "Time is out now. It's time for action … we gave them two weeks [for negotiations]," Saif al-Islam said in a speech to supporters. The Libyan leader's son was referring to offers of a "national dialogue", approaches to tribal leaders and an offer of an amnesty made by his father last week. Rebel leaders in the east said they would accept nothing but Gaddafi's overthrow. Vowing that the rebels would be defeated, Saif said: "We will never ever give up. We will never ever surrender. This is our country. We fight here in Libya." Saif also warned against western military intervention. "The Libyan people, we will never ever welcome Nato, we will never ever welcome Americans here. Libya is not a piece of cake." Saif al-Islam described rebels determined to end Gaddafi's 41-year rule as terrorists and armed gangsters and said thousands of Libyans had volunteered to fight them. Additional reporting by Chris McGreal, Ewen MacAskill and Nick Hopkins Libya Muammar Gaddafi Nato Peter Beaumont Ian Traynor Nicholas Watt Nick Hopkins Chris McGreal Ewen MacAskill guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Muslim hearing 'is like reality TV' Posted: 10 Mar 2011 01:35 PM PST Organisers say hearing is vital to US security, but critics say it raises spectre of McCarthy witch-hunts A congressional hearing into home-grown Islamist terrorism opened with scenes of high emotion today as tears were shed by the first Muslim elected to Congress. The much anticipated hearing was claimed by its organisers to be crucial to national security but generated little new information or insight into how or whether al-Qaida was actively recruiting on US soil or how grave a potential threat that might be. Yvette Clarke, a New York Democrat, dismissed the proceedings as congressional theatre. "It's the equivalent of reality TV," she said. There was certainly drama. In the hearing's tense opening moments, Keith Ellison, a Democrat from Minnesota, broke down as he recalled a young Muslim paramedic who died during the 9/11 attacks. "Mohammed Salman Hamdani was a fellow American who gave his life for other Americans," Ellison said, his voice muffled by tears. "His life should not be defined as a member of an ethnic group or a member of a religion, but as an American who gave everything for his fellow citizens." The congressman then gathered his papers and was gone. Ellison's loss of composure was a reminder of the passions generated by a hearing focused solely on the threat posed by the radicalisation of America's five million Muslims and the response of community leaders to that threat. Peter King, the pugnacious Republican from New York who chairs the homeland security committee, had faced multiple calls to cancel the hearing. Protesters said the very title – "The Extent of Radicalisation in the American Muslim Community and that Community's Response" – reeked of a McCarthyite witch hunt against America's Muslims. King intends the hearing to be the first in a series of examinations on the rise of Islamist extremism within America. The hearings – even more controversially – are also exploring whether the Muslim community at large is refusing to co-operate with police. Even the White House warned against the danger of tarring an entire community. "In the United States we don't practise guilt by association," said spokesman Jay Carney. "We believe Muslim Americans are part of the solution." King was unmoved by the appeals. "I am well aware that these hearings have generated considerable controversy and opposition," he said. "But to back down would be a craven surrender to political pressure." He rejected the charge that the hearings were a 21st-century version of McCarthyism, or were inciting hatred with their specific focus on the response of the entire Muslim community. "There is nothing radical or un-American in holding these hearings." On a wet and dreary day, campaigners and members of the public began converging on the congressional office building at about 7am. A few had placards reading: "Today I am a Muslim too." Inside the packed committee room, however, the proceedings appeared to be in little danger of generating any insights into al-Qaida operations or threat levels on US soil. Much of the testimony offered up by witnesses was highly personal, anecdotal or a rehashing of FBI reports. The committee heard from the relatives of two young men who had been recruited by extremist networks, and the leader of a small community organisation who is a frequent commentator on Fox News; and Melvin Bledsoe described how his son, Carlos, accused of killing a soldier at an army recruiting centre in Arkansas, was manipulated by extremists at the local mosque in Nashville. "Carlos was captured by people best described as hunters," his father said. The sole security expert called was Lee Baca, sheriff of Los Angeles County, who told the committee that evidence from the Muslim community had helped thwart seven of the last 10 planned attacks. Response from members of Congress followed party lines. Democrats warned of the dangers of stigmatising an entire community, saying the committee should also investigate other extremists – white supremacists, the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis, eco-warriors; Republicans tried to explore whether mass-membership Muslim organisations were front groups for terror organisations. Members from both parties discussed their own faith traditions, and recounted their friends in the Muslim community. At one point, Sheila Jackson Lee, a veteran Democratic member of Congress from Texas, exploded. "There is no redeeming factual information that any of us will receive today," she said. "It has already been tainted, this hearing. There is no loud sign of reasoning coming out of this hearing." United States US Congress US politics Islam Religion Suzanne Goldenberg guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Feud claim as US kills Karzai's cousin Posted: 10 Mar 2011 12:53 PM PST Afghan president's brother says he fears forces acted on false information, possibly given as part of 30-year family blood feud At a time of unprecedented tension between the west and Hamid Karzai over the killing of civilians, Nato has accidentally shot dead one of the Afghan president's own family members during a botched night raid. Officials in the southern province of Kandahar said Haji Yar Mohammad Karzai, a second cousin of the president, was killed during an operation by US special forces in Karz, the ancestral Karzai home on the outskirts of Kandahar city. In what appears to have been a major intelligence failure, the 63-year-old tribal elder was mistaken for the father of a Taliban commander. This week the UN released figures showing the total number of civilians killed last year by the coalition and the Taliban reached an all-time high of 2,777, reflecting an escalation of violence by both sides. Mahmoud Karzai, one of the president's brothers, said he "smelled a very deep conspiracy" over the killing of Haji Yar Mohammad and said he feared Nato had been fed false information by someone from within the Karzai family. In keeping with the Islamic tradition of burying people within 24 hours of death, senior tribal leaders, including president Karzai's powerful half brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, gathered in Karz for the funeral on Thursdayafternoon. Karzai's spokesman, Waheed Omar, said the president was informed of the death in the morning and ordered an immediate investigation by Afghan security forces. "Like always with any other civilian casualty the president was saddened because he takes the loss of life extremely seriously," he said. Accounts of events from people in the village varied in small details, but all agreed that the operation happened sometime after midnight morning and that US soldiers were involved. "There were many tanks that came and surrounded the house, but they did not attack any other building," said Haji Padshah. "The Americans went in, brought out Haji Mohammad and shot him." Ahmadullah Nazak, chief of Dand district, where Karz is located, added that two of his bodyguards and a neighbour were arrested. "We don't know why the operation was carried out in his village, whether he was [targeted] or somebody else," he said. morning Nato's International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) initially claimed that its forces had killed the "father" of a Taliban commander who was wanted for his role in making car bombs. In the lead story of Isaf's daily "morning operational update" the coalition said it had successfully "captured a Taliban leader, killed one armed individual and detained several suspected insurgents". After ordering everyone to leave the building so they could search it someone spotted "an armed individual with an AK-47 in an adjacent building within the compound". The statement continued: "The security force assessed the male as an immediate threat to the security force, and engaged him. The individual killed was the father of the targeted individual." In the late afternoon, after news had broken that Karzai had been killed, the coalition published an "update" correcting its initial claim that the dead man was the father of an insurgent and saying an inquiry had been launched. Aktar Mohammad, a neighbour of Karzai, said the old man had a gun to defend his property, like everyone else in the village. Mahmoud Karzai, one of the president's brothers, said the killing was a "shocking development" and said he could not understand why Nato forces would be hunting down insurgents in the town of Karz, which is in the relatively peaceful district of Dand. "Karz is our stronghold, there are absolutely no Taliban there and there never will be," he said. Despite the Karzai family's grip on power for nearly 10 years, Karz remains a relatively poor and undeveloped village surrounded by farmland. Mahmoud Karzai said he believed there was a "deep conspiracy" behind the killing harking back to a family feud during the jihad against the Soviet Union of the 1980s when Yar Mohammad killed one of his cousins, Khalilullah Karzai. The 30-year-old dispute was widely cited as the reason why Yar Mohammad's 18-year-old son, Waheed, was shot dead in Karz in October 2009. "If this is a deliberate set-up where the US military is being given false information to settle a personal vendetta then this is very serious," Mahmoud Karzai said. If true, embarrassment over a blood feud within Afghanistan's most powerful family might have prompted the relatively subdued response by Karzai to the killing. Ahmed Wali Karzai said the killing was a mistake and that the dead man had been carrying a weapon because he was threatened by the Taliban. "These misfortunes happen every day," he said. Nonetheless, the murder of a relative in a country where family and tribe is all important could stoke recriminations over Nato blunders. The timing of the incident is extremely unfortunate as Karzai has recently increased his criticism of the Nato-led coalition for killing civilians, particularly after the recent killing of nine young boys in the eastern province of Kunar who were mistaken for insurgents. In November Karzai called on the coalition to stop the "kill and capture" night raids that Nato commanders say have been highly effective in disrupting insurgent networks. Although figures released by the UN on Wednesday showed that in 2010 75% of civilian deaths were caused by insurgents, Karzai has tapped into public anger at the accidents of foreign troops, in part to confound the widespread view that he is a puppet of the US. He even went so far as to reject an apology issued by the US commander, David Petraeus after the killing of the boys in Kunar. Afghanistan Nato US military United States Hamid Karzai Jon Boone guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Saudi police open fire on protesters Posted: 10 Mar 2011 10:54 AM PST Government officials had warned strong action would be taken against protests calling for democratic reforms Police in Saudi Arabia have opened fire at a rally in the country's east in an apparent escalation of efforts to stop planned protests. Government officials have warned they will take strong action if activists take to the streets after increasing calls for large protests around the oil-rich kingdom to press for democratic reforms. A witness in the city of Qatif said bullets and stun grenades were fired at several hundred protesters marching in the city streets on Thursday, the Associated Press reported. The witness, speaking on condition of anonymity because he feared government reprisal, said police in the area opened fire and at least one protester was injured. The Reuters news agency reported one witness as saying police fired percussion bombs to disperse the crowd of around 200 people. Last week Saudi Arabia banned public protests following demonstrations by minority Shia groups. The ruling came after widespread demonstrations in the Middle East – including those that led to the downfall of regimes in Egypt and Tunisia – and two weeks of Shia agitation in Saudi Arabia itself, during which 22 people were arrested. A statement issued by the country's council of senior clerics at the time said: "The council ... affirms that demonstrations are forbidden in this country. The correct way in sharia [law] of realising common interest is by advising, which is what the Prophet Muhammad established. "Reform and advice should not be via demonstrations and ways that provoke strife and division, this is what the religious scholars of this country in the past and now have forbidden and warned against." The statement made clear the council's stance against political parties, which are banned as they are deemed to be not in keeping with Islam. Saudi Arabia Middle East guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Fred Goodwin gets superinjunction Posted: 10 Mar 2011 08:14 AM PST Lib Dem uses parliamentary privilege to reveal court order that heightens concern about secret gagging of media The controversial former bank chief Sir Fred Goodwin is the latest high profile figure to obtain a superinjunction, it has emerged. The existence of the measure – which bans the press from reporting that an injunction has been obtained – can be revealed after a backbench Liberal Democrat, John Hemming, raised the issue in the Commons. "In a secret hearing this week Fred Goodwin has obtained a superinjunction preventing him being identified as a banker," said Hemming, the MP for Birmingham Yardley. Hemming, who used parliamentary privilege to avoid the legal ban on reporting the use of superinjunctions, asked: "Will the government have a debate or a statement on freedom of speech and whether there's one rule for the rich like Fred Goodwin and one rule for the poor?" Goodwin, who presided over the near collapse of the Royal Bank of Scotland, was reported to have been angered by press coverage after he became popularly known as "Fred the Shred". He attracted widespread media attention after he was forced to step down in 2008 as a non-negotiable condition of the bank's £20bn bailout by the taxpayer. Goodwin initially left RBS with a pension of £700,000 a year and a lump sum of nearly £3m. He agreed to reduce the payout following public outcry. News that Goodwin has obtained a superinjunction – over issues that cannot be reported – has raised further questions about the use of the measures. Last year an outcry prompted the judiciary to establish a committee – chaired by the master of the rolls, Lord Neuberger – to investigate superinjunctions. The committee, which includes judges, lawyers and experts from the press, is expected to deliver its findings before Easter. Hemming's decision to use parliamentary privilege follows increasing frustration amongst MPs at the willingness of the courts to continue granting superinjunctions. The ability of parliamentary privilege to circumvent them was established in 2009 when a Labour MP, Paul Farrelly, took similar steps to reveal the existence of a superinjunction obtained by the oil trading firm Trafigura gagging the Guardian over its reporting of the dumping of toxic waste being in Ivory Coast. Sir Fred Goodwin Banking Royal Bank of Scotland Executive pay and bonuses Libel reform Media law Liberal Democrats House of Commons Afua Hirsch guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Gbagbo rejects diplomats' efforts Posted: 10 Mar 2011 11:32 AM PST African Union plan to stem violence across country cannot solve disputed election crisis, say envoys of voted-out president Envoys of Ivory Coast's voted-out leader, Laurent Gbagbo, have rejected an African Union proposal aimed at ending the country's violent power struggle and warned that the nation risks civil war again. Rebels based in the north of the country who back the rival politician Alassane Ouattara immediately reaffirmed their position that only military force would persuade Gbagbo to step down. The AU talks in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, have been seen as a last chance to broker a compromise after the disputed November presidential election that triggered violence killing hundreds and led to about half a million Ivorians fleeing their homes. Gbagbo argues that UN-certified results – showing that he lost in the elections to Ouattara – were rigged. His aides said they could not accept a proposal from an AU panel that was based on an endorsement of Ouattara as elected president. "The panel is incapable of giving us any argument that would justify this decision," Pascal Affi N'Guessan, leader of Gbagbo's Ivorian Popular Front, told reporters at the talks. N'Guessan did not give details of the AU proposal but sources at the talks said it had suggested a unity government headed by Ouattara. New Forces rebels who still control northern Ivory Coast after the previous conflict said they were not surprised by the outcome. "The New Forces always knew Gbagbo would never agree to quit power … by the diplomatic route. That is why the New Forces see no other option but force to make him leave," said Sekonga Felicien, an FN spokesman. The three-month crisis has pushed futures of its top product, cocoa, through three-decade highs as international sanctions and Ouattara's appeal for a suspension of exports have together strangled supplies to world markets. Ahead of the talks, Barack Obama said he was appalled by the killing of unarmed civilians in Ivory Coast and that it was time for Gbagbo to step down. "[His] efforts to hold on to power at the expense of his own country are an assault on the universal rights of his people and the democracy that the Côte d'Ivoire deserves," Obama said in a statement. About 400 people have been killed, according to UN and other estimates, although Abidjan-based diplomats believe the toll could be much higher. The New Forces have declared their backing for Ouattara – who is reviled by many Gbagbo allies because his father was from Burkina Faso – and have in past weeks seized a string of towns in the west from Gbagbo forces. Aid agencies said this week 450,000 Ivorians had been uprooted, with 70,000 having crossed into Liberia where refugee camps are overflowing. Ivory Coast African Union Liberia guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Unions slam Hutton pension plan Posted: 10 Mar 2011 01:18 PM PST Reforms would abolish final salary schemes but ex-Labour minister says result would be fairer to low-paid workers Lord Hutton, the former Labour minister charged with solving the £30bn public sector pensions crisis, insisted that his plans to do away with the most generous final salary schemes would be fairer to taxpayers and leave low-paid government employees better off in retirement. Hutton was forced to defend his proposals under intense criticism from the unions, some of which are threatening strike action amid claims that their members will have to pay more, work longer and receive less in their pensions. Elements of the private sector claimed his proposed reforms did not go far enough. He acknowledged that plans to raise the retirement age – which unions said would put pressure on people to stay on the frontline of the fire, police and armed services up to their 60th birthday – were the only the "least worst" option and would mean a sacrifice on the part of public servants. Hutton is facing questions over whether his overhaul is even necessary after his report suggested the costs of pensions were predicted to drop dramatically once the current spike of baby boomers passed retirement age. There was also pressure for a review of MPs' pensions – by some distance the most generous in the entire public sector — to be fast-tracked, to see off accusations that parliament would enforce downgraded pension conditions on government employees while enjoying "gold-plated" deals of their own. The report, published on Thursday, makes two key recommendations: to raise the normal pension age to match the state pension age, which will be 65 from 2018 and 66 from 2020, and to end the most generous final salary schemes, introducing instead a pension linked to the average of an employee's earnings. Hutton told the Guardian that the proposals were difficult but necessary. "If we are not prepared to even contemplate this then I think we're going to be in trouble. Then I think the taxpayer will reasonably say why are we subsidising them? There's got to be a deal here between the taxpayer and the scheme member and that deal is going to unravel if the people in the public sector say they will not contemplate change." He insisted cuts are necessary, saying he wouldn't "bank on" the figures in his own report that suggest that the cost of pensions will decline steadily from next year for the next 50 years, saying there were too many "unknowns". The move to career averages was designed to make the system more "socially just" by redistributing payments from the highest to lowest earners, instead of simply being a money-saving device, Hutton said. Two-thirds of poorest public service workers could in fact receive more under his scheme, the report says. Employee contributions should also be tiered so that the highest paid pay in the most, subsidising the poorest. Reaction to the Hutton report was neatly divided, with condemnation from the unions and a cautious welcome from the employers, while the private sector suggested that the changes were not radical enough. Unions warned that the coalition government could choose to implement the scheme recommended by the report in a way that would simply slash retired state employees' incomes or simply raise the retirement age and scrap final salary schemes. Simon Reed, vice-chairman of the Police Federation, said: "Does this government really want a dads' army of policing? While experience counts, the dangers for the public of sending in 60-year-old police officers to deal with public order situations and Friday night drunken brawls seems obvious." Matt Wrack, general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union, said: "The public will not want an ageing frontline fire and rescue service." Dr Peter Carter, chief executive of the Royal College of Nurses, said: "For some [nurses], the idea of continuing to carry out back-breaking work into their mid-60s may be unthinkable." Writing for Comment is Free at guardian.co.uk, Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the PCS union, said: "What becomes clear is that the attack on our pensions is about crude cuts to solve a problem we didn't cause, and a stepping stone towards the wholesale privatisation of public services. It is a blatant robbery – forcing workers to pay more for less." A group of education unions is considering joint action with the PCS in June and other unions are likely to follow. But strikes are more likely to be held against decisions already made, leading to an increase in pension contributions by an average of three percentage points from April 2012. Privately, some unions said that the move to career averages gave them a basis to negotiate with the government. Angela Eagle, shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, said: "Anyone reading this report needs to remember that the government has already pre-empted its findings by significantly increasing employee contributions. The result is that public sector workers face making bigger contributions and working longer for smaller pensions – even before Lord Hutton's report has been published. We all know we have to make tough choices across the private and public sector too. But it would be deeply unfair for public sector workers to disproportionately bear the brunt." The government is not expected to make its formal recommendations until the summer. The chancellor, George Osborne, said in a written statement to the Commons that the government would give "careful consideration" to the report and was committed to working with unions on new proposals. "The government stands by its commitment given at spending review that there is no race to the bottom of pension provision, that public service pensions should remain a gold standard and that public service pensions should continue to provide some form of defined benefit," he said. Hutton called on the government to implement his findings in full. Public sector cuts Public services policy Public finance Polly Curtis guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Andrew urged to have rights lessons Posted: 10 Mar 2011 11:40 AM PST Foreign Office adviser says Duke of York's close ties with autocracies 'a classic case of unjoined-up government' Prince Andrew should take a crash course in corporate responsibility and human rights awareness to enhance his role as the UK's trade ambassador, a prominent Foreign Office adviser has suggested. The proposal to retrain the fourth in line to the throne reflects growing criticism of the Duke of York's style of business promotion and his close personal ties with corrupt and autocratic regimes, particularly in central Asia. Tom Porteous, UK director of Human Rights Watch, is a member of the Foreign Office's advisory group created by William Hague to provide guidance about human rights issues and assess the ethical implications of British foreign policy. "This is a classic case of unjoined-up government," Porteous said. "The government says it is committed to the rule of law, corporate responsibility and human rights around the world. So it should be promoting British business on the basis of those principles. They need to give [Prince Andrew] a crash course in human rights and corporate responsibility. It's pretty clear that he hasn't really thought about these kind of things. "There's a reputational risk here. Countries such as Turkmenistan [which the prince visited last April] have an appalling human rights record." Last night it emerged that a former British ambassador has written to the government to express concerns about the prince as scrutiny intensifies around his dealings with a number of controversial characters and his role as Britain's trade envoy. Retired diplomat Stephen Day, 73, a former ambassador to Qatar and Tunisia, confirmed that he had written to the foreign secretary about the issue. "I wanted to express my concerns about these stories about the Duke's activities, particularly relating to Tunisia," he told the Press Association. "I think the government reacted splendidly to events in Tunisia, and I admire the position the government has taken over the protests in the Arab world. I think this is an unfortunate diversion." The letter was leaked to the Daily Telegraph, which quoted Day as saying: "It takes a lot to bring former British ambassadors to criticise a member of the royal family in public, but it is surely now recognised that the Duke's activities are doing such serious damage to the royal family itself and to Britain's political, diplomatic and commercial interests that an entirely new role should be found for him as soon as possible." One of the issues raised by the advisory group last year was whether the coalition's decision to make British business abroad a priority conflicted with its pledge to support human rights. Amnesty International has called on the duke, who has visited Azerbaijan seven times since 2005 and met President Ilham Aliyev, to intervene on behalf of a jailed newspaper editor, Eynulla Fatullayev, who has been adopted by the organisation as a prisoner of conscience. Kate Allen, the director of Amnesty International UK, who is also on the advisory group, criticised the regime. "President Aliyev's government exercises tight control over free speech in Azerbaijan," she said. "Street protests are effectively banned and newspapers can be shut down for saying the wrong thing." The Queen is reported to have held private talks with Andrew about the mounting scandal over his trade dealings with despots for the government and his personal links to the US financier Jeffrey Epstein, who has been convicted of sex offences with young girls. The prince's spokesman refused to comment on the meeting, said to have taken place at the Queen's private apartments at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday, after more than two weeks of daily reports criticising his conduct and judgment as the UK's international trade envoy. "I understand that she asked him if any more stories are going to come out in the next few days," the Daily Mail reported a senior aide as saying. "If the answer was yes, then his position will be untenable. I suspect he will make a decision in the next 48 hours or so."The newspaper said the Queen was concerned that scrutiny of the duke was overshadowing preparations for the wedding next month of Prince William and Kate Middleton, which the royal family hopes to use to increase public support. But backing for the prince came from Sir David Tang, the Hong Kong restaurateur and businessman. He met the prince before his visit last October to promote business interests in Hong Kong. Meanwhile, GeneWatch UK, which has campaigned against the police national DNA database, has disclosed that the UK Forensic Science Service is involved in a plan to DNA-test the entire population of the United Arab Emirates, under a contract signed in the presence of Andrew in 2006. Dr Helen Wallace, of GeneWatch UK, called on ministers to scrap the contract under which a universal DNA database is to being built and linked to a national identity card scheme. "This would allow the Emirates to track every citizen and identify their relatives, a frightening prospect for dissidents and women," she said. Prince Andrew Human rights Foreign policy Ethical foreign policy International trade Monarchy Owen Bowcott Robert Booth guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Giffords to attend shuttle launch Posted: 10 Mar 2011 07:04 PM PST Giffords' husband Mark Kelly, a three-time space shuttle veteran, is commander of the Endeavour mission due for liftoff from Cape Canaveral on April 19 US Representative Gabrielle Giffords, who was gravely wounded in a shooting rampage in Tucson in January, plans to attend the launch of her astronaut husband's space shuttle mission next month, an aide said on Thursday. "The plan is for her to attend," said C.J. Karamargin, the Arizona Democrat's spokesman, adding that changes in her medical condition and other factors would ultimately determine if she went to the Florida launch. "It is a goal that we are working toward, and we certainly hope that she'll be there." Her husband, Mark Kelly, a three-time space shuttle veteran, is commander of the Endeavour mission due for liftoff from Cape Canaveral on April 19 on what is currently scheduled to be NASA's final shuttle flight. Doctors are expected to give an update on Giffords' condition at a Houston news conference on Friday. She is undergoing rehabilitation at the Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Centre there. Giffords has not been seen in public since she was shot in the head on January 8 when a lone gunman opened fire on a crowd of people gathered for a "Congress on Your Corner" event outside a grocery store. Six people were killed and 13 others, including Giffords, were wounded in the shooting spree. The accused assailant, 22-year-old Jared Loughner, pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to a 49-count indictment stemming from the attack. United States US politics Arizona shooting Gabrielle Giffords guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Blatter set for Fifa presidency battle Posted: 10 Mar 2011 02:47 AM PST • Sepp Blatter could face challenge to reign from Asia president • Qatari looking for support in Europe before declaring candidacy • Poll: Would you vote for Blatter or Bin Hammam as president? Sepp Blatter's 13-year reign over world football could be entering its final phase after Mohamed bin Hammam gave his broadest hint yet that he will oppose the Fifa president's bid for re-election in May. Bin Hammam already enjoys an elevated status within Fifa, having served as a member of its 24-man executive committee for the past 15 years. He is the president of the Asian Football Confederation, one of the six Fifa confederations, and the chairman of the Fifa Goal Bureau, whose grants provide financial support for member associations across the world. He was also influential in bringing the 2022 World Cup to his native Qatar. Now it is Bin Hammam's intention to unseat Blatter from his position at the top of the world game. Bin Hammam told the Guardian: "People have to try change. Change is good." He added: "Within 10 days I will formally declare whether I will stand or not." At 61, Bin Hammam has relative youth on his side compared to Blatter, who turns 75 today and would be 79 before the end of the four-year presidential term. Yet Bin Hammam's appetite is not for personal aggrandisement, since he would swing behind the candidacy of another credible challenger to the incumbent. "I would 100% support someone else," he said. "I have not spoken to Michel Platini for a long time but I told him that if he runs he'd have my full support. That remains the case." As Uefa's president Platini has ensured a greater policy of engagement with the clubs, football's principal income drivers, within his own organisation's decision-making processes. Bin Hammam considers this an essential task for the world governing body to undertake, in contrast to Blatter, who has repeatedly rejected demands for similar reforms at Fifa. As well as a policy of engagement, Bin Hammam advocates the introduction of greater openness in the decision-making processes of Fifa. "I would call for more transparency in Fifa, to widen the decision-making base and bodies within Fifa," he said. "I'd engage stakeholders more and give them a real platform to express their wishes. We cannot ignore the clubs. We should respect the clubs, and it is for the clubs also to respect the member associations." There are less than three months before the election takes place at Fifa House in Zurich during the 61st Fifa congress on 31 May and 1 June. Bin Hammam's confidence has grown over recent months after a number of positive soundings received from the five other confederations in Asia, South America, North America, Africa and Oceania. However, the Qatari considers Europe to be the key. He is willing to delay his decision to stand for a few more days to gauge the level of support his candidacy might win among Uefa members. "I am happy with [perceptions in] most confederations but I don't know about Europe and how they will deal with my candidacy," he said. "Europe is the core of football. I would like now to make a real assessment in Europe. I have not declared myself as a candidate; maybe [upon doing so] it will be easier to see the response then. "I will go to the Paris Congress of Uefa [on 20 March] and I will already have declared my candidacy or otherwise." Bin Hammam also made clear that he has drawn heart from reports this week of influential support he enjoys within the Football Association. "The FA declaration is very encouraging," he said. "Now people expect me to say something." As the man who has presided over Fifa since 1998, Blatter's reputation suffered when a serving Fifa vice-president and another executive committee member were banned from all football-related activity for up to three years after corruption allegations were upheld. Blatter's unilateral call for an anti-corruption unit involving figures from "politics, finance, business and culture" caused rancour within the Fifa executive committee, which recognised it was not an issue he should tackle alone. Mohamed bin Hammam Sepp Blatter Fifa Football politics Matt Scott guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

MPs 'misled' over phone hacking Posted: 10 Mar 2011 04:11 PM PST Labour MP Chris Bryant says John Yates wrongly claimed it was difficult to secure phone-hacking convictions One of Scotland Yard's most senior officers was accused of misleading parliament in evidence he gave to a select committee about the phone-hacking scandal at the News of the World. Labour MP Chris Bryant told the House of Commons that assistant commissioner John Yates wrongly claimed it was difficult to secure phone-hacking convictions because the Crown Prosecution Service adopted a narrow definition of the legislation outlawing the practice. Speaking during a Commons debate on phone hacking, Bryant said the CPS told the Met five months ago that Yates's evidence was misleading and warned it against relying on that interpretation of the law. Bryant said he could name eight MPs who have been told by Scotland Yard they were targeted by Glenn Mulcaire, a private investigator employed by the News of the World, but didn't identify them. Yates told the home affairs select committee in September 2009 the CPS relied on a narrow interpretation of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, which meant a crime was only committed if a voicemail is intercepted by a third party before it has been listened to. "It was on that basis and only on that basis that Yates was asserting there were only really eight to 12 victims," Bryant said. "Yates maintained time and time again there were 'very few victims'. We now know that to be completely and utterly untrue." The CPS has since made it clear that a criminal offence may have been committed whenever a voicemail is intercepted, even if it has already been listened to by its intended recipient. Bryant said Yates' claim about the CPS advice "was the very reason, and the only reason, why the Metropolitan police refused point blank to reopen the case until January this year. Yates misled the committee, whether deliberately or inadvertently. He knew the number of potential victims is and was substantial." The shadow Europe minister added that Yates wrongly told MPs in September last year there was no evidence that former deputy prime minister Lord Prescott had his phone hacked. Prescott was told by the Met in January that his phone messages may have been intercepted by Mulcaire, following its decision to reopen its investigation into phone-hacking. He claimed that further evidence would shortly emerge proving that a journalist at the Sunday Times, another Rupert Murdoch-owned paper, was hacking into mobile phone messages. Bryant alleged that the practice of hacking was rife when Rebekah Brooks, now chief executive of the titles' parent company, News International, was editor of the News of the World. News International denies this. Phone hacking Police Newspapers & magazines News of the World National newspapers Newspapers News International James Robinson Nick Davies guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Italy moves to sue judges for errors Posted: 10 Mar 2011 11:53 AM PST Measure approved by cabinet on day before prime minister is due back in dock is act of revenge, say critics Italian judges and prosecutors who make mistakes could be sued by defendants and made to pay damages under the terms of changes to the courts approved by Silvio Berlusconi's government. The cabinet approved the proposed measure the day before the prime minister was due to go back in the dock, accused of buying favourable testimony. The draft bill provoked anger from opposition leaders and the judges' main representative body. A statement from the national magistrates' association (ANM) said: "This is a punitive reform whose overall intention is to undermine the autonomy and independence of the judiciary and upset significantly the correct balance between the arms of government." Government officials said the proposed change would have no effect on trials that had begun by the time it became law. But critics described it as an act of revenge. Berlusconi has for years protested that he is the victim of a campaign by politically motivated prosecutors. Anna Finocchiaro, the senate leader of Italy's biggest opposition group, the Democratic party (PD), called it an "attempt to put the prosecutors under the control of the government". By early next month, Berlusconi will be a defendant in three trials, including one in which he is accused of paying an underage Moroccan girl, Karima el-Mahroug, for sex. He denies all wrongdoing. The daily Il Fatto Quotidiano quoted a Moroccan registrar as saying she had been offered a bribe by two Italian-speakers to set back the girl's date of birth by two years. Berlusconi's lawyers said any such attempt would have been "pointless and risible" since other official documents would show the correct date. Under Italian law, constitutional reforms must be approved twice by both houses of parliament. If endorsed by a two-thirds majority in both chambers, they take effect immediately. Otherwise, they have to be submitted to a popular referendum. Berlusconi, who has a scant majority in the lower house, told a press conference: "We shall do everything to discuss these rules with the opposition." The bill unveiled on Thursday contained only broad outlines. Berlusconi said the details would be elaborated in 10 further bills to be debated by parliament. The reform bill says judges and prosecutors would become "directly responsible for acts committed in violation of rights in the same way as other state officials and employees". Currently, their responsibility is indirect: former defendants can sue the state, and it is the state that pays compensation if the action is successful. The proposed reform goes on to mention specifically "the civil responsibility of [judges and prosecutors] for cases of unfair detention or other irregular limitation of personal liberty". Other provisions of the bill may be harder for the opposition to contest. The proposed reform would create a strict division between judges and prosecutors, who currently form part of the same career structure. Critics have long argued this biases judges in favour of the prosecution. The prosecution would also lose the right to appeal a not guilty verdict – an important reason for the logjam in Italy's notoriously slow legal system. And parliament would acquire the power to issue guidelines to prosecutors on which cases should be given priority. Italy is the last country in Europe in which prosecutors are obliged to open a file on any suspected offence brought to their attention. Supporters of the present system argue it is a guarantee against political interference. The case which reopens on Friday involves Berlusconi's alleged payment of a $600,000 (£374,000) bribe to his former adviser, the British lawyer David Mills. Silvio Berlusconi Italy Europe John Hooper guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

NZ 'accidental millionaire' in court Posted: 10 Mar 2011 11:26 AM PST Kara Hurring returns to face theft charge but ex-partner and £1.7m still missing after bank mistake Two years after going on the run in Hong Kong, Macau and China a New Zealand woman described as an "accidental millionaire" has appeared in court accused of theft. It all began with a simple keystroke error by a teller at Westpac bank, when Kara Hurring's former partner, Hui "Leo" Gao, applied for a NZ$100,000 (£45,800) overdraft for his struggling BP petrol station in the north island city of Rotorua – a tourist destination known for its geysers, hot mud pools and lakes. The hapless bank employee transformed the request into a NZ$10m line of credit through a misplaced decimal point. The teller was later fired but the damage had been done. Westpac – lampooned as the bank that liked to say "yes" – recovered NZ$6.2m but police allege that Gao managed to move NZ$3.8m into accounts in China and Hong Kong before fleeing with Hurring and their daughter. That amount remains missing in what the New Zealand media has called the case of the accidental millionaires. Hurring and Gao face one charge each of stealing NZ$6.8m from Westpac bank in Rotorua on 24 April 2009. They are also charged with eight counts each of laundering money ranging from NZ$361,000 to NZ$500,000. Hurring is believed to have separated from Gao last year shortly after a gambling blowout in Macau. The first sign that she wanted to return to New Zealand came last May when she had email and phone contact with Mark Loper, a detective senior sergeant with Rotorua police, according to the Herald on Sunday newspaper. She returned last month, met by police at Auckland airport. Tracked down to what was described as a basic Auckland apartment building, Hurring told the paper she was feeling frightened and alone – and that police had told her that she must not talk about why she had returned. She refused to give the whereabouts of her nine-year-old daughter, Leena, and threatened to call police to take out a trespass notice. Hurring, who turns 32 next week, appeared in court wearing a neatly tailored black suit, a white shirt and with her hair in a ponytail. She appeared composed as her lawyer, Simon Lance, asked for her to be remanded on bail. Judge Jocelyn Munroe ordered her to reappear in court on 21 March. Outside court Lance said Hurring denied the charges and would fight them. Hurring's mother, Sue, said the ordeal had placed an enormous strain on her but that she still supported her daughter. "I wish this whole thing would hurry up and pass," she told the New Zealand Herald. "I think what is going on in their lives is absolutely trivial compared to what's happening in Christchurch [in the aftermath of the earthquake]." Hurring and Gao separated soon after they arrived in China and Gao left her with little money, it was reported last year. Westpac attempted to recover the money through the Hong Kong courts last year, seeking to recoup about NZ$660,000 that Gao passed through Wynn International Marketing, a casino and resort operator in Macau. The bank lost its case and had to pay the casino's legal bills after court papers were served on an Asian bank, which froze the casino's entire account, not just the money sought by Westpac. Gao is believed to be in China and New Zealand police said recently they were working with Chinese authorities to find him. But New Zealand does not have an extradition agreement with China. The case of the accidental millionaires turned the couple into celebrities, with some supporters setting up a Facebook page called We Support Leo Gao and his 10 Million Dollars – Run Leo Run. New Zealand Mark Tran guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Bradley Manning speaks out about his prison ordeal Posted: 10 Mar 2011 04:29 PM PST US soldier held on suspicion of leaking state secrets speaks out for first time about experience 'Stripping me of all of my clothing is without justification' Bradley Manning, the US soldier being held in solitary confinement on suspicion of having released state secrets to WikiLeaks, has spoken out for the first time about what he claims is his punitive and unlawful treatment in military prison. In an 11-page legal letter released by his lawyer, David Coombs, Manning sets out in his own words how he has been "left to languish under the unduly harsh conditions of max [security] custody" ever since he was brought from Kuwait to the military brig of Quantico marine base in Virginia in July last year. He describes how he was put on suicide watch in January, how he is currently being stripped naked every night, and how he is in general terms being subjected to what he calls "unlawful pre-trial punishment". It is the first time Manning has spoken publicly about his treatment, having previously only been heard through the intermediaries of his lawyer and a friend. Details that have emerged up to now have inspired the UN to launch an inquiry into whether the conditions amount to torture, and have led to protests to the US government from Amnesty International. The most graphic passage of the letter is Manning's description of how he was placed on suicide watch for three days from 18 January. "I was stripped of all clothing with the exception of my underwear. My prescription eyeglasses were taken away from me and I was forced to sit in essential blindness." Manning writes that he believes the suicide watch was imposed not because he was a danger to himself but as retribution for a protest about his treatment held outside Quantico the day before. Immediately before the suicide watch started, he said guards verbally harassed him, taunting him with conflicting orders. When he was told he was being put on suicide watch, he writes, "I became upset. Out of frustration, I clenched my hair with my fingers and yelled: 'Why are you doing this to me? Why am I being punished? I have done nothing wrong.'" He also describes the experience of being stripped naked at night and made to stand for parade in the nude, a condition that continues to this day. "The guard told me to stand at parade rest, with my hands behind my back and my legs spaced shoulder-width apart. I stood at parade rest for about three minutes … The [brig supervisor] and the other guards walked past my cell. He looked at me, paused for a moment, then continued to the next cell. I was incredibly embarrassed at having all these people stare at me naked." Manning has been charged with multiple counts relating to the leaking of hundreds of thousands of secret US government cables, videos and warlogs from Iraq and Afghanistan to WikiLeaks. The charges include "aiding the enemy", which can carry the death penalty. The legal letter was addressed to the US military authorities and was drawn up in response to their recent decision to keep Manning on a restriction order called Prevention of Injury (PoI). It means he is kept in his cell alone for 23 hours a day and checked every five minutes by guards including, if necessary, through the night. The letter contains excerpts from the observation records kept in the brig which consistently report that Manning is "respectful, courteous and well spoken" and "does not have any suicidal feelings at this time". Sixteen separate entries made from 27 August until the records stop on 28 January show that Manning was evaluated by prison psychiatrists who found he was not a danger to himself and should be removed from the PoI order. Bradley Manning US military US constitution and civil liberties WikiLeaks United States Ed Pilkington guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Me and Mrs Hemingway Posted: 10 Mar 2011 02:31 PM PST For years, Hadley Freeman resented being named after the put-upon first wife of the literary great. Finally, she came to realise it was an inspired choice For a long time, I seriously considered getting two sets of business cards printed. Two sets, replying to the two comments I hear, always in the same order, every time I introduce myself to someone new. In reply to the observation that my name is odd or, if the person is being polite, "unique", the first set of cards would read, "Do you think? Why, I'd never thought about that before – by Jove, you're right!" The second set of cards would be a little more informative if only slightly less sarcastic: "Ernest Hemingway's first wife," they would read. "Whatever." I have been answering the question of where my name's from ever since I could talk, which partly explains the glib inarticulacy of my answer. But the real problem has never been the question, it's the answer. I was not named after someone, I was named after someone's wife. A Wag, in other words, with a name that makes me sound like an investment bank, and not even an investment bank wants to sound like one these days. A wife known for nothing other than having been married to and humiliatingly dumped by Hemingway as soon as he got a lick of fame. This might reflect worse on Hemingway than on my antecedent, Hadley Richardson, but it hardly felt like an admirable inheritance. Even Hemingway seemed to have held her in low regard. The Sun Also Rises was written not just during their six-year marriage but specifically about that time, and he included anecdotes about their friends, their hangouts, their travels, everything. Everything, that is, except Richardson, although he did then guiltily stick her in the dedication. The few biographical details I could find about her universally stressed one quality: her devoted support of Hemingway, devotion that was thrown back in her face when he left her for a woman who was part of their Parisian social circle. If I had to be named after one of Hemingway's four wives, I wished my parents had gone for the third instead of the first, bestowing me with the legacy of Martha Gellhorn, the foreign correspondent who was also ditched by Hemingway but because he couldn't cope with a wife who worked, not – as happened to Richardson – because he ran off with the fashion editor Pauline Pfeiffer. This point brings me to another problem I have with my name: I hate Hemingway. His gratingly self-conscious style – all brutalised declarative sentences – has, to my ears, the rhythm of a pub bore sounding off. More repugnant than his style is his mentality. He is the literary version of the worst of Bob Dylan, purveying that tired cliche of a man as solitary figure, necessarily selfish and the sole protagonist of his story, for whom women are either spoilt sluts or sweet saints, there to look pretty, subjugate themselves and then, eventually, be left behind so he can find another girl in another town wearing a lace dress. It's such a boring, sophomoric view, one almost excusable in a twentysomething man, less so in a fiftysomething, and it explains why, in my experience, so many men love Hemingway (and Dylan, come to that). And why I don't. Personally, he sounded even worse. "Larger than life" is a popular description of Hemingway, and one that in my experience is shorthand for "a big pain in the bum". He alienated pretty much all of his friends, including the most slavering hangers on. He even managed to try the patience of F Scott Fitzgerald with his casual cruelty and selfishness, which is like shocking Charlie Sheen by your drugs intake. My parents suggested that reading A Moveable Feast might give me a better appreciation of my namesake. On this rare occasion, my parents were wrong. I hated A Moveable Feast – in fact, I found it enraging. In this posthumously published book, Hemingway indulges in the kind of sentimentality about his first wife that only a man three wives later can. He describes, with creepy self-indulgence, her "beautiful, wonderfully strong legs" and makes the frankly obvious point that Richardson was blameless for the end of their marriage, suggesting he once told himself otherwise. Richardson, Hemingway writes, was "the only one . . . who came well out of it finally and married a much finer man than I ever was or could ever hope to be and is happy and deserves it and that was one good and lasting thing that came out of that year". This is all true – Richardson married again, happily. But if there's one thing worse than having your heart broken, it's hearing the person who broke it indulge in pitying self-deprecation and tell you that, really, although you might have been hurt at the time, it was all for the best. On behalf of Hadleys everywhere, shut up, Ernest. So no, A Moveable Feast failed to sway me. But another book did. Last year, I received an email from an editor telling me that a book about Hadley Richardson was being published and maybe I'd like a copy. Would I? Well, maybe, though I was pretty sure what I would get: a clunky book in which Richardson was merely the empty vessel through which to view Hemingway. After all, she was only Ernest Hemingway's first wife. Whatever. This time, I was wrong. The Paris Wife by Paula McLain is a gorgeous book, evoking both Hemingway and Richardson with extraordinary clarity and empathy. It is a novelised recreation of Richardson's life with Hemingway and their son, told through Richardson's eyes. Combining fact and fiction is more dangerous than mixing drinks, but McLain pulls it off so well I soon forgot to wonder whether I was reading one or the other – I was too engrossed to fret about such distinctions. Best of all, McLain never gets distracted by the glamorous people who enter the Hemingways' social circle, such as the Fitzgeralds, Ezra Pounds, and so on. If anything, she presents them as what they undoubtedly were: sirens that would imperil a happy marriage. McLain knows, as Richardson did, that a good marriage is so much more interesting than celebrity ephemerality and focuses accordingly. Hemingway realised this too late. "I wished I had died before I loved anyone but her," he wrote in A Moveable Feast. When I read A Moveable Feast, I railed at Hemingway for being blinded by his own narcissism, but The Paris Wife showed me that my view of Richardson was no clearer than his had been. How could I want to be named after any of Hemingway's wives other than the first? She was the only one who married him before he was The Famous Ernest Hemingway. She just married a man she loved, broke and unknown. "I got the very best of him," 'Hadley' says in The Paris Wife. Encouraged by The Paris Wife, I read another book featuring Ernest and Hadley Hemingway: Sara and Gerald: Villa America and After, a biography of Gerald and Sara Murphy, a fame-dazzled American couple on whom Fitzgerald modelled Dick and Nicole Diver from Tender Is the Night. The Murphys had an inner divining rod for spotting future celebrities and, inevitably, they scooped up the Hemingways. Richardson is not presented kindly in this book, possibly because it was written by the Murphys' daughter, Honoria Murphy Donnelly. Her parents seemed to see Hadley as I once did: a dull appendage, a pale smudge next to Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Picasso and the rest of the Murphys', ahem, larger-than-life friends. According to Hemingway in A Moveable Feast, the Murphys advised him to leave Richardson for the more starry Pauline. And yet, despite the pro-Murphy prism through which Donnelly writes this book, Hadley emerges as clearly the best of that lot. All of the others are shown trying to dazzle one another with their bravado and fame, while Richardson remains utterly herself, unaffected, quiet and human. After Hemingway, Richardson found love and contentment with her second husband, Paul Mowrer, a Pulitzer prize-winning journalist, and the two were married for nearly 40 years until Mowrer's death in 1971. She died eight years later. When asked in a rare interview if she was ever tempted to return to the famous friends she knew when she was Mrs Hemingway, Richardson simply said: "No. I think I wanted something real." Most of those she left behind in Paris – Hemingway, the Fitzgeralds, the Murphys – did not want that and had less happy lives. Richardson was the epitome of the most famous sentence George Eliot ever wrote, the last line in Middlemarch: "The growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that the things that are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs." Richardson's tomb in New Hampshire is not, I hope, unvisited. But she lived a hidden life; one that was, by all accounts, faithful, good and, most of all, happy. That's the best kind of person to be named after. Ernest Hemingway F Scott Fitzgerald Hadley Freeman guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Nicolas Roeg: Bad timing Posted: 10 Mar 2011 02:25 PM PST Once audiences make sense of his work, Nicolas Roeg has usually moved on. As the film world rushes to canonise him, he tells Ryan Gilbey about the curse of bad timing The mid-morning sun is creeping into the cluttered study of Nicolas Roeg's London home, not far from the bohemian hideout where a gangster and a pop star merged identities in his 1968 debut, Performance. Roeg, who is 82, is enthusing in his skittish way about the viewing habits of his teenage stepdaughter. "She lies on the sofa watching television and texting at the same time," he says, marvelling. "She'll look up at the screen and say, 'Yeah, it's quite good.' Fantastic! And she's taking it all in. That's the medium: six plots, all at the same time. You see a film now that's critically acclaimed and well-made but you think, 'Where are we going?' Youth is so exciting. It'll take over. I don't want to be swept away. I want to be with the taking-over people, right to the end." We are only halfway through our allotted hour together but already I have set aside my notebook, bidding farewell to the subjects I naively thought we might cover. Make no mistake: no one steers Nicolas Roeg. A conversation with him is a dot-to-dot puzzle in verbal form, with the interviewer left to fathom the far-flung connections between disjointed words and phrases. In the course of our meeting, he ranges over the Rockefellers, Anne Boleyn, the silent-movie era, Wild Strawberries and in-flight entertainment, among other things. But as with the higgledy-piggledy structures of his films – including Walkabout (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), Bad Timing (1980) and Eureka (1983) – there is every likelihood that an internal logic persists, even if it's not immediately accessible to the conscious mind. These would seem to be happy days for Roeg. His workrate may have decelerated (his most recent picture, the Irish voodoo horror Puffball, was made four years ago) but his stock is higher than ever. A retrospective is underway at the BFI in London, stretching back to his early work as a cinematographer, which includes credits as varied as the Roger Corman-directed The Masque of the Red Death and François Truffaut's Fahrenheit 451. A recent poll by Time Out magazine to find the best British films of all time settled on Roeg's psychological horror Don't Look Now as the winner, with three more of his movies in the top 100 (alongside Lawrence of Arabia, on which he shot second unit). His influence is everywhere. Among those who have taken their cue from his complex editing patterns and narrative conundrums are Todd Haynes, Steven Soderbergh, Wong Kar-Wai and Charlie Kaufman. Christopher Nolan has said Memento would have been "pretty unthinkable" without Roeg, and drew on the explosive ending of Roeg's 1985 film Insignificance when making Inception. Not that Roeg gives a hoot about any of this. "I don't think about it," he says, sniffily. "We're all influenced by everything unless we're locked in an empty room." Retrospectives are neither here nor there, since he doesn't watch his old movies; awards merely leave him bemused. "How can you judge one film against another?" he asks, shaking his head. Shockingly, he has never had to clear much shelf-space for prizes, but when he received an honorary Bafta in 2009, he looked distinctly nonplussed, telling the audience: "I'm not dead yet." This is the bind in which Roeg now finds himself. On one hand, the industry is keen to honour the work that has made him British cinema's fiercest imaginative force, as well as the heir to Powell and Pressburger. On the other, that sort of treatment is usually a way of encouraging a director to hang up his megaphone. Whether or not you think Roeg's later work can hold a candle to the blistering first decade of his directing career, there is no shortage of unruly energy left in him. Puffball was not widely liked ("It got mauled," Roeg admits), though no one could have made it but him. The problem has always been that it takes everyone else an age to cotton on to his innovative experiments. Performance was shelved for two years by twitchy distributors; the same equivocation sealed the commercial failure of Bad Timing and Eureka. Having any kind of theatrical distributor, even a negligent one, had become a longed-for luxury by the time he made his eerie, overlooked 1990 thriller Cold Heaven. "Well, one of my films was called Bad Timing, after all," he says. "Eureka was very bad timing. The early 1980s: Reagan and Thatcher were in, greed was good, and here was a film about the richest man in the world who still couldn't be happy. Politically and sociologically, it was out of step." Around the same time, Roeg was driving near LA when a vehicle came up behind him, the driver blasting the horn. "I stopped in the lay-by, and it turned out to be a producer I knew. He said, 'I saw The Man Who Fell to Earth last night. I always thought it was a piece of shit. And I suddenly got it – it's you, isn't it? That Newton fella [the homesick alien entrepreneur played by David Bowie]. He's you! Well, I just wanted to say I was wrong. And it takes a lot for me to say that.' That was seven years after the film was released." He chortles at the memory. "Of course, The Man Who Fell to Earth was bad timing, too. Came out around the same time as the George Lucas one." It's enough to make a fellow feel he was ahead of his time, I say. Roeg's disapproval is instantaneous. "I hate that expression," he says, coming over sulky. "I don't want to be ahead of my time. This is my time. It's Marmite, isn't it? You like it or you don't." He drifts on to the subject of Last Year at Marienbad, which must have been vital in his development, what with its wealth of spatial and temporal ambiguities. "I saw it when it came out. I thought: 'This is fantastic!' In the lobby, people were saying, 'What was that about?' The same people 18 months later would see nothing unusual in it. Same thing now, you see? I'm not out of time. They're out of time. Even the word 'film' is obsolete. 'Grandpa, why is it called film?' 'Well, there were strips of transparent celluloid through which light was shone … ' 'OK Grandpa, we gotta go … ' The retention of the image … All the subtleties in a poem, all the things you put in the rhythm of words, can be destroyed in one look." We seem to have arrived circuitously at the core of Roeg's film-making: the supremacy of the image over the word, the eloquence of juxtaposition, the primal power of montage. His films have never been linear or literary. "Life isn't linear," he says. "It's sideways." For all that his work penetrates the mysteries of human communication – and it's my belief that Bad Timing is fit to be mentioned in the same breath as Bergman's Scenes from a Marriage – words come a distant third to the image and the edit. "Words have the tiniest importance. Half of what we say we don't mean. I love that American expression: 'Sure, I hear you. But what are you saying?'" He was first gripped as a child by the power of the image. "Going to the cinema was a treat. I was always a bit arty-farty as a boy. That's what my sister called me. 'Come on, Mr Arty-Farty.' I was hypnotised by it. And I believed it all. I sound like a complete ignoramus but I knew nothing about acting." He can still lose himself just as easily in what he's watching. "One moment of truth in a film can be seen instantly. 'Two men fought for the love of one woman across a wild frontier.' Yes – but why?" I ask if it isn't difficult, given his clearly insatiable passion for cinema, to be out of the game for such long periods. He squints at me, not quite comprehending, so I point out that his last cinema film before Puffball had been Two Deaths, back in 1996. "I've done a lot of work!" he protests. "What difference does it make whether it's cinema? So old-fashioned. Hopefully I've got another two, three, four films left in me. But I won't be sitting here like a frozen Norwegian dog turd. With a 'Go' it takes you 18 months, two years, to get a film made. I'm doing installation pieces and I don't even want to be credited." Why not? "I rather like the idea of anonymity." So people won't know they're by you? "No." Then we won't – "... be able to criticise!" he interrupts, laughing. They're just going to appear unheralded? He goes quiet. "I've said too much now. I should never have told you." Wait, I say, I'm confused. And he gives what might be the perfect Nicolas Roeg response to my bewilderment: "Good." The Nicolas Roeg season is at London's BFI Southbank until 30 March. Roeg will be appearing at the Borderlines film festival, Hereford, on 5 April. Ryan Gilbey guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Deviant sex intrigues me Posted: 10 Mar 2011 12:59 PM PST If you're simply being attracted to an unusual sexual style you needn't feel ashamed, says Pamela Stephenson Connolly I'm a 22-year-old female student and have been addicted to porn since I was 17. I haven't told my long-term boyfriend, although we recently started watching it together. The more I watch it, the more intrigued I get about deviant sexual behaviour. I feel guilty and ashamed. How can I stop? You're highly judgmental about your interest in erotica, and I wonder what makes you think it's an "addiction". Is it the type of sexual behaviour, or the amount of time you spend watching it? "Different" sex is intriguing and lures millions of people to view it. Aside from ethical concerns about the porn industry, many believe there's nothing wrong with watching legal material depicting sexual acts between consenting adults – although perhaps what you're viewing lies outside that description. You've used the pejorative term "deviant" but I can only guess at your meaning. If it's BDSM (bondage, domination, sadomasochism), then relax – it's actually quite common, many people find it exciting, and it can be played in a safe, sane and consensual manner. If your porn-viewing habit is seriously affecting your ability to function at work or in your life generally, or if it's likely to get you into trouble, seek therapy to stop. But if you're simply being drawn to an unusual sexual style, be more accepting of your erotic journey. • Pamela Stephenson Connolly is a clinical psychologist and psychotherapist who specialises in treating sexual disorders. • Send your problem to private.lives@guardian.co.uk Sex Relationships Pamela Stephenson Connolly guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

The lighter side of youth crime Posted: 10 Mar 2011 02:29 PM PST The likes of Kidulthood and Shank started a new wave of films about urban British teens. Now the genre is getting its first spoof. So has it truly come of age? There's no surer sign that a film style has matured into a fully-grown genre than when the first parody comes out. That bittersweet moment has arrived for British urban films in the shape of Anuvahood. This brashly coloured council estate jaunt follows a deluded sad case named "K" who fancies himself as a MC-turned-drug dealer, but lacks the nous to pull it off. Marketed as the UK's answer to US urban comedies such as Friday (1995) and House Party (1990), the title is also an obvious pastiche of Noel Clarke's Kidulthood, the 2006 film that gave rise to  a slew of imitators. It's a ballsy move, especially considering co-writer, co-director and star Adam Deacon got his own break playing comic relief Jay in Kidulthood and its 2008 follow-up, Adulthood. Deacon, a 27-year-old whose slight build allows him to pass for the teenage hoodlums he plays, is keen to emphasise that Anuvahood is more homage than parody: "For me it was about being thankful." Yet his film was obviously also born of a frustration with the limits of the Kidulthood mould. "I can't tell you how many scripts I've read where it's just about violence on London streets. You can't keep doing that – you can't." That is not a complaint you would have heard from actors back in 2006, when Kidulthood's depiction of inner city youth culture happy-slapped some vitality into British cinema. The media controversy at the time centred on the the film teens' drug-taking and bed-hopping, but ignored the most radical aspect of the film – it was a hit with the kidults themselves. When the 2008 sequel Adulthood amassed over £3.2m at the box office, the numbers became hard to ignore. "I think everyone just went: 'Wow!'" says Nick Taussig, producer of Anuvahood. "There was an audience which, basically, was underserviced." Before Kidulthood, films about urban Britain were essentially an offshoot of the social-realist tradition for which this country is famous – and as worthy as that implies. The 2004 film Bullet Boy, a sombre look at gun crime on a Hackney council estate, was well-reviewed (the Guardian called it "plausible" and "understated") but failed to connect with the kinds of young people it depicted. "I hate to say this – but it was more like voyeurism," says Bullet Boy star Ashley Walters. "The audience was more people that weren't from that world at all that wanted to buy into it and wanted to understand it." Having notched up several urban film credits since Bullet Boy's release, Walters is to urban film as Drew Barrymore is to romantic comedy – a status he riffs off in Anuvahood, with a cameo as a Tennent's Super-clutching tramp. "I suppose over the years the films have become less serious. We're now able to joke about a lot of the stereotypes that are put on us. It is a good thing, I think, because a lot of first-time writers, black writers especially, find that they have to conform to a certain sort of movie which has a message." One company little concerned with moral messages is production outfit Gunslinger, set up by Revolver, the distribution company which had that initial hit with Kidulthood. Taussig is Gunslinger's director of production, and decided a film-maker's vision was the wrong place to start a creative journey. Instead he began speaking to London teenagers about what they wanted to accompany their popcorn. The result was last year's Shank, a 2015-set dystopian thriller and a refreshingly irresponsible piece of yoofsploitation. It set a new template for urban films: lots of violence, fast editing, a UK grime soundtrack and sundry former members of the cast of Skins. It made back its budget on its opening weekend, and improved on Bullet Boy's box office takings threefold. Revolver had discovered that what the young British audiences really craved was a bit of escapism, just like most cinemagoers. Deacon says he could have told them that from the start. "I knew the young generation don't want to see continual grit on film. If that was what they wanted, they just have to go back to their council estate." Repackaging what Revolver calls "hoodie content" into films for the young, as opposed to films about the young, has entailed one major sacrifice – all hope of critical approval. "If this is the future of film, then we're all doomed," said Empire magazine in its review of Shank, while the Birmingham Post complained that the dialogue was "unintelligible". But who needs critics anyway? "It's very much about peer recommendation," says Taussig. "Scoring highly on Facebook 'likes' probably means more than what a newspaper says." Of course, urban audiences deserve cinema that's both well-targeted and well-made, but perhaps mainstream critics aren't best placed to know that when they see it. "The average age of the serious critics is mid-50s and, essentially, it just doesn't have any relevance for them. You can't blame them for that." Success for Shank and Adulthood meant more urban films going into production, and more variety in the kinds of films getting made. Unlikely as it seems, urban film has already pulled up its baggy tracksuit bottoms and pirouetted into musical territory with Birmingham-set 1 Day and the hugely successful StreetDance. The genre will get its own Thelma & Louise when girl-gang thriller Sket is released later this year, and in May, Joe Cornish of 6Music's Adam and Joe will bring a more gentrified audience into the urban fold with the release of his directorial debut Attack the Block, a sci-fi comedy about a group of youths defending their estate from alien invasion. When nice young men like Cornish start making urban thrillers, clearly it's time to ask if the genre has lost its edge. It seems only fair that Noel Clarke should be the one to sound the death knell. "I believe that the youth of Kidulthood have grown up," he tells me, "and the, quotation marks, 'urban scene' is actually the mainstream scene now, and the people in the industry are just catching up." Yet, so far, the mainstream crossover hasn't gone as smoothly as Clarke might have hoped. 4.3.2.1., his second film as director, set a heist thriller plot in an urban setting. It was widely criticised as unconvincing, and the box office receipts fell several hundred grand short of Adulthood's benchmark. The lesson? Whatever genre flourishes are layered on top, the authentic connection to street culture is both what audiences respond to, and the hardest thing to get right. The slang evolves as such a speed that even the best-written dialogue can teeter on the brink of cringy by the time it reaches the screen. "Before I started doing this film I still thought I was quite cool," says Sket director Nirpal Bhogal, who brought in teen consultants to make sure his film was on point. The flipside is that it's the same slang-heavy script that alienates anyone over 30 – let alone an international market. "It's a double-edged sword," says Clarke, "because the more authentic you are, the less money you'll be given to make the film." The need to establish credibility is also what makes soundtrack choices so crucial. Urban film regulars Walters, Deacon and Ashley "Bashy" Thomas all have parallel music careers, and artists such as Lethal Bizzle, Tinchy Stryder and Tinie Tempah have all received a boost from soundtrack appearances. "The music sells the films and the films sell the music," Walters says. Meanwhile grime, the standard bearer of UK urban culture, is setting up colonies in unfamiliar territories. If there are a few north American hipsters who now know what a "wasteman" is, Anuvahood and its descendents will have Dizzee Rascal to thank. The last few years have proved that, in urban film, British cinema has a useful asset – a genre both commercially viable and uniquely British. Yet while Tinie Tempah is showered with Brit awards, the Bafta still goes to the cuddly period drama about the toff with a speech impediment. "If you go to them and you say we've got this film, we think it's got a good shot of doing over a million quid in cinemas and it's for an urban audience, they're not interested," says Taussig. "I think they don't see it as creative excellence because it's not a literary adaptation or a period film." Deacon agrees. "I personally believe the music industry is much more willing to listen to young people's ideas. The film world is run by a different type of person – they're scared to put that culture out there because people who don't know it are scared of it. But it's not that scary, really. It's just about putting a little faith in people sometimes." It may take a few more hits before that happens. In the meantime, for most of the British film industry, investing in urban film will remain as terrifying as a hoodie-clad youth in an underpass. Anuvahood is released in cinemas next Friday. Comedy Noel Clarke Drama Crime guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Hollywood's acting curse Posted: 10 Mar 2011 05:16 AM PST Three highly promising actors appear to have been crushed by the weight of their careers in a system that rewards dullness I have blogged before about the creepy phenomenon whereby actors who made a brilliant impression with great performances around 10 or 15 years or so ago, got rewarded with Hollywood careers which crushed the life out of them, and made them bland and dull. Eric Bana, who made his sensational debut in the Australian crime drama Chopper (2000), then bafflingly devoted himself to much more boring roles. This week, I have experienced this phenomenon in a devastating, triple-whammy form. Owen Wilson, Aaron Eckhart and Naomi Watts, who have been so good in some great films, this week served up zombie-acting, sleepwalk-acting, going-though-the-motions acting. Are they tired? Are they just taking the paycheque? Is it the script that's awful? Here is this week's tripartite nightmare … Owen Wilson in Hall Pass, directed by the Farrelly Brothers It's a pretty awful comedy, tired, almost contemptuously lazy, without any of the Farrellys' inspired black humour. Wilson has to play a basically nice, married, middle-aged guy who still lusts after women, the sort of role that could go to Kevin James, if you want to play up his corpulence, or maybe Jason Bateman, if disillusion is the important thing. But all of Wilson's funky, goofy shtick is nowhere. It's just uncomfortable – and wrong. For contrast, put on the DVD of Wes Anderson's Bottle Rocket (1996), an off-the-wall comedy which Anderson co-wrote with Wilson, who co-stars with his brother Luke. Right there is the spark, the fun, the likability and the sheer individuality of Owen Wilson, all the things which gave him his career. After some great stuff in Zoolander and Meet the Parents, and some great voice work in the animations Cars and The Fantastic Mr Fox, well, all of his charm seems to have fallen away. The nadir (I hope) is Hall Pass. Can't Mr Wilson sit down to watch Bottle Rocket and resolve to get back to his roots? Aaron Eckhart in Battle: Los Angeles, directed by Jonathan Liebesman Eckhart plays a Marine sergeant, a straight-up handsome, rugged, all-American male. Standard-issue beefcake, albeit an older guy. Nothing out of the ordinary or interesting about Eckhart here in any way at all. People who see this film, and know nothing of Eckhart's career may not know that he made an extraordinary breakthrough in Neil LaBute's satirical nightmare In The Company of Men (1997). Aaron Eckhart plays a boorish corporate executive who sets out to destroy the life of a hearing-impaired woman in his office, by dating her and dumping her — out of pure misogynist hate. Eckhart's performance was electrifying. "Evil" is a word used casually in the movies, but he is evil, there's just no other word. Eckhart was booed and barracked by women at screenings and Q&As, perhaps because they thought Eckhart was relishing the performance too much. But he was brilliant. I suspect he may have spent his subsequent career living down that creation. Can he ever tap into that dark inspiration again? Naomi Watts in Fair Game, directed by Doug Liman This is probably the most painful comedown of all. Watts gives a performance of egregious blandness, in a film whose smug awfulness I shall discuss in depth later this week. This role is just not worthy of her. You just have to remember her glorious breakthrough in David Lynch's Mulholland Drive, as the young wannabe screen star. Her dual "audition" scene is quite enough on its own to earn Naomi Watts her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame – when she first wittily runs through her piece for her friend, and then later, when it comes to doing it for real, takes it to the next level with a passionate, brilliant reading. Mulholland Drive was what put Naomi Watts on the map, but nothing since then has been anywhere near as good. Well, it's not entirely fair to blame the actors, who have to work. The system rewards dullness. But instead of seeing Hall Pass, Battle: Los Angeles or Fair Game, you might be better off watching or re-watching Bottle Rocket, In the Company of Men and Mulholland Drive. Owen Wilson Peter Bradshaw guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Chris Patten: 'I hardly ever watch TV' Posted: 10 Mar 2011 02:50 PM PST Veteran Tory defines a celebrity as 'someone I've never heard of' and gets confused about location of Radio 1 on dial Chris Patten is going to be the next chairman of the BBC – and like all good politicians, appeared agreeably unqualified for the task as he rhetorically sashayed before MPs. The politician turned peer cheerfully told a Commons select committee that "he hardly watched television", which is presumably exactly why Jeremy Hunt and David Cameron thought the former Conservative party chairman was just the man for the £110,000-a-year job. That sort of admission, though, was hardly going to be ignored by the Commons' finest backbench minds, with Labour rottweiler Tom Watson cutting straight to the point, asking: "When did you last watch EastEnders?" It is, of course, the job of the BBC Trust to act as a champion of the BBC's viewers and listeners, and at least Patten's answer will have cheered the health food lobby: "When I last watched the programme, it was even longer ago than when I last had McDonald's." They serve better in Ian Beale's caff no doubt, but Patten is a man with a lot to learn, going on to say that a definition of a celebrity was "somebody I'd never heard of". It turned out that he begins the day, as all politicians no doubt do, listening to Today on Radio 4. Somebody rashly asked if he listened to the recently reprieved 6 Music – no – or even Radio 1, which he only caught, he said, when turning the dial between Radios 3 and 4. Students of FM frequencies, though, will note this has to be wrong as there is no Fearne Cotton stop-off on the route between Radio 3 (90.2FM to 92.4FM) and Radio 4, which sits between 92.4 and 94.6FM. Radio 1 is at somewhere around 98FM, as Patten will soon discover. As he said, he expected the BBC job "to extend my cultural horizons". Yet at least he was candid. "I watch the programmes that you'd expect somebody of my background to. That's who I am: I'm 66, white and well educated" – which means he binges on news and current affairs. But already he is trying hard to improve. The night before the hearing, Patten sat down in front of the box to watch Mud Sweat and Tractors: the Story of Agriculture on BBC4. That led Labour wit David Cairns to get straight to the point: "I sense your idea of dumbing down is watching BBC2." Who knows if television viewing came up in Patten's successful interview with Hunt. But the veteran Europhile Tory did his best to make it clear he would be politically independent, promising to give up the party whip in the Lords and quit as president of Richmond Park Conservative Association. But unlike the last three chairmen, all of whom quit their political parties, Patten said he couldn't quite bear to tear up his membership card. The culture, media and sport select committee, although expected to give their blessing to Patten's appointment, are more worried about his outside interests, the most toxic of which is his role as a member of the international advisory panel at BP. Yet in truth, none of this matters. His job is not to make programmes but to protect the BBC from its critics and stand up for the corporation's Reithian mission. And when it came to that, he knew exactly what to say: "I think the BBC should be biased in favour of tolerant, civilised pluralism." Let us hope he can live up to that. BBC Conservatives Dan Sabbagh guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Burkina Faso film festival Posted: 10 Mar 2011 02:33 PM PST The UK should be so lucky as to have a film festival of the magnificence and ambitious scale of Burkina Faso's Fespaco It is late afternoon in Ouagadougou, a landlocked city in one of the world's poorest countries. Forty thousand people are packed tightly into a vast stadium, originally built to celebrate the renaming of Upper Volta as Burkina Faso, "the land of upright people". A thermometer shows that it is 100˚ in the shade. A posse of soldiers in bright red ceremonial uniforms and gold-braid shoulder pads march forward in two columns, sabres drawn, as a band strikes up the national anthem. Everyone in the stadium stands up – the president is about to arrive. Are we all here to honour visiting royalty? Only when a giant 6ft-square electronic clapperboard is activated does the reality hit home. This is the opening ceremony of Fespaco, the bi-annual celebration of African cinema. No film festival in the world comes close to rivalling the magnificence and ambitious scale of Fespaco – the Festival Panafricain du Cinéma et de la Télévision de Ouagadougou. Every African country submits work to its selectors, so the films on offer represent a unique snapshot of the contemporary African psyche. Making a documentary about it is just about the best way to get plugged in to such a huge event. Throughout the week, my colleagues and I from the soon-to-be-launched internet channel Hibrow filmed all over the city. We went to Imagine, the inspirational film-making school where Gaston Kaboré, the Martin Scorsese of African cinema, had hosted seminars on subjects as varied as mythology and legend in Hollywood storytelling, and film training in Africa. We visited an eccentric outdoor cinema called Cine Oubris. At Fespaco's HQ, we filmed the premieres, press conferences, the transport of dozens of new 35mm prints from the brand-new Cinematheque to the myriad of festival screening venues all over the dusty city. In the suburbs, we filmed cinephiles going to the movies on "motos", the small motorbikes that are the vehicles of choice. The ultimate scoop lay before us, however – a chance to shoot the breeze with President Blaise Compaoré. A few of the Hibrow team had been invited to join the president for dinner at his palace – along with a few hundred guests. In what was clearly the state banqueting arena, though it was outside – fountains, huge screens, a stage built around a swimming pool – we were seated within feet of the presidential table. His wife even came over to introduce herself and shake our hands. So I figured the time was right to venture an interview with the man himself. What hubris! This was the man who had staged a successful military coup and had ruled his country for 25 years. What chance for us? We had gingerly shuffled to within a few feet when a very large official dressed in flowing Burkinabe robes came over, and told us he was the president's head of protocol. He made it very clear we were not welcome to pay our respects. The armed security men accompanying him made this even more clear. We hobbled back to our seats, shamed into understanding our insignificance. The firework display and the Château Mouton Cadet 1998 restored our dignity. Africa is alive to the opportunities that exist for film-makers, and audiences are hungry for films that show them as they are, and not as some European director or Hollywood producer wants to show them. Documentaries were also very powerful – the documentary jury was led by the brilliant Egyptian director and journalist Jihan El-Tahri, who spoke movingly about the plight of her country and the position of women film-makers in world cinema. Pegase, directed by Morocco's Mohamed Mouftakir, cantered off with the Golden Stallion, the festival's top prize. This tiny, underdeveloped country has been providing for all its continental neighbours a vehicle to celebrate and perpetuate cinematic excellence for more than 40 years, officially sanctioned and financed by the state. Could we ever match that kind of fervour and commitment to cinema in Britain? Documentary Festivals Burkina Faso Don Boyd guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Errol Morris: two sides to a scandal Posted: 10 Mar 2011 02:34 PM PST He's tackled Holocaust revisionism and Abu Ghraib. Now, Errol Morris turns his attention to the case of Joyce McKinney. He tells B Ruby Rich why this could be his final documentary An innocent, beautiful girl from the Blue Ridge mountains, once crowned Miss Wyoming, becomes engaged to a young man, then flies to London to rescue him from the religious cult that has kidnapped and brainwashed him, sacrificing her virginity to make love with him in a desperate bid to restore his sanity. Take 2. A hussy in a see-through blouse is so obsessed with having sex with a Mormon man that she kidnaps him and keeps him in a cottage in Devon where she rapes him for three days straight, as he lies helpless, manacled to a bedpost. What happened? It all depends on whom you believe. Joyce McKinney was put on trial in London in 1977, both by the court and by the British tabloids, but defended herself against the very idea of a woman raping a man. "It would be like trying to force a marshmallow into a parking meter." Welcome to the world of Tabloid, the newest film from America's master documentarian, Errol Morris. After two films dealing with the horrors of US foreign policy and militarism, The Fog of War and Standard Operating Procedure, Morris returns to an examination of the quirky personalities that beguiled him at the beginning of his career, when he trolled the backwaters of Florida and the pet cemeteries of California for out-of-the-way stories. With his portrayal of McKinney and the "Case of the Manacled Mormon", as the tabloids dubbed it, Morris unites the two dominant themes of his film-making career: the status of truth in the uncertain records of history and memory, on the one hand, and, on the other, the depths of compulsion and fantasy to be plumbed in the consciousness of the fascinating humans on whom he trains his camera. "The whole question of truth, yes, runs through everything I do, but also the idea that underneath even the most consequential or inconsequential story, there can be another story that is even more profound," he says. It's a rousing return to form for Morris, who found the subject, as with so many of his topics, in the pages of a newspaper of record – in this case, the Boston Globe. But the central character is the key component. "Joyce is a great natural storyteller," says Morris. After its world premiere last year at the Toronto film festival, Morris was disturbed that some reviewers called Tabloid a slight story. "There are historical examples of these kinds of stories. The Aeneid is a version of Joyce McKinney, and it doesn't even take all that much unpacking. The idea that someone feels abandoned or jilted, and destroys herself in the end, is after all one of the standard tropes of literature. There are probably countless examples of it, and mine is Tabloid." Morris still sounds troubled by how badly Fog of War (2003) and Standard Operating Procedure (2008) were received; particularly upsetting to him were some savage reviews by critics who had always loved his work. "They were too misunderstood," he says. Tabloid is his reaction: a film about someone whose actions were not involved in US foreign policy, told with a stark absence of re-enactments and fancy effects. Tabloid is Morris coming back to basics. The result is a joyous ride through McKinney-land, Morris-style. Moreover, Tabloid may well be Morris's swansong, a sobering thought for the man whose career has forged a decisive change in the direction of American documentary. Morris started out as a would-be graduate student, but when the departmental elders at the University of California, Berkeley turned down his dissertation proposal, he fled academia forever. He tried to make his living as a writer, but nobody would hire him. So he turned to film-making: "I figured that if I couldn't write, at least I could conduct interviews." In the wake of the direct cinema movement (the likes of Albert and David Maysles, DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, Frederick Wiseman) and the advocacy documentary (Barbara Kopple), along came Morris with his nose for charismatic individuals and re-enactments that applied a fictional patina to documentary conventions. After his breakthrough 1988 film, The Thin Blue Line, American documentary was never the same. Morris had created a new kind of earmarked drama, easily recognised as "fake" – if by that word we can understand a perspective attached, not to historical record, but to the fantasies and perceptions of the individuals on screen. Morris continued on his path of hybrid documentary, always finding sources of fascination and import: the inventor of the "humane" electric chair (and a Holocaust denier), the world's foremost physicist (and a quadraplegic), and on and on. He invented his new camera device, the "Interrotron" just before making Fast, Cheap & Out of Control in 1997. It is a form of teleprompter that covers the camera lens with a live feed of Morris himself, allowing the subject to carry on a straight-ahead, eye-to-eye conversation with the director and lens simultaneously. Morris firmly believes the Interrotron's distancing effect actually produces a form of intimacy, a genuine first-person address. With The Fog of War, Morris shifted gears. Former US defence secretary Robert MacNamara was not about to spill his secrets on camera. He was not obscure in any way, nor a subject for psychological investigation. Rather, he was one of the most notorious politicians of any age, a man who had been interviewed thousands of times and kept his secrets, a man who could spin the story to his advantage. Here, the Interrotron would meet its match. Then came Standard Operating Procedure, his documentary investigation into Abu Ghraib and its notorious photographs. Critics misinterpreted his aims and accused him of complicity with torture; it was as if all the cinematic devices he had devised over the course of his career to make audiences think had suddenly, spectacularly, backfired. "Never frustrate audience expectations," Morris says now, darkly. People expected a whistleblower and got a cartographer instead. People wanted finger-pointing and got rumination. Now comes Tabloid. McKinney became infamous in 1970s London: she upstaged Joan Collins on her own red carpet and was photographed in a smooch with Keith Moon. Then, before she could be sentenced, she escaped the country with an accomplice disguised as members of a deaf-mute theatre troupe, and vanished from history – until a 2008 story about her cloning her dog in South Korea cast her back into the limelight. "I found her in the newspaper," says Morris. "Not a tabloid, either: the Boston Globe. It was a story about dog cloning. Then at the very end, I found a mention about this possibly being the same woman who'd been put on trial for raping a Mormon." Morris then makes a shocking admission: "I'm tired of what I'm doing." There are a number of factors involved. Karen Schmeer, his editor of many years, died this year, just before her 40th birthday: she was killed on her way home from the grocery store by a hit-and-run driver fleeing the scene of a drugstore robbery. "It's been hard for many, many reasons. I don't know how many years I've spent with Karen in one editing room or another. It's so hard to put any kind of frame around this." This is one story that even Morris can't make sense of. "What does it mean? Don't leave the house? That we're all at the mercy of some kind of caprice?" And what does Morris plan to do now? "Make fiction!" he bellows. Indeed, he's about to direct his first dramatic feature, a movie adaptation of a TV show about Bob Nelson, the man who froze the first person for cryonic resuscitation. Yeah, sounds like a Morris story. Tabloid screens on 14 March at SXSW. Documentary B Ruby Rich guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

The US's new psychedelia Posted: 10 Mar 2011 03:00 PM PST As psych-pop recluse Jeff Mangum returns, Mark Beaumont weighs up the influence of Neutral Milk Hotel and Elephant 6, while below Martin Aston talks to a kindred spirit, Bradford Cox of Deerhunter For a certain breed of music fan, it was like hearing that JD Salinger was returning from the grave to read The Catcher in the Rye at the Hay festival. On 25 January, Jeff Mangum, the reclusive former frontman of Athens, Georgia cult legends Neutral Milk Hotel, announced his first major live appearances since he silently retired from music more than a decade ago. To the thousands of fanatics of Elephant 6 – the US musical collective dedicated to all things buzz-fi, psychedelic and anti-slick, of which Mangum was a key member – this was astounding news. And then he topped it: he'd be coming to the UK for the first time since the final Neutral Milk Hotel show in 1998, to curate the All Tomorrow's Parties festival in December. For many years, the prospect of Mangum making any sort of serious return had been as unlikely as the Smiths reconvening. Neutral Milk Hotel released only two albums in their lifetime – 1996's berserker-folk sprawl On Avery Island and 1998's follow-up In the Aeroplane Over the Sea. That second album was little more than a curiosity on release; a scuzzy, unhinged album inspired by the story of Anne Frank and Mangum's recurring dreams of a Jewish family caught up in the Holocaust, given a magical, surrealist sheen by its archaic penny-arcade artwork and lyrics about two-headed foetuses in formaldehyde jars, burning pianos and semen-stained mountaintops. Those who heard it adored it, enough that the pressure of their passion contributed to Mangum disappearing from view. But few did hear it, at least at first: that final Neutral Milk Hotel show, at the Underworld in London, was barely half-full. That changed over the following years, as the album slowly became recognised as an alternative milestone – feted by Arcade Fire, Franz Ferdinand and even Simon Schama, filtering ever-higher into best-ever lists across the alternative media and growing in sales to the point where it still shifts around 25,000 every year. Mangum, though, was hardly to be seen. Never the most well-adjusted character (many of his songs were written during all-night sessions brought on by night terrors, and sung to the ghost in his haunted wardrobe), he was acutely uncomfortable with his new status as a cult hero. "Jeff's a very private person," says fellow Elephant 6 mainstay Bill Doss, co-founder of one of E6's other key bands, the Olivia Tremor Control, "and kids were freaking out over him. [They'd] be following him around, these little packs of kids staring at him. It weirded him out in a way, and he just sorta backed off." In the decade between the beginning of NMH's indefinite hiatus and this year's announcement, word of Mangum's activities seeped out like a faint voice amid radio static. He'd turned down an REM support slot for their Athens hometown shows. He released an album of field recordings from the twice-a-decade Bulgarian folk festival Koprivshtitsa. He hosted a graveyard slot radio show on New Jersey's non-commercial WFMU station, calling himself Jefferson, immediately quitting once unmasked. He played a one-off show in a pub in Auckland, New Zealand, with his friend Chris Knox of the Kiwi band Tall Dwarfs. Those were the unremarkable events. His ex-girlfriend Laura Carter claimed he'd had a breakdown and would spend days on end staring at his apartment wall in paranoid panic, or shuffling back and forth to a local Dunkin' Donuts in a pair of threadbare slippers he never took off. He'd become obsessed with Y2K scaremongering and started stockpiling rice. The rumours mounted up: he was travelling the US from Nova Scotia to Arizona like a folk-rock Forrest Gump; he was planning a hot air balloon trip across the Atlantic; he was holed up in a monastery; he was starting a new career as a sculptor. Only one thing was certain – he wasn't making any new music. A rare interview with Pitchfork in 2002 shed a glint of light upon Mangum's frame of mind at the time: "I went through a period, after Aeroplane, when a lot of the basic assumptions I held about reality started crumbling. I guess I had this idea that if we all created our dream we could live happily ever after. So when so many of our dreams had come true and yet I still saw that so many of my friends were in a lot of pain … I realised I can't just sing my way out of all this suffering." Then he began popping up again. In 2008 Mangum appeared at several dates of the Elephant 6 Holiday Surprise Tour to perform one song, Engine, the first NMH material he had performed live in seven years. When Chris Knox suffered a stroke, Mangum played a five-song set at a benefit gig, and last December he performed 10 songs at a Brooklyn loft party. The red mist is clearing, and Mangum's re-emergence couldn't be more timely. For 2011 is bringing a wave of bands who have adopted Elephant 6's aesthetic of outsider music, made in a spirit of derangement. The Rural Alberta Advantage, based in Toronto, share NMH's uplifting sense of no-fi abandonment in the face of personal anguish, as evinced on their excellent second album, Departing. "I remember when I first heard [In the Aeroplane…]," singer Nils Edenloff says, "and it struck me as really beautiful, like the melodies themselves were perfect. And the emotion to it, you felt like he was singing directly to you. In a way we're trying to take those sort of elements and do our own thing with them and hopefully bring them to a less frightened audience – taking powerful, emotional songs and making them celebratory." Over in New York, meanwhile, the Morning Benders are exploring the lusher end of the E6 oeuvre. "Elephant 6 was the gateway for me," frontman Chris Chu says. "They seemed to be bridging that tradition from the 60s to a more modern, more indie approach. It was exactly what I was looking for, a new take on that stuff. It sounded cool, like these guys were bashing around in the garage." And while acts as far-flung as Australia's Tame Impala and Starfucker are plundering E6's vaults for influence, New York's the Terror Pigeon Dance Revolt! perhaps do it best. They released a self-titled debut album in 2010 that was an amalgam of all the central E6 bands – NMH's celebration of the uncelebratable, the acid-fried pop of the Olivia Tremor Control and the bubblegum psychedelia of E6's other founding band, the Apples in Stereo – but with a dancefloor edge. "I'm trying to marry the feeling that a lot of Elephant 6 recordings have of a bunch of friends in a room making music, plus super-sleekness, super-poppy jams," singer Neil Fridd says. "I don't think they're unmarriagable, but they are difficult to put together." TTPDR! also follow the Elephant 6 tenet of "chaos gigs": they hold pillow fights and wrestling matches at their shows, and Fridd often plays dressed in a suit made entirely of stuffed toys. It's an ethos inspired by E6 act the Music Tapes. "In New York they got us to write down all of our dreams and make a wish," Fridd recalls with no little sense of wonder. "We ended up out on the street burning the dreams on a little fire and everyone would burn it and then run and jump over it. So a crowd of 200 people, one by one, went through and jumped over this fire." Such eccentricities were commonplace at early E6 performances where, according to Robert Schneider, the Apples in Stereo's frontman, "the idea of getting through a song casually and playing it all nicely was offensive … 50% of the songs didn't make it all the way to the end. Our shows felt like a really fun train ride, but falling off the track and rolling sideways down the hill, but somehow it gets to the bottom and it's maybe sliding on ice but it still keeps going." Elephant 6 was founded in 1992 by four friends who grew up together in Ruston, Louisiana, obsessed with the Beach Boys, Black Sabbath and 60s psychedelia. Those four were Schneider, Mangum, Doss and Olivia Tremor Control's Will Hart. Although all were southerners, E6 began in Denver, Colorado, where Schneider formed the Apples in Stereo, though both the Olivia Tremor Control and Neutral Milk Hotel based themselves in Athens, Georgia. E6 adhered to a manifesto of familial collaboration (on early tours the Apples in Stereo and Neutral Milk Hotel were essentially the same band, fronted by Schneider or Mangum for their individual sets) and the celebration of home-produced music. "We'd developed a tolerance and a love for really lo-fidelity recordings and sloppy musicianship," Schneider says. "We had a hatred of slick musicianship and recording. I hated indie, I hated all modern music. To my ears it had the most offensive sound quality, the shimmery, late-80s, early-90s sound made my skin crawl. There was a repulsion for the sterile feeling on all major label and studio-recorded releases at the time. I had a mission to take down popular culture. My vision starting Elephant 6 was this perfect pop world, completely pure and completely untainted by slickness or money or commercial interests." Having built a cult following thanks to impressive releases by bands including Beulah, Of Montreal and the Minders, as well as the three core bands, E6 floundered towards the end of the 90s. The ever-expanding E6 family had become unwieldy and, post-Aeroplane, Mangum wasn't the only member with personal problems. Schneider went through a painful divorce, which led him to give up running the E6 record label and quit the collective, while Will Hart, who had multiple sclerosis, was unknowingly developing legions on his brain which made his behaviour erratic, ultimately splitting OTC and contributing to the collapse of E6's central social group. "None of us knew why, we just knew he was acting crazy," Doss remembers. "His brain was fritzing out and he was having a difficult time trying to figure out why. It was like getting divorced: all of a sudden I hated him, for no reason other than I was confused. We didn't speak for years." For six years Elephant 6 lay dormant. But just as Mangum has reanimated, E6 activity has resumed. In 2005, Schneider travelled the US collecting contributions from Mangum, Doss and Hart for the Apples in Stereo's synth-pop classic New Magnetic Wonder, the first album to use the E6 logo since the collective's disintegration. Then, in 2008, the Music Tapes staged the Elephant 6 Holiday Surprise Tour, featuring Mangum, Doss and Hart. "In terms of giving you a fingerprint of what Elephant 6 was like and the feeling and the chaoticness and problems, it was awesome," Schneider recalls. "It was this totally amazing, shapeless musical circus. It was what Elephant 6 was." In addition, the Olivia Tremor Control are recording together again, and hope to release an album this year, just in time to surf the second wave of E6. But why is the collective's influence emerging now? "There's been a huge surge of people making music," Neil Fridd says, "and if you're making music at home on your computer it's going to sound lo-fi. It's like hearing a bunch of friends try to make music in a bedroom." "There's been a 60s garage and pop revival," Chu suggests, "and also home recording is becoming more popular and lo-fi recording is becoming more fashionable. That combination has intuitively led people back to Elephant 6." But it's E6's community spirit that most inspires the Rural Alberta Advantage. "The idea of a group of people working together," Edenloff says, "trying to help out all their friends and creating something special among themselves and then having it get a wider audience – everyone wants that. Elephant 6 did it really well on a larger stage." This September, E6 reaches its largest stages ever. Cherish it, before it disappears again on that aeroplane over the sea. All Tomorrow's Parties Curated By Jeff Mangum takes place from 2-5 December at Butlins, Minehead. The Olivia Tremor Control and the Apples in Stereo will also be appearing. The psychedelic south: Deerhunter's Atlanta 'I'd rather not be doing this interview," Bradford Cox says, wincing. "But you had the audacity to invite yourself into my world. And if someone flies to Atlanta to talk to me, I better treat him with respect." Given the American south's reputation for hospitality, it's fascinating that Cox's definition of "respect" includes threatening to "rip you a new asshole if you paraphrase my emotional moment of transparency" when my tape recorder runs out at an inopportune moment. Likewise his threat – said with a smirk, admittedly – not to let me leave his house until we've redone the interview to his satisfaction. This comes after 13 hours in his company. Luckily, no amount of cat-and-mouse tactics stops him from being compelling company. It's like scrapping with an over-achieving, extremely lucid teenager. As Deerhunter's lead singer, main songwriter and co-guitarist, Cox is proof Janelle Monáe isn't Atlanta's only shining star. Though Deerhunter formed in 2000, the band only settled on their current lineup when Cox's schoolmate Lockett Pundt joined on guitar in 2005. The brilliant Microcastle album (2008) raised expectations, made good by last year's Halcyon Digest, which expands the band's uniquely eerie, heavy-lidded and cryptic vision. "A southern gothic take on glam Berlin. Exile on Main Street meets Low meets Tusk," Cox reckons, though that leaves out the doo-wop influences that set Deerhunter further apart from the uplifting crescendos of North America's most successful alternative bands, from Arcade Fire to Grizzly Bear. On top of this, Cox's beguiling and troubled lyrics (the recent single Helicopter is based on the story of a Russian rent boy reputedly thrown to his death after losing his youthful allure) also demand exploration. Unfortunately, 30-year-old Cox is done with exploring himself. He admits that in his teens he would interview himself in the mirror, fantasising about the attention. Not any more. This is partly due to having inherited the genetic disorder Marfan's syndrome. People with Marfan's tend to be unusually tall and skinny, often with weakened lungs and spine. "People think I'm a junkie because of how I look," he says. But as a former inveterate blogger at frequent loggerheads with fellow bigmouths, engaging with the rest of the world has left him weary and wary. "I think I confuse more than anything when I talk," he says. After giving no UK interview for two years, Cox accepts my suggestion to try something different – to show me around his Atlanta. He picks me up in his Volvo, and after driving around the city's industrial outskirts, he points out Lenny's, "a dive bar where Cole [Alexander, of the Black Lips] would do weird improv stuff, really chaotic and energetic". Cox is still at it today, creating music almost to the exclusion of socialising. "I don't like going out," he says. "Except to one of three restaurants. I'm very rigid like that." He made an exception for a New Year's Eve party, to his chagrin. "These young fucking art school kids attacked me because I took off Duran Duran and put on [experimental minimalist] Tony Conrad. I don't understand what kids want any more, and I'm not interested in catering to it. All they want to do is dance and fuck, and those are two things I'm completely incapable of." Cox has identified himself before as gay, but now claims he's asexual, "because I'm a virgin". While his teenage pals were having fun "on stained couches, I was in hospital, addicted to painkillers after spine surgery, addicted to that blissed-out feeling that I think has a lot to do with my taste for ambient music". Drinking sweet black tea – "the table wine of the south" – in Sauced, one of his three food stops, Cox talks about the music he listened to as a kid. He was just 10 when he heard the Velvet Underground, from which he moved on through 60s garage, 70s krautrock and 80s post-punk. "But we've always tried to blur things further," he says. "Like the sound and the fury of a show more than the actual notes." He pauses. "We've always been dismissed by avant-garde people as too pop, and by pop people as being fucking freaks." Over a late brunch the next day, he adopts his usual posture of perching, legs drawn under him like a gigantic bird. Relaxed conversation is clearly off the menu. Daylight makes him nervous, he says, "useless" even, and he fills time by eating, running errands and visiting family. But at night, there's no stopping him. He recently gave away four albums – 49 songs in all – online under the title Bedroom Databank. "You come off on tour and there's this crippling depression, like, what do I do with myself? I improvise. Fuck record labels and commercial criticism – let people hear what it sounds like when I'm making music without knowing there's an audience, like I used to." We drive to neighbouring Marietta, to visit Deerhunter's rehearsal space, Notown, a suburban carriage house full of band stuff. Cox sits behind the drumkit and starts playing the krautrock motorik pulse, before slumping on the sofa. "I get irritated when I see all this equipment and think we should be doing more. But everybody else has girlfriends and they're lazy. But I'd probably want to settle down too with some nice girl, or guy, or whatever I fancied at the time. People with kids, I'm often struck by jealousy. Because my parents love me unconditionally. They were supportive even when we fought, so I'm not terrified of failure like many people I know." He suddenly springs up. "I'll take you through the process. I set up a shitty mic and fuck around with a guitar until something melodic happens. I usually come up with a vocal feeling, trying to sound open and vulnerable and androgynous. That's inspired by John Lennon, how he always sounded like a little boy. Then I just rap stupid shit. And then I move on to the next one." He plays me his last effort, a slice of happy/sad pop called Right of Way that, given its origins, is breathtakingly good. "Thanks. What you're hearing is the sound of someone really depressed because they can't write. It's a shit B-side at best." He then suddenly decides I should meet his parents. "You gotta interview them!" he barks. "I get my strength from my dad and my punk from my mum." Cox's love of 50s rhythms also comes from Jim Cox, a Fats Domino, Little Richard and Coasters fan. "Dad was a badass," Bradford grins. Dad says of son: "He was creative from the time he was cantilevering building blocks. You couldn't mould him." "I was an emboldened, precocious kid," Cox says as we drive to his mother's house. "In middle school, my best friend and I would hold hands just to attract this wild energy. I always had a thing about teenage mental institutions. I read that Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music was very therapeutic for shock therapy. I relate to those who find solace in dissonance and chaos." His mother, Edith, who also has Marfan's, recalls Bradford's childhood "was ruined" by illness and bullying. But art and music saved the day. "When he was 12, Kurt Cobain was his idol, and Brad suddenly started playing guitar. Before that, he'd write and draw stuff that was just not usual for someone his age. I have boxes of it upstairs." A box labelled "Keep Forever, Ages 8-11" is retrieved. "Even in my youth, I was a cynical dick," Bradford says, searching through the cuttings: "Flame and aerosol can/ Have you lost your path in red eye watering embers?" was written when he was eight. "Aren't you glad I kept these?" Edith beams. The daylight gone, Cox has brightened up, and suggests we eat tacos. "And then I'll take you to my house." In a messy, dim and paraphernalia-strewn bedroom ("My sanctuary"), fit more for a student than an adult, he says: "Ask me the questions again, and you'll get better answers. Starting now." I ask why he is a misanthrope. "Why are you a journalist? That's the summary of this article. Do you really think I am?" You act like it, I say. "I don't disagree with that. But misanthropic people don't cry at films like I do. You just see me in the context of being interviewed. For crying out loud, you have me under a microscope." As if suddenly remembering his dad had raised him "to have a strong stomach, and not be self-pitying", Cox softens again. "Nothing replaces seeing someone appreciate my music, their eyes closed, singing along, and telling me after the show how much it means to them. You can't be some cynical, whiny-arsed artist, shouting: 'I want my space!' There's nothing but gratitude." We call it a night and he drives me home. "Thanks, it's been fun hanging out," he says, and he's gone. Deerhunter tour the UK and Ireland from 25-31 March Psychedelia Deerhunter Indie Pop and rock Mark Beaumont guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

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