INSERT INTO `items1` VALUES (1854, 'Alma observatory explained &ndash; interactive graphic', 'http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/interactive/2011/oct/03/alma-array', '&lt;p&gt;The world&#039;s most expensive and sophisticated observatory, Alma, has come to life in Chile&#039;s Atacama desert. What will it see and how will it work?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;author&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/christineoliver&quot;&gt;Christine Oliver&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;', '2011-10-15T22:45:33+02:00', 'Astronomy', 'alma observatory explained – interactive graphic the worlds expensive sophisticated observatory alma come life chiles atacama desert work');
INSERT INTO `items1` VALUES (1855, 'Alma will give us a glimpse back in time to the beginnings of the universe', 'http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/oct/03/alma-glimpse-back-beginnings-universe', '&lt;div class=&quot;track&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.22.2/1671?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=Alma+will+give+us+a+glimpse+back+in+time+to+the+beginnings+of+the+univer%3AArticle%3A1641984&amp;ch=Science&amp;c3=Guardian&amp;c4=Space+%28Science%29%2CScience%2CAstronomy+%28Science%29%2CChile+%28News%29%2CAmericas+%28News%29&amp;c5=Unclassified%2CNot+commercially+useful&amp;c6=Jon+Butterworth&amp;c7=11-Oct-04&amp;c8=1641984&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=Comment&amp;c11=Science&amp;c13=&amp;c25=&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FScience%2FSpace&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;standfirst&quot;&gt;The largest astronomical project in the world will see dust 13bn light years away &ndash; as it was half a billion years after the big bang&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;It&#039;s all about photons. Two main things determine what you can learn from a new telescope array such as the Alma telescope in Chile. How many photons will it collect, and what is their wavelength?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Alma is big &ndash; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/oct/03/alma-universe-secrets-astronomers?intcmp=239&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;the largest astronomical project in the world&lt;/a&gt; &ndash; so it can collect lots of photons. In particular, it can collect enough to see things that are very faint; sources of light such as galaxies, stars and cosmic dust billions of light years away. Since photons travel at the speed of light, when you look at very distant objects you are also looking back in time because the light takes millions or billions of years to reach you.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Alma will be able to see dust which is about 13bn light years away. The universe is about 13.5bn years old, so this dust is &quot;only&quot; about half a billion years after the big bang. The universe was different then. Well, you would expect it to be. Certainly a 13-and-a-half-year-old boy is rather different from a six-month-old baby.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Back then, any stars or galaxies were &quot;first generation&quot;. They were the first nuclear reactors which fired up and said &quot;let there be light&quot; in a dark universe. These stars started the process of creating heavy elements, such as iron, and when they died as supernovae (colossal explosions) they shared the goodness around. Then second or third generation stars, like our own sun, could start up and have planets with iron cores and carbon-based life forms. Alma will see the dust from which the first stars formed and the galaxies they made.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Then the wavelength. This is how we know what the stars are made of. We have never been out there to bring bits back. We have never even sent a robot to analyse them and tell us. But the atoms and molecules out there have electrons just like the ones on Earth and they jump between energy levels, emitting and absorbing photons &ndash; particles of light &ndash; as they do. These photons have characteristic wavelengths depending on the size of the jump.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The patterns of wavelengths then tell us which atoms and molecules exist out there. In fact, the patterns are shifted towards longer wavelengths depending on speed, which depends on distance, so this is also a way of working out how far away something is. For example, carbon monoxide occurs in star-forming regions of galaxies and has a distinct series of patterns that will allow Alma to measure the composition and distance of the birthplaces of stars.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Early dust and star formation are key targets for Alma. But new telescopes, like any other leap in scientific capability, open up new aspects of the universe to study. While you do not build them without some good targets in mind, much of the excitement is about the unknown. You do not know what you will find until you look.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Prof Jon Butterworth is the head of physics and astronomy at University College London and author of the  Guardian&#039;s &lt;/em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/life-and-physics?INTCMP=SRCH&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Life and Physics blog&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;related&quot; style=&quot;float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/space&quot;&gt;Space&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/astronomy&quot;&gt;Astronomy&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/chile&quot;&gt;Chile&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/americas&quot;&gt;Americas&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;author&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/jon-butterworth&quot;&gt;Jon Butterworth&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;terms&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk&quot;&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our &lt;a href=&quot;http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html&quot;&gt;Terms &amp; Conditions&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds&quot;&gt;More Feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;', '2011-10-15T22:45:34+02:00', 'Space', 'alma glimpse time beginnings universe jon class=terms>');
INSERT INTO `items1` VALUES (1856, 'Alma will reveal secrets of the universe previously hidden to astronomers', 'http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/oct/03/alma-universe-secrets-astronomers', '&lt;div class=&quot;track&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.22.2/32156?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=Alma+will+reveal+secrets+of+the+universe+previously+hidden+to+astronomer%3AArticle%3A1641910&amp;ch=Science&amp;c3=Guardian&amp;c4=Astronomy+%28Science%29%2CSpace+%28Science%29%2CScience%2CChile+%28News%29%2CWorld+news%2CAmericas+%28News%29&amp;c5=Unclassified%2CNot+commercially+useful&amp;c6=Alok+Jha&amp;c7=11-Oct-04&amp;c8=1641910&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=News&amp;c11=Science&amp;c13=&amp;c25=&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FScience%2FAstronomy&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;standfirst&quot;&gt;World&#039;s most expensive and sophisticated observatory will have capability to find a new galaxy every three minutes&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Chajnantor plateau, 5,000 metres above sea level in the Chilean Andes, is one of the most inhospitable places on Earth. The thin air makes breathing difficult, there is no water in sight and fierce winds often force the temperature down to 20C (68F) below freezing.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;On this desolate, Mars-like terrain, however, the world&#039;s most expensive and sophisticated observatory has just stirred into life.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Atacama Large Millimetre/Sub-millimetre Array (Alma) will open astronomers&#039; eyes to the half of the universe that has, until now, been hidden to modern telescopes. It can already peer through the distant clouds of dust and debris in which the earliest stars, galaxies and planets were made and, when it is fully operational in 2013, the observatory will find a previously unseen galaxy every three minutes.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&quot;When a star forms, it forms in these cold, dusty gas clouds,&quot; said John Richer of the University of Cambridge and a project scientist for Alma. &quot;The moment it&#039;s formed it&#039;s shrouded in this dusty material, out of which only half of the light from a typical star escapes. Many other stars are formed in very dense clouds and their light is completely absorbed by the dust in these clouds.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;These soot-like clouds of dust, which are also the birthplace of planets like the Earth, obscure stars from modern optical and infrared equipment, such as the Hubble Space Telescope. While the dust hides the stars, however, it also gets heated by the starlight to a few degrees above absolute zero (-273C). The dust then emits radiation of its own at sub-millimetre wavelengths, which can be detected on Earth by Alma.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sub-millimetre light waves are similar to the radiation used by microwave ovens and 1,000 times longer than the light we see with our eyes. Detecting these means that astronomers will be been able to build a more complete picture of the universe. &quot;If you combine the optical images with the [Alma] images you reveal all the star-forming activity, you&#039;re not missing half of the picture,&quot; says Richer.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Astronomers picked the inhospitable Andean site for their new observatory because it has year-round clear skies and is one of the driest places in the world. Sub-millimetre radiation is absorbed by water and there has been no rain in parts of the Atacama desert for many hundreds of years. An advantage of being so high up is that Alma will be able to capture images as sharp as anything of which Hubble is capable. Shifts of astronomers control the dishes from a more hospitable base at more than a thousand metres below the Chajnantor plateau.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;After more than two decades of design and construction, Alma opened for the use of astronomers around the world this week. Sitting in the desert plateau are 20 identical radio antennas, each one 12 metres in diameter. When the &euro;1bn (&pound;860m) observatory is complete in two years, it will have 66 of the carbon-fibre antennas, which can be arranged in countless configurations, up to 10 miles apart across the mountains, depending on the measurements astronomers want to make.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Alma has got such a fantastic increase in sensitivity compared to previous sub-millimetre wave telescopes, we&#039;re expecting that, every three minutes that Alma is observing the sky, it will discover one brand new galaxy somewhere in the universe,&quot; said Richer.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Despite being incomplete, the observatory has already started doing science. The first scientific image, taken by measurements from 16 of the dishes installed on the Chajnantor site, shows the violent swirls of the Antennae galaxies, a pair of distorted spiral galaxies that are in the process of colliding about 70m light years from Earth. The blue colours represent the best quality optical image taken of this region of space so far, by the Hubble Space Telescope. The red, pink and yellow show previously unseen wavelengths of light emanating from the vast carbon monoxide clouds that float in and between the galaxies, imaged by Alma for the first time. These clouds contain gases with a total mass several billion times that of our sun and, as such, are a reservoir for the formation of future stars.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Among the other experiments chosen for the first year of Alma operations is studying the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way, Sagittarius A*, which is 26,000 light years from Earth.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Dense gas and dust clouds normally obscure the black hole but Alma will be able to see through them.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Heino Falcke, an astronomer at Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands, said: &quot;Alma will let us watch flares of light coming from around this supermassive black hole, and make images of the gas clouds caught by its immense pull. This will let us study this monster&#039;s messy feeding habits. We think that some of the gas may be escaping its grip, at close to the speed of light.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Alma is a collaboration between the 15 member countries of the European Southern Observatory with the US, Japan, Chile, Taiwan and Canada. The UK contribution, funded by the Science and Technology Facilities Council, includes detectors and design input from Cambridge, Kent and Manchester Universities, and construction of the cooling systems in the radio antennae at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Projects like Alma require an enormous amount of patience &ndash; many of us have been working on this for more than a decade,&quot; said Gary Fuller, of the University of Manchester. &quot;There have been many obstacles to be overcome, but I&#039;ve no doubt that it will all be worth it &ndash; it&#039;s great to see the first scientific observations beginning for astronomers from the UK and around the world.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;Alma in numbers&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;Height of observatory above sea-level: 5,000 metres&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Number of radio antennae when Alma is complete: 66&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Total collecting area: up to 7,240 metres squared&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Computing power: 17 quadrillion operations per second (1.7x10^16)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Project cost: &euro;1bn&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Countries involved: 20&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&bull; This article was amended on 4 October 2011. The original stated that sub-millimetre light waves are 1,000 times shorter than those of visible light. This has been corrected.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;related&quot; style=&quot;float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/astronomy&quot;&gt;Astronomy&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/space&quot;&gt;Space&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/chile&quot;&gt;Chile&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/americas&quot;&gt;Americas&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;author&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/alokjha&quot;&gt;Alok Jha&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;terms&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk&quot;&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our &lt;a href=&quot;http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html&quot;&gt;Terms &amp; Conditions&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds&quot;&gt;More Feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;', '2011-10-15T22:45:35+02:00', 'Astronomy', 'alma reveal secrets universe previously hidden astronomers ');
INSERT INTO `items1` VALUES (1857, 'Alma telescope opens its eyes &ndash; in pictures', 'http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/gallery/2011/oct/03/alma-telescope-opens-in-pictures', '&lt;p&gt;The most powerful millimetre/submillimetre-wavelength telescope in the world opens for business and reveals its first image&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;', '2011-10-15T22:45:35+02:00', 'Astronomy', 'alma telescope opens eyes – pictures the powerful wavelength telescope world opens business reveals image');
INSERT INTO `items1` VALUES (1858, 'British scientists bid for contracts to develop world&#039;s largest telescope', 'http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/oct/03/british-astronomers-contracts-world-telescope', '&lt;div class=&quot;track&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.22.2/31792?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=British+scientists+bid+for+contracts+to+develop+worlds%27+largest+telescop%3AArticle%3A1641734&amp;ch=Science&amp;c3=Guardian&amp;c4=Science%2CAstronomy+%28Science%29%2CSpace+%28Science%29&amp;c5=Not+commercially+useful&amp;c6=Alok+Jha&amp;c7=11-Oct-03&amp;c8=1641734&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=News&amp;c11=Science&amp;c13=&amp;c25=&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FScience%2FAstronomy&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;standfirst&quot;&gt;The UK&#039;s space funding agency is helping British astronomers win contracts to work on the new &euro;1bn telescope&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;British astronomers will be in a prime position to take the leading role in building critical scientific instruments for the world&#039;s biggest optical telescope, thanks to a &pound;3.5m research project announced by the UK&#039;s astronomy and space funding agency. The &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.eso.org/public/teles-instr/e-elt.html&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT)&lt;/a&gt; will be built in Chile in the next decade. It should be powerful enough to uncover how the universe evolved in its earliest years. It could even help reveal whether life exists anywhere else in the cosmos.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Over the next two years, the new fund will be available for UK astronomers at Durham and Oxford Universities, among others, to research and develop prototype instruments and experiment for the telescope project. The final decisions about which countries will build which bits of the telescope will be taken by the European partner nations within the next few months.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The &pound;3.5m fund, administered by the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.stfc.ac.uk/&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Science and Technology Facilities Council&lt;/a&gt;, is aimed at putting British researchers and companies into pole position to win the bigger contracts for the telescope as the project develops.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Prof Isobel Hook of the University of Oxford, who is working on UK experiments for the telescope, said the money from the council would also allow British astronomers to &quot;have access to the earliest scientific results from this revolutionary telescope &ndash; an exciting prospect&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Work on building the telescope will begin in the next few years. It will have a 40-metre diameter main mirror made of around 1,000 individual hexagonal segments. When it is up and running, by the 2020s, it will be 10s of times more sensitive than any existing ground-based telescope.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The new telescope costing &euro;1bn (&pound;859m) is a project of the European Southern Observatory (ESO), a consortium of 15 countries, all European except for Brazil. It will be built on the Cerro Amazones, 3,500 metres above sea level, near the Paranal observatory in Chile&#039;s Atacama desert. The area has some of the best locations for astronomical observations in the southern hemisphere.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Paranal is already home to the existing world&#039;s largest optical telescope &ndash; the &euro;500m &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.eso.org/public/teles-instr/vlt.html&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Very Large Telescope (VLT)&lt;/a&gt; &ndash; which uses four 8-metre diameter mirrors to survey the skies. The new telescope would be able to make measurements well beyond the VLT, however, allowing it to address mysteries such as what the first objects in the universe were, how many types of matter exist and whether there are any other Earth-like planets in our galaxy.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The VLT has been crucial to astronomers in the past decade in making the first direct images of planets outside our solar system, weighing distant stars and making important observations of black holes. But it cannot see small planets; the faintest objects at the edge of the universe, which give astronomers clues about how the universe began, are barely detectable by its mirrors.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Bigger telescopes can gather more light and, therefore, produce much more information. The new giant telescope will be able to image faint, previously unseen, objects such as cold stars, baby galaxies and small planets, while collecting far more detail on the more familiar ones. By taking pictures of extra-solar planets, it might even be able to characterise the elements in their atmospheres, allowing astro-biologists a much clearer indication of whether there is the possibility of life on other star systems.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;At the forefront of British scientists bidding to design experiments for the new telescope are teams from Durham and Oxford universities. Among the proposed components is a spectrograph instrument called Harmoni.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Prof Colin Cunningham, of the UK Astronomy Technology Centre, said the new &pound;3.5m fund would allow the UK to put itself &quot;in the best possible position to develop key instruments for the E-ELT with its international partners.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&quot;The fact that ESO has already highly rated the early designs for these instruments is testament to the world-leading expertise of our scientists and engineers. We are looking forward to turning these designs into exciting new capabilities for the astronomy research community.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;related&quot; style=&quot;float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/astronomy&quot;&gt;Astronomy&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/space&quot;&gt;Space&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;author&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/alokjha&quot;&gt;Alok Jha&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;terms&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk&quot;&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our &lt;a href=&quot;http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html&quot;&gt;Terms &amp; Conditions&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds&quot;&gt;More Feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;', '2011-10-15T22:45:36+02:00', 'Science', 'british scientists bid contracts develop worlds largest telescope ');
INSERT INTO `items1` VALUES (1859, 'Ask Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw your science questions', 'http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/sep/30/ask-brian-cox-jeff-forshaw', '&lt;div class=&quot;track&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.22.2/4347?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=Ask+Brian+Cox+and+Jeff+Forshaw+your+science+questions%3AArticle%3A1641324&amp;ch=Science&amp;c3=Obs&amp;c4=Brian+Cox%2CScience%2CPhysics+%28Science%29%2CChemistry+%28Science%29%2CBiology%2CMathematics+%28science%29%2CParticle+physics%2CPeople+in+science%2CAstronomy+%28Science%29&amp;c5=Unclassified%2CNot+commercially+useful&amp;c6=&amp;c7=11-Sep-30&amp;c8=1641324&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=&amp;c11=Science&amp;c13=&amp;c25=&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FScience%2FBrian+Cox&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;standfirst&quot;&gt;Professors Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw will be answering your science questions in the Observer New Review in October&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;What is a neutrino? Where is Higgs boson? How long is a piece of string theory? If my sat nav sends me down the wrong road can I blame Einstein?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;If you have questions about science, no matter how simple, theoretical or daft, send them to &lt;em&gt;Observer New Review &lt;/em&gt;today and we&#039;ll put them to Professors Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw &ndash; who have collaborated on a forthcoming book, &lt;em&gt;The Quantum Universe: Everything That Can Happen Does Happen&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The brilliant duo&#039;s responses to your questions will be published in the &lt;em&gt;Observer&lt;/em&gt; &lt;em&gt;New Review &lt;/em&gt;in October. So please send your question by midday on Monday 3 October to: &lt;a href=&quot;mailto:readers.newreview@observer.co.uk&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;readers.newreview@observer.co.uk&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; or post a question below as a comment.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;related&quot; style=&quot;float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/brian-cox&quot;&gt;Brian Cox&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/physics&quot;&gt;Physics&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/chemistry&quot;&gt;Chemistry&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/biology&quot;&gt;Biology&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/mathematics&quot;&gt;Mathematics&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/particlephysics&quot;&gt;Particle physics&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/people-in-science&quot;&gt;People in science&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/astronomy&quot;&gt;Astronomy&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;terms&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk&quot;&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our &lt;a href=&quot;http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html&quot;&gt;Terms &amp; Conditions&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds&quot;&gt;More Feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;', '2011-10-15T22:45:36+02:00', 'Brian Cox', 'ask brian cox jeff forshaw science questions ');
INSERT INTO `items1` VALUES (1860, 'Science Weekly Podcast: The hunt for dark matter', 'http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/audio/2011/sep/26/science-weekly-podcast-dark-matter', '&lt;p&gt;This week Science Weekly stares into the universe&#039;s heart of darkness. We&#039;re talking dark matter &ndash; the mysterious, invisible, undetectable stuff that makes up some 20% of the universe. Its presence can only be inferred, because without it galaxies would fall apart and the universe would look very different. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;What exactly is it?  &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;To help us answer this question, &lt;strong&gt;Alok Jha&lt;/strong&gt; spoke to &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://star-www.dur.ac.uk/~csf/&quot;&gt;Carlos Frenk&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;, director of the world-renowned &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.icc.dur.ac.uk/&quot;&gt;Institute for Computational Cosmology&lt;/a&gt; at Durham University, where he builds model universes inside supercomputers.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Alok asked him what scientists are doing to find dark matter and what happens if, after every avenue has been explored, it still remains missing.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Subscribe for free &lt;a href=&quot;http://bit.ly/science-weekly&quot;&gt;via iTunes&lt;/a&gt; to ensure every episode gets delivered. (Here is the &lt;a href=&quot;http://bit.ly/sw-xml&quot;&gt;non-iTunes URL feed&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Follow the podcast on our &lt;a href=&quot;http://bit.ly/sw-twitter&quot;&gt;Science Weekly Twitter feed&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://bit.ly/g-sci-twitter&quot;&gt;receive updates &lt;/a&gt;on all breaking science news stories from Guardian Science. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Email &lt;a href=&quot;mailto:scienceweeklypodcast@gmail.com&quot;&gt;scienceweeklypodcast@gmail.com&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://on.fb.me/g-sci-fb&quot;&gt;Guardian Science is now on Facebook&lt;/a&gt;. You can also join our &lt;a href=&quot;http://on.fb.me/sw-fb&quot;&gt;Science Weekly Facebook group&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;We&#039;re always here when you need us. Listen back through &lt;a href=&quot;http://bit.ly/sci-weekly&quot;&gt;our archive&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;author&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/alokjha&quot;&gt;Alok Jha&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;author&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/jason-phipps&quot;&gt;Jason Phipps&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;', '2011-10-15T22:45:37+02:00', 'Astronomy', 'science weekly podcast hunt dark matter this week science weekly stares universes heart darkness talking dark matter – mysterious invisible undetectable stuff makes 20 universe presence inferred galaxies apart universe look different what exactly to help answer question alok jha spoke ');
INSERT INTO `items1` VALUES (1861, 'Frankenstein&#039;s hour of creation identified by astronomers', 'http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/sep/26/frankenstein-hour-creation-identified-astronomers', '&lt;div class=&quot;track&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.22.2/99383?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=Frankenstein%27s+hour+of+creation+identified+by+astronomers%3AArticle%3A1638457&amp;ch=Books&amp;c3=Guardian&amp;c4=Mary+Shelley+%28Author%29%2CBooks%2CClassics+%28Books+genre%29%2CFiction+%28Books+genre%29%2CMoon%2CAstronomy+%28Science%29%2CScience&amp;c5=Not+commercially+useful&amp;c6=Tim+Radford&amp;c7=11-Oct-04&amp;c8=1638457&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=News&amp;c11=Books&amp;c13=&amp;c25=&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FBooks%2FMary+Shelley&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;standfirst&quot;&gt;Mary Shelley had idea for famous novel in response to a challenge from Lord Byron to begin a ghost story&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Texas astronomers have used the light of the moon to highlight the hour of creation for Victor Frankenstein and his notorious monster &ndash; and defend the memory of their teenage creator, Mary Shelley.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The inspiration came in a waking dream between 2am and 3am on the morning of 16 June, 1816, during a stormy summer on Lake Geneva, they explain in the November issue of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skyandtelescope.com&quot; title=&quot;Sky and Telescope &quot;&gt;Sky and Telescope&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In the preface to the third edition of Frankenstein Shelley described a villa party: Lord Byron, Percy Shelley, herself and Byron&#039;s physician Polidori, and the famous challenge by Byron that each of them should begin a ghost story. She also described her repeated inability to come up with an idea until a moment of inspiration during a sleepless night in her dark room, behind closed shutters &quot;with the moonlight struggling to get through&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;And then, she continued: &quot;I saw with shut eyes, but acute mental vision &ndash; I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together. I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, and then, on the working of some powerful engine, show signs of life &hellip;&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The two poets soon lost interest. Polidori picked up an idea of Byron&#039;s and much later launched another genre with a Gothic thriller called The Vampyre. He also kept a diary of his days with Byron and some enigmatic entries have prompted scholars and biographers to suggest that to enhance sales Mary Shelley might have composed yet another fiction about the chronology of literary creation. Did Byron make his famous challenge on 16 June? Was Mary Shelley, only 18 at the time,  writing the next day?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Or did she spend several days agonising and think of her tale on 22 June?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Our calculations show that can&#039;t be right, because there wouldn&#039;t be any moonlight,&quot; says Donald Olson, from Texas State University in San Marcos. Just as astronomers can predict sunrise, lunar cycles and tides decades ahead, they can say when they happened centuries in the past. Prof Olson has already used astronomical tables and geographic reference points to fix the time, date and location of paintings by &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003/dec/10/science.highereducation&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Edvard Munch&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2003/jul/12/arts.artsnews1&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Vincent van Gogh&lt;/a&gt;; to propose &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2004/jul/19/research.athletics?INTCMP=SRCH&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;revised timings for the Battle of Marathon&lt;/a&gt; in 490BC and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2008/jul/02/highereducation.comment&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Caesar&#039;s invasion of Britain&lt;/a&gt; in 55BC; and even to confirm a &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2000/mar/06/classics.geoffreychaucer&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;freak Breton tide mentioned in Chaucer&#039;s The Franklin&#039;s Tale&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In August 2010, Professor Olson, two colleagues and two students went to Lake Geneva to discover when moonlight would have hit the windows, and penetrated the shutters, of Mary Shelley&#039;s bedroom. The answer required a visit to the villa, still in private ownership, a study of the terrain, and perusal of weather records.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Shelley reports that she stayed up beyond the &quot;witching hour&quot; of midnight. By 22 June, the moon would then have been a waning crescent, masked by a hillside. But a bright, gibbous moon would have cleared the hillside to shine into Mary Shelley&#039;s bedroom window just before 2am on 16 June.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;So Shelley&#039;s version of events is supported by evidence. Byron probably made his famous ghost story challenge somewhere between 10 and 13 June, 1816. On 15 June, according to both Polidori and Mary Shelley, the party talked about the &quot;principle&quot; of life. The monster and the tormented scientist were dreamed up in the small hours of that&amp;nbsp;night.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Mary Shelley wrote about moonlight shining through her window, and for 15 years I wondered if we could recreate that night,&quot; says Prof Olson. &quot;We did recreate it. We see no reason to doubt her account.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;related&quot; style=&quot;float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/maryshelley&quot;&gt;Mary Shelley&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/classics&quot;&gt;Classics&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/fiction&quot;&gt;Fiction&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/moon&quot;&gt;The moon&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/astronomy&quot;&gt;Astronomy&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;author&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/timradford&quot;&gt;Tim Radford&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;terms&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk&quot;&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our &lt;a href=&quot;http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html&quot;&gt;Terms &amp; Conditions&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds&quot;&gt;More Feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;', '2011-10-15T22:45:38+02:00', 'Mary Shelley', 'frankensteins hour creation identified astronomers ');
INSERT INTO `items1` VALUES (1862, 'Starwatch: The October night sky', 'http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/sep/25/starwatch-comets-october-space', '&lt;div class=&quot;track&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.22.2/19010?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=Starwatch%3A+The+October+night+sky%3AArticle%3A1638449&amp;ch=Science&amp;c3=Guardian&amp;c4=Astronomy+%28Science%29%2CSpace+%28Science%29%2CScience%2CSupernovae&amp;c5=Unclassified%2CNot+commercially+useful&amp;c6=Alan+Pickup&amp;c7=11-Sep-25&amp;c8=1638449&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=Feature&amp;c11=Science&amp;c13=Starwatch+%28series%29&amp;c25=&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FScience%2FAstronomy&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;October is the month that Comet Elenin might have been visible to the naked eye as it climbed from Leo to Gemini in our E morning sky &ndash; its path was plotted in our Starwatch note on 12 September. In fact, observations appear to confirm that it disintegrated as it neared the Sun, so there is probably nothing to see as it sweeps harmlessly 35 million km from the Earth on the 16th. Meanwhile, the supernova in the galaxy M101, mentioned in the same note, is dimming slowly from the tenth magnitude.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Square of Pegasus is nearing the high meridian at our star map times as the Summer Triangle tumbles westwards and Taurus climbs in the E. Orion rises in the E an hour or two later, climbing into the S by dawn.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Jupiter is outstanding as it comes to opposition on 29 October. At mag -2.8 to -2.9 and edging westwards in Aries, it rises in the ENE as the night begins and is highest at some 50&deg; in the S four hours after our map times. At opposition, Jupiter is 594 million km distant and shows a cloud-banded 50 arcsec disc through almost any telescope. The Moon is nearby on the 13th.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Mars rises in the NE at about 01:15 BST on the 1st and at midnight GMT on the 31st. At mag 1.3 to 1.1 and moving from Cancer into Leo, it is well up in the ESE to SE before dawn, where it lies in front of the Praesepe star cluster on the 1st. It stands to the left of the waning Moon on the 21st and above it on the 22nd.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Observers will be out in force under moonlit skies at about 21:00 BST on the 8th when the Earth may plough through a meteoroid cloud from Comet Giacobini-Zinner. Over a three hour period, hundreds of unusually slow meteors may be seen in all directions as they diverge from a radiant near the Head of Draco, more than 60&deg; up in the NW. The same cloud produced storms of Draconid meteors in 1933 and 1946. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1st &lt;/strong&gt;	11h Mars 0.1˚ S of Praesepe&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;4th&lt;/strong&gt; 	04h First quarter&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;8th&lt;/strong&gt; 	21h Outburst of Draconids meteors?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;12th&lt;/strong&gt; 	02h Full moon&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;13th&lt;/strong&gt; 	21h Moon 5˚N of Jupiter; 22h Saturn in conjunction with Sun&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;20th&lt;/strong&gt; 	04h Last quarter&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;22nd&lt;/strong&gt; 	01h Moon 6˚ S of Mars&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;16th&lt;/strong&gt; 	23h Venus 3˚ N of Antares.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;26th&lt;/strong&gt; 	21h New Moon Vernal equinox.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;29th&lt;/strong&gt; 	03h Jupiter at opposition&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;30th&lt;/strong&gt;	02h BST = 01h GMT Summer Time ends&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;*Times are BST&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;related&quot; style=&quot;float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/astronomy&quot;&gt;Astronomy&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/space&quot;&gt;Space&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/supernovae&quot;&gt;Supernovae&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;author&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/alanpickup&quot;&gt;Alan Pickup&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;terms&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk&quot;&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our &lt;a href=&quot;http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html&quot;&gt;Terms &amp; Conditions&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds&quot;&gt;More Feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;', '2011-10-15T22:45:38+02:00', 'Astronomy', 'starwatch october night sky october month comet elenin visible naked eye climbed leo gemini morning sky – path plotted starwatch note 12 september fact observations appear confirm disintegrated neared sun probably sweeps harmlessly 35 million km earth 16th supernova galaxy m101 mentioned note dimming slowly tenth magnitudethe square pegasus nearing high meridian star map times summer triangle tumbles westwards taurus climbs orion rises hour later climbing dawnjupiter outstanding comes opposition 29 october 28 29 edging westwards aries rises ene night begins highest 50â° hours map times opposition jupiter 594 million km distant shows cloud banded 50 arcsec disc telescope moon nearby 13thmars rises 0115 bst 1st midnight gmt 31st 13 11 moving cancer leo dawn lies praesepe star cluster 1st stands left waning moon 21st force moonlit skies 2100 bst 8th earth plough meteoroid cloud comet giacobini zinner hour period hundreds unusually slow meteors seen directions diverge radiant near head draco 60â° nw cloud produced storms draconid meteors 1933 1946 1st  11h mars 01ëš 04h 21h outburst draconids 02h 21h moon 5ëšn jupiter 22h saturn conjunction 04h 01h moon 6ëš 23h venus 3ëš n 21h new moon vernal 03h jupiter 02h bst = 01h gmt summer time ends*times bst');
INSERT INTO `items1` VALUES (1863, 'Eyewitness: Twinkle, twinkle', 'http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/picture/2011/sep/21/nepal-astronomy', '&lt;p&gt;Photographs from the Guardian Eyewitness series&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;', '2011-10-15T22:45:39+02:00', 'Nepal', 'eyewitness twinkle twinkle photographs guardian eyewitness series');
INSERT INTO `items1` VALUES (1864, 'Comette family home damaged by egg-sized meteorite', 'http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/10/comette-family-home-damaged-meteorite', '&lt;div class=&quot;track&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.22.2/53475?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=Comette+family+home+damaged+by+egg-sized+meteorite%3AArticle%3A1645484&amp;ch=World+news&amp;c3=Guardian&amp;c4=France%2CEurope%2CWorld+news%2CSpace+%28Science%29%2CScience%2CMeteors&amp;c5=Unclassified%2CNot+commercially+useful&amp;c6=Kim+Willsher&amp;c7=11-Oct-10&amp;c8=1645484&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=News&amp;c11=World+news&amp;c13=&amp;c25=&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FWorld+news%2FFrance&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;standfirst&quot;&gt;Meteorite believed to be more than 4bn years old smashes through roof of home on outskirts of Paris&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;When your name is Comette you may get used to jokes about rockets and space and planets. But French schoolboy Hugo Comette, 11, had the last laugh when of all the places, in all the countries on Earth, a piece of rock from outer space landed on his home.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;An egg-sized meteorite believed to be 4.57bn years old smashed through the roof of the Comette family home on the outskirts of Paris some time over the summer when everyone was away on holiday.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;And there the rock, blackened by its journey through Earth&#039;s atmosphere stayed, buried in the roof insulation, until Hugo&#039;s mother, civil servant Martine Comette, 32, noticed the roof was leaking and called out someone to fix it.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The roofer took one look at the broken tile and told the Comettes that whatever had smashed their roof tile must have come from the sky. &quot;It would have had to be superman to break a tile in this way,&quot; he said. It was only then that the meteorite, weighing 88g (3.5oz), was discovered.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Curious to know exactly what it was, Mrs Comette called out scientist Alain Carion, a mineral expert, who declared it an &quot;exceptional&quot; discovery.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&quot;It&#039;s extremely rare. We have had only 50 or so meteorite falls in France over four centuries,&quot; Carion told journalists. &quot;We have never found anything like it within an 80km radius of Paris before.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;He said the Comettes&#039; meteorite was a piece of chondrite that had come from the belt of asteroids between Mars and Jupiter. Most meteorites recovered on Earth are chondrites. They were formed when dust and small grains present in the early solar system created primitive asteroids. Chondrite meteors include dust believed to predate the formation of our solar system and to have come from elsewhere in the galaxy.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Although they have been told some meteorites sell for up to &euro;1,000 (&pound;860) a gramme, the Comettes say selling theirs is out of the question. &quot;A piece of the history of space of which we know nothing, but which is fascinating, has fallen on us,&quot; Mrs Comette, an accountant at the French ministry of finance, told Le Parisien newspaper. &quot;It&#039;s like a fairytale, and less likely than winning the lottery, we&#039;re told.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Not that the lump of rare chondrite Hugo Comette has been proudly showing off at school has convinced everyone. &quot;I took it to school in a piece of kitchen roll in my satchel, but one friend said he only half believed me when I told him what it was,&quot; Hugo said. &quot;He thought it looked like a piece of concrete.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;related&quot; style=&quot;float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/france&quot;&gt;France&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/europe-news&quot;&gt;Europe&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/space&quot;&gt;Space&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/meteors&quot;&gt;Meteors&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;author&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/kim-willsher&quot;&gt;Kim Willsher&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;terms&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk&quot;&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our &lt;a href=&quot;http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html&quot;&gt;Terms &amp; Conditions&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds&quot;&gt;More Feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;', '2011-10-15T22:45:42+02:00', 'France', 'comette family home damaged egg sized meteorite ');
INSERT INTO `items1` VALUES (1865, 'Satellite eye on Earth: September 2011 - in pictures', 'http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/gallery/2011/oct/10/satellite-eye-in-pictures', '&lt;p&gt;Ice islands in the Atlantic, blocked river valleys in Pakistan and salt lakes in the outback were among the images captured by Nasa satellites last month&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;', '2011-10-15T22:45:43+02:00', 'Environment', 'satellite eye earth september 2011 pictures ice islands atlantic blocked river valleys pakistan salt lakes outback images captured nasa satellites month');
INSERT INTO `items1` VALUES (1866, 'Spacewatch: The end of Rosat', 'http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/oct/04/spacewatch-rosat-satellite-re-entry', '&lt;div class=&quot;track&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.22.2/83728?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=Spacewatch%3A+The+end+of+Rosat%3AArticle%3A1642227&amp;ch=Science&amp;c3=Guardian&amp;c4=Space+%28Science%29%2CScience%2CSatellites+%28science%29&amp;c5=Not+commercially+useful&amp;c6=Alan+Pickup&amp;c7=11-Oct-05&amp;c8=1642227&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=Feature&amp;c11=Science&amp;c13=Spacewatch&amp;c25=&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FScience%2FSpace&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;If you thought that Nasa&#039;s odds of one in 3,200 that someone somewhere on the Earth would be struck by a piece of the falling UARS satellite were worrying, then the next major satellite decay poses even more of a risk. The German Aerospace Center puts the equivalent odds for Rosat, the Roentgen Satellite, at one in 2,000. In fact, your personal odds of being hit are more like 1 in 14 trillion, so it is probably safe to put away that tin hat. If you live north of the Wash, then you are out of the &quot;danger zone&quot; which extends to 53&deg; N and S of the equator.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Launched by a US rocket in 1990, Rosat was a joint venture between Germany, the US and the UK. Equipped with an 84cm mirror, it completed an X-ray survey of the sky, finding more than 150,000 objects. It followed up with targeted observations of interesting objects from galaxies, to neutron stars and even comets. It was switched off in 1999 and I calculate that it is now perhaps three weeks away from re-entry as its orbit decays, though it could survive into November.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;At 2,400kg, Rosat is less than half as massive as UARS, but more than half of it is thought likely to survive re-entry, including much of its heavy mirror which was built from a glass-ceramic material with a high melting point. The expectation is that this will drop harmlessly into an ocean. The US tracking authorities took more than two days to confirm the details of UARS&#039;s plunge into the Pacific, so let us hope that they do better with Rosat.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;related&quot; style=&quot;float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/space&quot;&gt;Space&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/satellites&quot;&gt;Satellites&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;author&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/alanpickup&quot;&gt;Alan Pickup&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;terms&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk&quot;&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our &lt;a href=&quot;http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html&quot;&gt;Terms &amp; Conditions&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds&quot;&gt;More Feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;', '2011-10-15T22:45:44+02:00', 'Space', 'spacewatch end rosat if thought nasas odds 3200 earth struck piece falling uars satellite worrying major satellite decay poses risk german aerospace center puts equivalent odds rosat roentgen satellite 2000 fact personal odds hit like 1 14 trillion probably safe away tin live north wash danger zone extends 53â° n rocket 1990 rosat joint venture germany uk equipped 84cm mirror completed x ray survey sky finding 150000 objects followed targeted observations interesting objects galaxies neutron stars comets switched 1999 i calculate weeks away entry orbit decays survive novemberat 2400kg rosat half massive uars half thought likely survive entry including heavy mirror built glass ceramic material high melting point expectation drop harmlessly ocean tracking authorities took days confirm details uarss plunge pacific let hope better rosat');
INSERT INTO `items1` VALUES (1867, 'Eyewitness:  view from Alma observatory', 'http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/picture/2011/oct/04/alma-telescope-space-new-galaxy', '&lt;p&gt;Photographs from the Guardian Eyewitness series&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;', '2011-10-15T22:45:45+02:00', 'Space', 'eyewitness view alma observatory photographs guardian eyewitness series');
INSERT INTO `items1` VALUES (1868, 'Yeti hunters must be more scientific | Brian Regal', 'http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/oct/12/yeti-hunters-scientific-russian-cryptozoologists', '&lt;div class=&quot;track&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.22.2/58642?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=Yeti+hunters+must+be+more+scientific+%7C+Brian+Regal%3AArticle%3A1646486&amp;ch=Comment+is+free&amp;c3=GU.co.uk&amp;c4=Animals+%28News%29%2CEvolution+%28Science%29%2CRussia+%28News%29%2CBiology%2CScience%2CEurope%2CEnvironment%2CWildlife+%28Environment%29%2CWorld+news&amp;c5=Environment+Conservation%2CUnclassified%2CWildlife+Conservation%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CEthical+Living&amp;c6=Brian+Regal&amp;c7=11-Oct-12&amp;c8=1646486&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=Comment&amp;c11=Comment+is+free&amp;c13=&amp;c25=Comment+is+free&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FComment+is+free%2Fblog%2FComment+is+free&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;standfirst&quot;&gt;Russian cryptozoologists claiming to have evidence of the yeti will never be taken seriously without a more academic approach&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;A common complaint among cryptozoologists &ndash; those who pursue unknown or folkloric monsters &ndash; is that mainstream science does not take their work seriously and inappropriately labels it as pseudoscience. The &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/oct/10/siberia-home-to-yeti-bigfoot&quot; title=&quot;Guardian: Siberia home to yeti, bigfoot enthusiasts insist&quot;&gt;shenanigans currently going on in Russia&lt;/a&gt; are a good example of why that happens. Gathered there, as the worldwide headlines have proclaimed, is a group of monster enthusiasts, having come together to investigate an upsurge in sightings in Russia of the yeti, or abominable snowman. Some of the participants in the hunt include a former Russian boxer turned politician, an American woman who claims a bigfoot family lives on her rural property, as well as an intrepid scientist or two. There also seems to be a political undercurrent and the usual hype by locals to boost tourism to their part of the world. And therein lies the rub.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;One of the things the Russia monster project illuminates is the difference between science and pseudoscience: between real and fake science; between professional scientists and amateur investigators. Science does research thoroughly over long periods, checking and double checking to make sure they can prove their findings. Charles Darwin &ndash; who was essentially an amateur &ndash; waited decades before publishing his work on evolution to be sure he could support his argument. Such examples are legion. Science looks for evidence before headlines (though scientists have occasionally fallen prey to overly enthusiastic early reports prior to having established the basis of their work &ndash; remember &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_fusion&quot; title=&quot;Wikipedia: Cold fusion&quot;&gt;cold fusion&lt;/a&gt;?).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Monster-hunting projects are nothing new in Russia. There is a robust history of searching for &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almas_%28cryptozoology%29&quot; title=&quot;Wikipedia: Almas&quot;&gt;almas and almasti&lt;/a&gt;. These smaller cousins to the yeti are known from Russian folklore. They were sought in the early 20th century by Mongolian scholars Badzar Baradiin and Tsyben Žamcarano, later by Y&ouml;ngsiyeb&uuml; RinÄen. In 1958 the Soviet government organised a &quot;snowman commission&quot;, which in turn sponsored an expedition to the Pamir mountains to follow up on sightings of the creatures there. Later, academics like the historian Boris Porshnev and medical doctor Marie-Jeanne Koffman became the revered parents of Russian monster-hunting. Their progeny, Dmitri Bayanov, Igor Bourtsev and others carry on the tradition.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Despite naysayers, the basic concept of cryptozoology is not pseudoscientific. Unknown animals are found on a regular basis by biologists and zoologists, and there is a long history of learned scholars engaging with the concept of monstrous creatures as well. From Aristotle to Pliny to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nhm.ac.uk/research-curation/research/projects/linnaeus-link/&quot; title=&quot;Natural History Museum: Linnaeus Link&quot;&gt;Linnaeus&lt;/a&gt; to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nhm.ac.uk/nature-online/science-of-natural-history/biographies/richard-owen/index.html&quot; title=&quot;Natural History Museum: Richard Owen&quot;&gt;Richard Owen&lt;/a&gt; and Darwin, naturalists have investigated monsters and still do. Darwin thought they might be able to shed light on questions of generation and transmutation. One thing going for cryptozoologists is that creatures like the yeti or bigfoot have a greater theoretical evolutionary plausibility than, say, werewolves or the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jersey_Devil&quot; title=&quot;Wikipedia: Jersey Devil&quot;&gt;Jersey devil&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;There is no problem with looking for monsters; the problem is how you go about it. That is the issue of contention in Russia. You need evidence. Assertions, claims and headlines alone are not enough. Vague bits of hair and odd footprints found in a cave on a publicity stunt do not constitute evidence. Supporters of &lt;a href=&quot;http://ncse.com/creationism/general/what-is-intelligent-design-creationism&quot; title=&quot;National Centre for Science Evolution: What is Intelligent Design Creationism?&quot;&gt;intelligent design creationism&lt;/a&gt; try the same thing. They want to skip all the workaday effort that goes into science and jump straight to the point where their ideas are accepted.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;There are a number of cryptozoologists who work diligently at being properly scientific. They go about their work with intelligence as well as energy. While mostly amateurs, they embody the essence of the scientific endeavour: search the unknown. They, however, are regularly undermined by their less academic brethren. This condition shows that rather than mainstream science it is cryptozoologists themselves who often toss the monkey wrench (or should we say yeti wrench) into the works.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;If the yeti or bigfoot or any of their kin do exist out there, someday they will be found, and likely by an amateur rather than a professional scientist. If that day arrives all of us sceptics will have to rethink our positions. Until then, if cryptozoologists want to be taken seriously by scientists they need to behave more like scientists and less like carnival barkers. Keep the circus to a minimum until you actually have a yeti to show the world, then respect will come.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;related&quot; style=&quot;float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/animals&quot;&gt;Animals&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/evolution&quot;&gt;Evolution&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/russia&quot;&gt;Russia&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/biology&quot;&gt;Biology&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/europe-news&quot;&gt;Europe&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/wildlife&quot;&gt;Wildlife&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;author&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/brian-regal&quot;&gt;Brian Regal&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;terms&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk&quot;&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our &lt;a href=&quot;http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html&quot;&gt;Terms &amp; Conditions&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds&quot;&gt;More Feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;', '2011-10-15T22:45:51+02:00', 'Animals', 'yeti hunters scientific | brian regal ');
INSERT INTO `items1` VALUES (1869, 'Pass notes No 3,059: the yeti', 'http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2011/oct/11/zoology-biology', '&lt;div class=&quot;track&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.22.2/12531?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=Pass+notes+No+3%2C059%3A+the+yeti%3AArticle%3A1646210&amp;ch=From+the+Guardian&amp;c3=Guardian&amp;c4=Science%2CZoology%2CBiology%2CEurope%2CWorld+news%2CRussia+%28News%29&amp;c5=Unclassified%2CNot+commercially+useful&amp;c6=&amp;c7=11-Oct-11&amp;c8=1646210&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=Feature&amp;c11=From+the+Guardian&amp;c13=Pass+notes+%28series%29&amp;c25=&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FFrom+the+Guardian%2FZoology&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;standfirst&quot;&gt;Everything you need to know about the abominable snowperson&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Age:&lt;/strong&gt; Oh ancient, probably.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Appearance:&lt;/strong&gt; Well that&#039;s the thing. Some say it&#039;s very shy. In Nepal, they&amp;nbsp;believe it only comes out at night&amp;nbsp;time. It has been glimpsed fleetingly when &hellip;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;No. I mean, what does it look like&lt;/strong&gt;? Hairy. Flipping hairy.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;This would be the Abominable Snowman, I presume?&lt;/strong&gt; Snowperson, yes. There are legends of these elusive hominids all over the world. And now a Siberian expedition claims to have found &quot;irrefutable evidence&quot; of the creature&#039;s existence.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Wow! They&#039;ll have captured one alive then. &lt;/strong&gt;Ah. No, slightly more refutable than that. They&#039;ve found some smudgy footprints, a pile of twigs that they think is a yeti&#039;s bed, and &quot;several hairs that might belong to the yeti&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Well, I&#039;m convinced.&lt;/strong&gt; So is Igor Burtsev. &quot;We are on the brink of finding the yeti at long last,&quot; he said.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;That&#039;s nice. I&#039;m on the brink of winning the Booker prize. &lt;/strong&gt;You scoff, but Burtsev is head of the International Center of Hominology. It hosted an international conference in the Russian town of Tashtagol, where the findings were announced.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So a group of yeti enthusiasts think the yeti exists? &lt;/strong&gt;They do.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;But they can&#039;t prove it?&lt;/strong&gt; They can&#039;t.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;You see where I&#039;m going with this? &lt;/strong&gt;I do. But don&#039;t dismiss them. One delegate, Liliya Zenkova, claims she had direct contact with a yeti when she&amp;nbsp;was asleep in her car. &quot;I felt my right hand being caressed,&quot; she told&amp;nbsp;the Sun. &quot;I knew it couldn&#039;t be my&amp;nbsp;husband &ndash; it was so gentle with such soft hair.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Too much information, maybe? &lt;/strong&gt;Maybe. Others talked about the creatures&#039; long arms, short neck and piercing shriek.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Wait a minute! A hairy loud-mouthed giant sometimes seen wandering the Himalayas? This is Brian Blessed, surely?&lt;/strong&gt; An interesting theory. You must present a paper at the ICH&#039;s next conference.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Do say: &quot;&lt;/strong&gt;Look! I bet that puddle&#039;s made of yeti wee!&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Don&#039;t say:&lt;/strong&gt; &quot;We&#039;ll never hear the end of this if they actually find one &hellip;&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;related&quot; style=&quot;float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/zoology&quot;&gt;Zoology&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/biology&quot;&gt;Biology&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/europe-news&quot;&gt;Europe&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/russia&quot;&gt;Russia&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;terms&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk&quot;&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our &lt;a href=&quot;http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html&quot;&gt;Terms &amp; Conditions&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds&quot;&gt;More Feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;', '2011-10-15T22:45:52+02:00', 'Science', 'pass notes 3059 yeti ');
INSERT INTO `items1` VALUES (1870, 'China urges Syria regime to deliver on promised reforms', 'http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/11/china-urges-syria-regime-reforms', '&lt;div class=&quot;track&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.22.2/40790?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=China+urges+Syria+regime+to+deliver+on+promised+reforms%3AArticle%3A1646209&amp;ch=World+news&amp;c3=Guardian&amp;c4=Syria+%28News%29%2CMiddle+East+%28News%29%2CWorld+news%2CChina+%28News%29%2CBashar+Al-Assad%2CArab+and+Middle+East+unrest+%28News%29%2CRussia+%28News%29%2CEurope%2CUnited+Nations+%28News%29%2CUS+news&amp;c5=Unclassified%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CCharities&amp;c6=Martin+Chulov&amp;c7=11-Oct-11&amp;c8=1646209&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=News&amp;c11=World+news&amp;c13=&amp;c25=&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FWorld+news%2FSyria&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;standfirst&quot;&gt;Beijing move seen as sign of waning patience over ongoing violence and follows Russia&#039;s call for Assad to reform or quit&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;China has for the first time urged the Syrian regime to deliver on its much-promised reforms, in a move that some observers see as a sign of waning patience with its embattled ally.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;A staunch supporter throughout the six-month uprising, Beijing said on Tuesday that Bashar al-Assad&#039;s government must &quot;respond to the Syrian people&#039;s reasonable expectations&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The announcement by the foreign ministry appears to be a nod to the anti-government movement, which insists it has remained largely passive in the face of an intensive military crackdown. The move is also being seen as a message to Damascus that Beijing is diverging from the Syrian narrative, which suggests the uprising is the work of foreign-backed terrorists.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&quot;China is highly concerned about the situation in Syria, is against the use of violence, and we hope not to see any more bloodshed and casualties,&quot; a foreign ministry spokesman, Liu Weimin, said. &quot;The Syrian government should move faster to honour its reform pledges and quickly initiate and push forward the inclusive political process with the broad participation of all parties.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The move comes several days after Russia also publicly shifted its position, offering more strident criticism of the regime and demanding that Assad either reform or quit. Both countries had been heavily criticised by Europe and the US for vetoing a bid in the UN security council to threaten further sanctions. Russia has maintained its strategic alliance with Syria from the cold war and China is looking to consolidate a foothold in the region.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Beijing and Moscow had also been critics of the Nato intervention in Libya and vetoed a security council bid to prevent a repeat in Syria.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The six-month revolt in Syria has crippled the economy, destroyed tourism, led to nearly 3,000 deaths and polarised the various groups inside the country, which has been ruled by the pan-Arab Ba&#039;ath party, enforced by the 40-year rule of the Assad family. How to deal with the ongoing violence continues to trouble Sunni Arab states and Europe, who fear an inexorable slide towards civil war if Assad does not introduce a comprehensive reform programme, or cede power to a nascent opposition.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The 46-year-old president has repeatedly shown he has no intention of leaving. His foreign minister, Walid al-Muallem, this week warned of &quot;severe&quot; measures against any country that recognised a new opposition body, which aims to unite dissidents inside and outside of Syria and cast itself as a new representative group. Libya&#039;s National Transitional Council has already recognised the group and the EU welcomed it as a &quot;positive step&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Assad again pledged reforms over the weekend, in particular the establishment of a committee to draft a new constitution.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Syrian security forces continue to besiege the city of Homs, where dissidents are clashing with security forces most days. Large numbers of the city&#039;s residents have fled to Lebanon since the weekend fearing a full-scale invasion by troops who have encircled the city.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;related&quot; style=&quot;float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/syria&quot;&gt;Syria&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/middleeast&quot;&gt;Middle East&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/china&quot;&gt;China&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/bashar-al-assad&quot;&gt;Bashar Al-Assad&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/arab-and-middle-east-protests&quot;&gt;Arab and Middle East unrest&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/russia&quot;&gt;Russia&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/europe-news&quot;&gt;Europe&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/unitednations&quot;&gt;United Nations&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/usa&quot;&gt;United States&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;author&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/martin-chulov&quot;&gt;Martin Chulov&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;terms&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk&quot;&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our &lt;a href=&quot;http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html&quot;&gt;Terms &amp; Conditions&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds&quot;&gt;More Feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;', '2011-10-15T22:45:52+02:00', 'Syria', 'china urges syria regime deliver promised reforms martin class=terms>');
INSERT INTO `items1` VALUES (1871, 'Abramovich and Berezovsky&#039;s cars get parking tickets outside high court', 'http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/oct/11/abramovich-berezovsky-parking-tickets-court', '&lt;div class=&quot;track&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.22.2/91579?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=Abramovich+and+Berezovsky%27s+cars+get+parking+tickets+outside+high+court%3AArticle%3A1646211&amp;ch=UK+news&amp;c3=GU.co.uk&amp;c4=UK+news%2CLondon+%28News%29%2CRoman+Abramovich%2CFootball%2CBoris+Berezovsky%2CRoad+transport+%28News%29%2CRussia+%28News%29%2CEurope%2CWorld+news%2CLocal+government+%28Society%29%2CSociety%2CLaw&amp;c5=Society+Weekly%2CUnclassified%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CLocal+Government+Society%2CPremier+League&amp;c6=Press+Association&amp;c7=11-Oct-11&amp;c8=1646211&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=News&amp;c11=UK+news&amp;c13=&amp;c25=&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FUK+news%2FLondon&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;standfirst&quot;&gt;Drivers were spotted waiting on single yellow lines in a side street for the two Russians, who are involved in a legal battle&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Parking wardens have handed tickets to drivers ferrying Roman Abramovich and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/04/pass-notes-boris-berezovsky&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Boris Berezovsky&lt;/a&gt; to and from the high court after limousines were spotted waiting on single yellow lines.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/06/berezovsky-abramovich-high-court&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Berezovsky is suing the owner of Chelsea Football Club&lt;/a&gt; for more than $5bn (&pound;3.2bn). He claims that Abramovich &quot;betrayed&quot; him after Berezovsky fell out with the Kremlin and fled to Britain in 2000, forcing him to sell his share in the Russian oil company Sibneft for a knockdown price.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Council civil enforcement officers swooped on Abramovich&#039;s silver Mercedes people carrier and Berezovsky&#039;s black Maybach in a side street outside the court building in central London.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Wardens from the City of London wrote out tickets and photographed the vehicles after the hearing concluded on Tuesday.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Drivers are allowed to load and unload and pick up or drop off on a single yellow line &ndash; but not wait. Motorists who breach the rule in central London face a fine of at least &pound;65.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;related&quot; style=&quot;float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/london&quot;&gt;London&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/roman-abramovich&quot;&gt;Roman Abramovich&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/boris-berezovsky&quot;&gt;Boris Berezovsky&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/road-transport&quot;&gt;Road transport&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/russia&quot;&gt;Russia&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/europe-news&quot;&gt;Europe&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/localgovernment&quot;&gt;Local government&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;terms&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk&quot;&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our &lt;a href=&quot;http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html&quot;&gt;Terms &amp; Conditions&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds&quot;&gt;More Feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;', '2011-10-15T22:45:53+02:00', 'UK news', 'abramovich berezovskys cars parking tickets outside high court boris transport>road class=terms>');
INSERT INTO `items1` VALUES (1872, 'Yulia Tymoshenko jailed after &#039;political trial&#039; that risks making Ukraine a pariah', 'http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/11/yulia-tymoshenko-jailed-ukraine-pariah', '&lt;div class=&quot;track&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.22.2/17704?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=Yulia+Tymoshenko+jailed+after+%27political+trial%27+that+risks+making+Ukrain%3AArticle%3A1646177&amp;ch=World+news&amp;c3=Guardian&amp;c4=Yulia+Tymoshenko%2CUkraine+%28News%29%2CEurope%2CRussia+%28News%29%2CViktor+Yanukovych%2CWorld+news%2CEuropean+Union+%28News%29&amp;c5=Unclassified%2CPolicy+Society%2CNot+commercially+useful&amp;c6=Miriam+Elder&amp;c7=11-Oct-11&amp;c8=1646177&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=&amp;c11=World+news&amp;c13=&amp;c25=&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FWorld+news%2FYulia+Tymoshenko&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;standfirst&quot;&gt;European Union and Russia condemn seven-year sentence for former prime minister accused of abuse of office over gas deal&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Ukraine shut the book on its flirtation with democracy and European integration on Tuesday  when it sentenced former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko to seven years in prison in a trial widely seen as a political&amp;nbsp;witch-hunt.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The EU said it was &quot;deeply disappointed&quot; in the conviction and vowed to review links with the country. It had issued repeated warnings to President Viktor Yanukovych that a guilty verdict would derail negotiations that had been on the verge of forging unprecedented ties between Brussels and Kiev.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Tymoshenko, flanked by her daughter and husband, appeared defiant as Judge Rodion Kireyev read the nearly four-hour-long verdict on charges that she exceeded her authority when she signed a gas deal with Russia in 2009.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In addition to the seven-year term &ndash; the maximum requested by state prosecutors &ndash; the judge ordered her to repay 1.5bn hryvna (&pound;120m) in damages incurred by state gas firm Naftogaz, and seized her property. The 50-year-old was also banned from participating in political life for three years after the sentence runs out.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Tymoshenko, visibly angry, responded by telling the court: &quot;Today it has become clear to everyone that the country is ruled by a dictatorship.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&quot;I beg you to unite to overturn this authoritarian regime.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;She compared her trial to Stalin&#039;s purges, when the Soviet dictator sought to eliminate his perceived enemies, telling the court: &quot;You know very well that the sentence is not being pronounced by Judge Kireyev, but by President Yanukovych.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Tymoshenko has been Yanukovych&#039;s chief political rival for nearly a decade, co-leading the Orange Revolution that kept him from coming to power in 2004 as Ukraine bucked Russian influence in favour of forging closer ties with the west.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But as the Orange coalition devolved into bitter political infighting, Yanukovych was elected to office last year, with Tymoshenko becoming chief opposition leader.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;William Hague, the British foreign secretary, said her conviction was &quot;deeply concerning&quot; and called into question Ukraine&#039;s relationship with the EU.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;He said the trial could pose a &quot;major obstacle&quot; to the signature and ratification of a so-called &quot;deep and comprehensive&quot; free-trade agreement, which both Brussels and Kiev had hoped to sign by the end of the year.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Hague said: &quot;Ukraine says it wants to join the EU one day. The UK supports that objective. But that cannot happen until Ukraine can show that it adheres to the highest democratic standards, including respect for human rights, the rule of law and an independent, transparent and fair judicial process.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Lady Ashton, the EU foreign policy chief, said in a statement: &quot;The verdict comes after a trial which did not respect the international standards as regards fair, transparent and independent legal process.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Ukraine&#039;s politics, and its relationship with business, remains murky 20 years after the fall of the USSR, while its institutions are woefully unreformed and subject to intense political influence. Tymoshenko herself grew hugely rich in the 1990s and was nicknamed &quot;the gas princess&quot; after her main source of wealth.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The current trial &ndash; over a deal that put an end to a ruinous gas war with Russia that left much of eastern Europe freezing in January 2009 &ndash; was the culmination of a targeted campaign against the opposition leader that saw nearly a dozen of her associates also arrested.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&quot;In a way this case reminds me of [jailed Russian oligarch Mikhail] Khodorkovsky,&quot; said Sergei Markov, a member of Russia&#039;s State Duma. &quot;In both cases there are political reasons for the trial.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Ukraine risks becoming an international pariah after Moscow also reacted harshly to the conviction, with the foreign ministry noting that &quot;many states and the world public perceive this entire judicial process as initiated for purely political reasons&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The case, the ministry said, contained &quot;an obvious anti-Russian subtext&quot;. Russia has resisted Yanukovych&#039;s attempts to renegotiate the gas deal in favour of Ukraine.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Some Ukrainian analysts have speculated that the leadership in Kiev could attempt to save face by overturning the sentence. That would free Tymoshenko from prison but bar her from participating in political life, including next year&#039;s parliamentary elections and a 2015 presidential vote. EU officials have said that would not be enough.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Last week, the Ukrainian parliament threw out proposed amendments to the criminal code that would have decriminalised the articles under which Tymoshenko was convicted. Yanukovych hinted late on Tuesday that plan was still a possibility.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&quot;[The verdict] has made the European Union anxious and we understand why this is so,&quot; Yanukovych said, news agencies reported from Kiev.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Today the court took its decision in the framework of the current criminal code. This is not the final decision.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Beyond doubt this is a regrettable case which is impeding the European integration of Ukraine today.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Amnesty International issued a statement calling for Tymoshenko&#039;s immediate release.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;related&quot; style=&quot;float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/yulia-tymoshenko&quot;&gt;Yulia Tymoshenko&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/ukraine&quot;&gt;Ukraine&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/europe-news&quot;&gt;Europe&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/russia&quot;&gt;Russia&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/viktor-yanukovych&quot;&gt;Viktor Yanukovych&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/eu&quot;&gt;European Union&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;author&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/miriam-elder&quot;&gt;Miriam Elder&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;terms&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk&quot;&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our &lt;a href=&quot;http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html&quot;&gt;Terms &amp; Conditions&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds&quot;&gt;More Feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;', '2011-10-15T22:45:54+02:00', 'Yulia Tymoshenko', 'yulia tymoshenko jailed political trial risks making ukraine pariah viktor class=author>miriam class=terms>');
INSERT INTO `items1` VALUES (1873, 'Yulia Tymoshenko trial is an own goal for Ukraine', 'http://www.guardian.co.uk/global/2011/oct/11/yulia-tymoshenko-trial-ukraine', '&lt;div class=&quot;track&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.22.2/85078?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=Yulia+Tymoshenko+trial+is+an+own+goal+for+Ukraine%3AArticle%3A1646120&amp;ch=Comment+is+free&amp;c3=GU.co.uk&amp;c4=Ukraine+%28News%29%2CYulia+Tymoshenko%2CAmnesty+International%2CHuman+rights%2CMikhail+Khodorkovsky%2CWorld+news%2CFootball%2CEurope%2CPoland+%28News%29%2CRussia+%28News%29%2CEuropean+Union+%28News%29&amp;c5=Unclassified%2CPolicy+Society%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CCharities&amp;c6=Luke+Harding&amp;c7=11-Oct-11&amp;c8=1646120&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=News%2CComment&amp;c11=Comment+is+free&amp;c13=&amp;c25=Comment+is+free&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FComment+is+free%2Fblog%2FComment+is+free&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;standfirst&quot;&gt;With Ukraine co-hosting Euro 2012, former prime minister Tymoshenko&#039;s jail sentence for abuse of power leaves Kiev prone to EU pressure&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The venue was Kiev&#039;s glittering Hyatt Regency hotel, overlooking the Old City. The moment was just before Ukraine&#039;s 2010 presidential election. Voters had grown weary of the constant bickering between the country&#039;s two pro-western leaders &ndash; firebrand prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko and semi-romantic nationalist president Viktor Yushchenko.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Instead, the man of the moment was Viktor Yanukovych, a Soviet-era apparatchik. Back in 2004, Yanukovych had been caught, embarrassingly, trying to fix the last presidential poll.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Over an agreeable dinner, aides to Yanukovych &ndash; without recognising any previous wrongdoing &ndash; told me that their candidate was now a reformed character. Yanukovych was a democrat. More than that he was also a passionate European, who believed that Ukraine&#039;s geopolitical destiny lay with the European Union, rather than with Russia, the country&#039;s authoritarian neighbour (although good ties with Moscow were important, too). The new Yanukovych was even learning English. This message was repeated in Brussels, London and Washington.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Eighteen months later things look rather different. The decision by a Kiev court today to jail Tymoshenko for seven years for abuse of office over a controversial 2009 gas deal with Russia is an unambiguous signal. It says that Yanukovych does not really care what the EU thinks about him. It also confirms what Yanukovych&#039;s critics have been saying for some time &ndash; that under his leadership the country is sliding towards Russian-style &quot;managed democracy&quot; and autocratic rule.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Since taking power, Yanukovych has rapidly reversed the fragile democratic gains of the Orange Revolution. He has put a squeeze on the country&#039;s independent media, with TV now in the hands of a bunch of pro-regime oligarchs. Nosy opposition journalists &ndash; such as the investigative reporter Vasyl Klymentyev &ndash; have disappeared. In parliament, Yanukovych&#039;s Party of the Regions has, using dubious means, achieved a majority. And politically motivated prosecutions have been brought against Tymoshenko and other senior members of her bloc.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Initially, some welcomed Yanukovych&#039;s old-school centralising tendencies. They favourably contrast Ukraine&#039;s current political &quot;stability&quot; with the chaotic, and even dysfunctional, Orange revolution years of 2004-2010. Speaking after her prison sentence, Tymoshenko delved into history and said the judge&#039;s verdict had plunged Ukraine back to 1937 and the dark era of Stalin&#039;s showtrials.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&quot;As for me, be sure that I will not stop my fight even for a minute. I will always be with you as long as it is necessary,&quot; she declared defiantly, as she was carted back to jail.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The comparison is ridiculous: in 1937 defendants were taken out after their trials and immediately shot. This won&#039;t happen to Tymoshenko.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;There are rumours that following her conviction Yanukovych, having proved his point, will look for some kind of deal. One version is that the charges against her will be &quot;decriminalised&quot;; another that she will be released on payment of a large fine. The European Union has reacted to the sentence with anger and dismay. Amnesty International dubbed it &quot;politically motivated&quot;. The Russian press baron Alexander Lebedev mischievously tweeted: &quot;Free Nelson Tymoshenko!&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But what is clear is that the case was designed to nobble Tymoshenko and to cripple the pro-western, anti-Yanukovych forces she represents.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;She is now unable to participate in Ukraine&#039;s next two elections: parliamentary ones in 2012, and the next presidential election in 2015. That, presumably, was the idea. Thousands of her supporters took to the streets of Kiev today, protesting noisily against Yanukovych&#039;s heavy-handed tactics, reminiscent of Ukraine&#039;s backroom politics a decade ago.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The trial bears comparison with that of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the Russian oligarch who fell out with Vladimir Putin.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Khodorkovsky was jailed for a second time in 2010 after a similarly ludicrous judicial process. Khodorkovsky&#039;s trial was seen as a bellwether for Russia&#039;s political direction: forwards towards partial liberalisation and the rule of law, or backwards along the same lugubrious KGB track as before. Tymoshenko&#039;s conviction, alas, shows that Yanukovych isn&#039;t the newly minted democrat of 2010, but the same man whose election team in 2004 hacked into Ukraine&#039;s central election commission&#039;s computer.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Things may look grim for Tymoshenko, but there are several factors in her favour. As Andrew Wilson, senior fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, argues Ukraine isn&#039;t Russia. There are signal differences: Ukraine&#039;s economy isn&#039;t booming, its political system is fractured, and it still has a credible (admittedly now jailed) opposition leader &ndash; Tymoshenko. Relations with the Kremlin are cool.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Plus, Ukraine is more susceptible than Russia to international pressure.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But the clinching factor is something completely different: football.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Next year, Ukraine, together with Poland, will host the European football championships, Uefa Euro 2012, with the final taking place in Kiev. It is a moment when the eyes of the world, or much of it, will be looking at Ukraine.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;And it won&#039;t look too good if Nelson Tymoshenko is still in jail.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;related&quot; style=&quot;float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/ukraine&quot;&gt;Ukraine&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/yulia-tymoshenko&quot;&gt;Yulia Tymoshenko&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/amnesty-international&quot;&gt;Amnesty International&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/human-rights&quot;&gt;Human rights&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/mikhail-khodorkovsky&quot;&gt;Mikhail Khodorkovsky&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/europe-news&quot;&gt;Europe&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/poland&quot;&gt;Poland&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/russia&quot;&gt;Russia&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/eu&quot;&gt;European Union&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;author&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/lukeharding&quot;&gt;Luke Harding&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;terms&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk&quot;&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our &lt;a href=&quot;http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html&quot;&gt;Terms &amp; Conditions&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds&quot;&gt;More Feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;', '2011-10-15T22:45:54+02:00', 'Ukraine', 'yulia tymoshenko trial goal ukraine human class=author>');
INSERT INTO `items1` VALUES (1874, 'Clashes in Kiev as Tymoshenko sentenced to seven years - video', 'http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2011/oct/11/yulia-tymoshenko-jailed-video', '&lt;p&gt;Former Ukraine prime minister found guilty of abuse of office over 2009 gas deal in case supporters say was politically motivated&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;', '2011-10-15T22:45:55+02:00', 'Yulia Tymoshenko', 'clashes kiev tymoshenko sentenced seven years video former ukraine prime minister guilty abuse office 2009 gas deal case supporters say politically style=clearboth />');
INSERT INTO `items1` VALUES (1875, 'Hilary Swank under fire for attending Ramzan Kadyrov&#039;s party in Chechnya', 'http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/oct/11/hilary-swank-ramzan-kadyrov-chechnya', '&lt;div class=&quot;track&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.22.2/48654?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=Hilary+Swank+under+fire+for+attending+Ramzan+Kadyrov%27s+party+in+Chechnya%3AArticle%3A1645853&amp;ch=Film&amp;c3=GU.co.uk&amp;c4=Hilary+Swank+%28Film%29%2CFilm%2CCulture%2CHuman+rights%2CLaw%2CChechnya%2CRussia+%28News%29%2CEurope%2CWorld+news&amp;c5=Unclassified%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CFilm+Reviews&amp;c6=Ben+Child&amp;c7=11-Oct-12&amp;c8=1645853&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=News&amp;c11=Film&amp;c13=&amp;c25=&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FFilm%2FHilary+Swank&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;standfirst&quot;&gt;Human Rights Watch expresses concern as star seen alongside Jean-Claude van Damme at Chechen leader&#039;s lavish celebration&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Oscar-winning actor Hilary Swank and action star Jean-Claude van Damme have been criticised for attending a lavish party in honour of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jul/16/murder-chechnya-natalia-estemirova-russia&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Chechen president Ramzan Kadyrov&lt;/a&gt;. Human rights organisations targeted the pair for agreeing to be part of the multimillion-pound event on a floating stage on the river Sunzha in the Chechen capital city, Grozny, last Wednesday.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In 2009, the American organisation &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.freedomhouse.org/uploads/WoW09/WOW%202009.pdf&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Freedom House named Chechnya&lt;/a&gt; alongside Burma, North Korea and Chinese Tibet on a list of the most repressive societies in the world.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Ramzan Kadyrov is linked to a litany of horrific human rights abuses,&quot; said a statement from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hrw.org/&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Human Rights Watch&lt;/a&gt; (HRW). &quot;It&#039;s inappropriate for stars to get paid to party with him. It bolsters his image and legitimises a brutal leader and his regime. And getting paid to be part of such a lavish show in Chechnya trivialises the suffering of countless victims of human rights abuses there.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/hilary-swank-jean-claude-van-damme-chechnya-246199&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;According to the Hollywood Reporter&lt;/a&gt;, Swank and Van Damme were probably paid six-figure sums to attend the event. The action star went on stage and told his host: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-15197717&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;&quot;I love you, Mr Kadyrov&quot;&lt;/a&gt;, while Swank wished the leader a happy birthday and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmyE2WZvuPQ&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;said she was honoured to be in the Chechen capital&lt;/a&gt;. The British violinist Vanessa Mae also performed for what local media said was a fee of half a million dollars (&pound;320,000).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Swank came in for particular criticism because her manager had earlier told the Human Rights Foundation (HRF) she had no plans to attend the ceremony. Representatives for both figures have remained silent on the matter. Actors Eva Mendes and Kevin Costner declined invites to attend the event.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&bull; This article was amended on 12 October 2011 to correct the abbreviation of Human Rights Watch to HRW from HRF, and to clarify that HRF stands for the Human Rights Foundation.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;related&quot; style=&quot;float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/hilaryswank&quot;&gt;Hilary Swank&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/human-rights&quot;&gt;Human rights&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/chechnya&quot;&gt;Chechnya&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/russia&quot;&gt;Russia&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/europe-news&quot;&gt;Europe&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;author&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/benchild&quot;&gt;Ben Child&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;terms&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk&quot;&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our &lt;a href=&quot;http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html&quot;&gt;Terms &amp; Conditions&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds&quot;&gt;More Feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;', '2011-10-15T22:45:55+02:00', 'Hilary Swank', 'hilary swank attending ramzan kadyrovs party chechnya ');
INSERT INTO `items1` VALUES (1876, 'Yulia Tymoshenko sentenced to seven years in prison', 'http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/11/yulia-tymoshenko-guilty-abuse-office', '&lt;div class=&quot;track&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.22.2/27315?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=Yulia+Tymoshenko+found+guilty+of+abuse+of+office%3AArticle%3A1645769&amp;ch=World+news&amp;c3=Guardian&amp;c4=Yulia+Tymoshenko%2CUkraine+%28News%29%2CRussia+%28News%29%2CWorld+news%2CEurope&amp;c5=Unclassified%2CNot+commercially+useful&amp;c6=Miriam+Elder&amp;c7=11-Oct-11&amp;c8=1645769&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=News&amp;c11=World+news&amp;c13=&amp;c25=&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FWorld+news%2FYulia+Tymoshenko&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;standfirst&quot;&gt;Ukraine&#039;s former prime minister found guilty of abuse of office after signing gas deal with Russia in 2009&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The former Ukrainian prime minister, Yulia Tymoshenko, has been sentenced to seven years in prison after being found guilty of abusing her office in a case her supporters claim is politically motivated.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Judge Rodion Kireyev said Tymoshenko had exceeded her powers when she signed a 2009 deal with Moscow that left Ukraine paying a high price for Russian gas.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;At the end of an hours-long reading of the verdict, he ordered her to repay the state gas company, Naftogaz, 1.5 billion hryvnia (&pound;120m) in damages.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The trial, which began in May, has been &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/sep/25/tymoshenko-trial-ukraine-european-union&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;criticised by the Ukrainian opposition and EU leaders&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Tymoshenko, a leader of Ukraine&#039;s Orange revolution six years ago, had reverted to being the country&#039;s chief opposition politician and rival to the president, Viktor Yanukovych, since leaving office last year. She has accused Yanukovych of orchestrating her arrest.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The former prime minister addressed reporters during a break in the reading of the verdict to accuse Yanukovych of building an &quot;authoritarian regime&quot;. The 50-year-old compared her trial to Stalin&#039;s purges, when the Soviet dictator sought to eliminate his perceived enemies.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Before the judge began reading the verdict, Tymoshenko had told the court: &quot;You know very well that the sentence is not being pronounced by Judge Kireyev but by President Yanukovych. Whatever the sentence pronounced, my struggle will continue.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Tymoshenko&#039;s supporters had gathered outside the courtroom in Kiev, where city officials deployed around 1,000 police officers.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Some Ukrainian analysts have speculated that the leadership in Kiev could attempt to save face by overturning any sentence. That would leave Tymoshenko out of prison but, under Ukrainian law, bar her from participating in the country&#039;s political life.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The EU was quick to condemn the verdict as politically motivated and urged the Ukrainian authorities to ensure a transparent and fair appeals process for Tymoshenko.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;A failure to do so would have &quot;profound implications&quot; for Ukraine-EU relations and could jeopardise the conclusion of a landmark association agreement, the EU foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, said in a statement.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Nearly a dozen of Tymoshenko&#039;s associates have been arrested since Yanukovych came to power after a closely-contested vote last year. He has denied carrying out a witch-hunt.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;related&quot; style=&quot;float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/yulia-tymoshenko&quot;&gt;Yulia Tymoshenko&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/ukraine&quot;&gt;Ukraine&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/russia&quot;&gt;Russia&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/europe-news&quot;&gt;Europe&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;author&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/miriam-elder&quot;&gt;Miriam Elder&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;terms&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk&quot;&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our &lt;a href=&quot;http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html&quot;&gt;Terms &amp; Conditions&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds&quot;&gt;More Feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;', '2011-10-15T22:45:56+02:00', 'Yulia Tymoshenko', 'yulia tymoshenko sentenced seven years prison miriam class=terms>');
INSERT INTO `items1` VALUES (1877, 'Siberia home to yeti, bigfoot enthusiasts insist', 'http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/oct/10/siberia-home-to-yeti-bigfoot', '&lt;div class=&quot;track&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.22.2/16799?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=Siberia+home+to+yeti%2C+bigfoot+enthusiasts+insist%3AArticle%3A1645449&amp;ch=Environment&amp;c3=Guardian&amp;c4=Wildlife+%28Environment%29%2CRussia+%28News%29%2CEnvironment%2CCanada+%28News%29%2CAmericas+%28News%29%2CWorld+news%2CEurope%2CUS+news%2CZoology%2CBiology%2CScience&amp;c5=Unclassified%2CWildlife+Conservation%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CEthical+Living%2CNorth+America+Travel&amp;c6=Miriam+Elder&amp;c7=11-Oct-11&amp;c8=1645449&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=News&amp;c11=Environment&amp;c13=&amp;c25=&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FEnvironment%2FWildlife&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;standfirst&quot;&gt;Russian tundra said to reveal evidence that prompts conference visitors to be 95% sure of abominable snowman&#039;s existence&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The vast Siberian tundra holds untold mysteries, from once-secret nuclear installations to alleged UFO crash sites.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Now, a team of scientists say they are &quot;95%&quot; sure that Russia&#039;s wintry expanse is home to the mythical yeti, otherwise known as the abominable snowman.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;More than a dozen scientists and yeti enthusiasts flew in from Canada, Estonia, Sweden and the US to exchange findings with their Russian counterparts at a day-long conference in the town of Tashtagol, some 2,000 miles east of Moscow in the Kemerovo region. Locals there have reported an increase in sightings of a creature in recent years.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;A two-day expedition to the region&#039;s Azassky cave and Karatag peak over the weekend &quot;collected irrefutable evidence&quot; of the yeti&#039;s existence there, the Kemerovo government claimed in a statement. &quot;In one of the detected tracks, Russian scientist Anatoly Fokin noted several hairs that might belong to the yeti,&quot; it added. Scientists also found footprints, a presumed bed and various other markers.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Conference participants came to the conclusion that the artefacts found give 95% evidence of the habitation of the &#039;snow man&#039; on Kemerovo region territory,&quot; the statement said.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&quot;I know they exist &ndash; I see them every day,&quot; a conference participant, Robin Lynn, said by telephone from Kemerovo. She says she has a family of 10 yeti-like creatures living on her land in the US state of Michigan.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Evidence of yeti life of the creature has allegedly been found in the Himalayas and North America, where it is know as sasquatch, or bigfoot. John Binderangel, a Canadian wildlife biologist who has been studying the yeti for 30 years, said the Siberian expedition offered further proof of the beast&#039;s existence.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&quot;We were shown some twisted willow branches that are referred to as markers &ndash; they were convincing evidence of this hominoid,&quot; he said. &quot;There were also some tracks, but we&#039;re not quite sure what to make of them.&quot; Conference participants called for the launch of a campaign to &quot;work out a more serious relationship [to the yeti] in society and mass media&quot;, the Kemerovo government said. They also proposed opening a university research centre.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Kemerovo government has hosted a number of stunts aimed at boosting the region&#039;s reputation as a yeti centre.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Last month, it welcomed former heavyweight boxing champion Nikolai Valuev on a search for the yeti. The 7ft &quot;beast from the east&quot; reportedly failed in his quest.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;related&quot; style=&quot;float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/wildlife&quot;&gt;Wildlife&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/russia&quot;&gt;Russia&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/canada&quot;&gt;Canada&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/americas&quot;&gt;Americas&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/europe-news&quot;&gt;Europe&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/usa&quot;&gt;United States&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/zoology&quot;&gt;Zoology&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/biology&quot;&gt;Biology&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;author&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/miriam-elder&quot;&gt;Miriam Elder&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;terms&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk&quot;&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our &lt;a href=&quot;http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html&quot;&gt;Terms &amp; Conditions&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds&quot;&gt;More Feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;', '2011-10-15T22:45:57+02:00', 'Wildlife', 'siberia home yeti bigfoot enthusiasts insist ');
INSERT INTO `items1` VALUES (1878, 'Mafia State: How One Reporter Became the Enemy of the Brutal New Russia by Luke Harding &ndash; review', 'http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/09/mafia-state-luke-harding-review', '&lt;div class=&quot;track&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.22.2/55727?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=Mafia+State%3A+How+One+Reporter+Became+the+Enemy+of+the+Brutal+New+Russia+%3AArticle%3A1642160&amp;ch=World+news&amp;c3=Obs&amp;c4=Russia+%28News%29%2CPolitics+%28Books+genre%29%2CTravel+writing+%28Books+genre%29%2CAutobiography+and+memoir+%28books+genre%29%2CBooks%2CCulture&amp;c5=Unclassified%2CNot+commercially+useful&amp;c6=Edward+Lucas&amp;c7=11-Oct-09&amp;c8=1642160&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=Review&amp;c11=World+news&amp;c13=&amp;c25=&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FWorld+news%2FRussia&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;standfirst&quot;&gt;Luke Harding&#039;s account of his time in Russia is sobering reading&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;My best friend&#039;s office was burgled in an interesting way: the intruders used a ladder to reach the second-floor window and did so in a tightly guarded foreigners-only compound in the heart of Moscow. They took only two laptops (but no cash or other valuables). Perhaps not coincidentally, it happened on the Day of the Chekists.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Chekists were Lenin&#039;s secret police, the forerunners both of the KGB of soviet infamy, and of modern Russia&#039;s sprawling empire of goons and securocrats. 22 December is their big day, when spooks and ex-spooks drink themselves silly to celebrate their battles against the motherland&#039;s foes at home and abroad. They also play practical jokes.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;A detective rapidly concluded, however, that &quot;business rivals&quot; were the obvious culprits. Who were they? My friend (the Moscow correspondent for &lt;em&gt;Newsweek&lt;/em&gt;) found himself toughly questioned as he tried to stop the police nailing the blame on me (the &lt;em&gt;Economist&lt;/em&gt;&#039;s then Moscow correspondent and his neighbour).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;As Luke Harding&#039;s book on his own years in Moscow captures well, life in Russia has not changed much: random inconveniences, bizarre coincidences and maddening interventions leave one confused. Did I really fail to lock the office? Why are there cigarette butts in my loo? Why does my phone battery go flat all the time? Am I going mad &ndash; or are they really out to get me?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The incidents mostly comprise petty vandalism, silly stunts (someone left a sex manual in his bedroom) and phones that play back your previous conversation. Vindictive official boneheadedness is more galling. Having been deported from the Soviet Union in 1990, my return in 1998 was not popular with the Russian authorities and they insisted visas would be issued only when our whole family had Aids tests (including my then two-year-old son).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In Harding&#039;s case, his accreditation was not renewed and he joins an honour roll of those journalists (chiefly British and American, but also Czech, Danish, Finnish and Hungarian) whose reporting has blighted their visa chances. But as a seasoned and versatile foreign correspondent, he can move on to another posting. For specialists, a visa ban is a career-killer.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;At least it was only his pride and peace of mind that suffered. Russian journalists who displease the authorities get maimed or murdered. Shortly after the &lt;em&gt;Newsweek&lt;/em&gt; burglary, a British colleague was beaten unconscious in the pedestrian underpass near our offices. A random attack? Probably (though he was not robbed). But even the bravest of us&amp;nbsp;felt&amp;nbsp;a&amp;nbsp;trifle&amp;nbsp;nervous afterwards.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;More often, Russia&#039;s officialdom is bumbling rather than sinister. Our dacha garden, a few miles out of Moscow, adjoined a barracks and was near the control bunker for the city&#039;s missile defences. In the corner near the raspberry bushes was a mysterious rusty manhole cover. We barely noticed it until one day two men in boiler suits climbed out, revealing a cavernous tunnel. They complained crossly about bad ventilation, smoked cigarettes and&amp;nbsp;descended.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;A potential criticism of Harding&#039;s book is that he takes the FSB (the main successor to the KGB) so seriously. Teasing or ridicule is the best answer to their provocations (in Soviet days, we would enter hotel rooms with a cheery &quot;&lt;em&gt;Raz, dva, try&lt;/em&gt; [one, two, three] &ndash; Good evening, Comrade Colonel, can you hear me?&quot;). As Harding rightly notes, the FSB&#039;s world is dismally ignorant and paranoid. That should arouse more pity than fear: like all bullies, if they&#039;ve riled you, they&#039;ve won. But pure sang-froid would not have spawned this entertaining and alarming account of Vladimir Putin&#039;s police state.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The authorities can even have a sense of humour: as the Lucas family possessions followed us out of Moscow, various bits of journalist hardware (a solar-powered satellite-phone charger, a shortwave radio antenna) went missing. When we opened the packing cases we found that in their place someone had put an ancient set (in English) of Ian Fleming&#039;s James Bond books. Russian officials assume that all British correspondents work for MI6; this was presumably a kind of collegial salute.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;We will probably never know how many of Harding&#039;s misfortunes were staged to intimidate him and his family, and how many were just random bumps in the Russian road. Nor is it clear what he did to so annoy the authorities. His reportorial talents capture colour and character to illustrate demographic decay, the war in Georgia and the noxious world of the thuggish pro-Putin youth movements. But these are not state secrets. Putin&#039;s personal wealth (another good story) is taboo in Russia&#039;s mainstream media, but much discussed elsewhere.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;More sizzling were his pieces (now chapters) drawn from WikiLeaks. It is nice to know that American diplomats are such diligent and caustic observers of Russia&#039;s slide into what Harding rightly calls a &quot;mafia state&quot;. It is a pity that their political masters in Washington, DC ignore what they are told. With Putin set to be in charge for 12 more years, it is high time that the outside world woke up to the true nature of the system he has created: astonishingly corrupt and incompetent, and also (as the Hardings discovered) thuggishly xenophobic.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Edward Lucas is the author of &lt;/em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardianbookshop.co.uk:80/BerteShopWeb/viewProduct.do?ISBN=9780747596363&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;The New Cold War: How the Kremlin Menaces Both Russia and the West&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt; (Bloomsbury)&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;related&quot; style=&quot;float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/russia&quot;&gt;Russia&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/politics&quot;&gt;Politics&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/travel-writing&quot;&gt;Travel writing&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/autobiography-and-memoir&quot;&gt;Autobiography and memoir&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;author&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/edwardlucas&quot;&gt;Edward Lucas&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;terms&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk&quot;&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our &lt;a href=&quot;http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html&quot;&gt;Terms &amp; Conditions&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds&quot;&gt;More Feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;', '2011-10-15T22:45:57+02:00', 'Russia', 'mafia state reporter enemy brutal new russia luke harding – review travel class=author>');
INSERT INTO `items1` VALUES (1879, 'Is Vladimir Putin&#039;s Eurasian dream worth the effort? | Mark Mazower', 'http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/oct/07/vladimir-putin-eurasian-dream', '&lt;div class=&quot;track&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.22.2/9495?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=Is+Vladimir+Putin%27s+Eurasian+dream+worth+the+effort%3F+%7C+Mark+Mazower%3AArticle%3A1644819&amp;ch=Comment+is+free&amp;c3=Guardian&amp;c4=Russia+%28News%29%2CEurope%2CWorld+news%2CVladimir+Putin%2CTurkey+%28News%29&amp;c5=Unclassified%2CNot+commercially+useful&amp;c6=Mark+Mazower&amp;c7=11-Oct-07&amp;c8=1644819&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=Comment&amp;c11=Comment+is+free&amp;c13=&amp;c25=Comment+is+free&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FComment+is+free%2Fblog%2FComment+is+free&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;standfirst&quot;&gt;The Russian prime minister&#039;s union plan is not meant as a return to the Soviet past, but he would do well to check precedent&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In Eric Ambler&#039;s masterly interwar thriller, The Mask of Dimitrios, the puppet master pulling the strings as a seedy Europe slides hopelessly into war is the shadowy Eurasian Credit Trust. The name was deliberately chosen. For most of the last century, Eurasia was scarcely a neutral term: it evoked the whiff of racial degeneration, the prospect of civilisation overrun by eastern hordes.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But now comes the Russian prime minister, Vladimir Putin, perhaps looking to lift the attention of a restive public at home to something more elevated than a peremptorily staged presidential succession, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2011/10/04/general-eu-russia-putin_8715139.html&quot; title=&quot;Forbes: Putin proposes setting up &#039;Eurasian Union&#039;&quot;&gt;supporting the idea of creating a Eurasian union&lt;/a&gt; of former Soviet-bloc nations that could become &quot;one of the poles of the modern world, serving as an efficient link between Europe and the dynamic Asia-Pacific region&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Putin explicitly denies that this is about rebuilding the USSR. Nevertheless, there has been a lot of talk of Eurasia since the collapse of the USSR and there is a close connection between the Eurasia concept and Soviet history. Belarus and Kazakhstan have already embarked on commercial integration and the new union will hope to take that further, perhaps attracting other former Soviet republics into its orbit: Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan are mentioned. And in a world where EU membership is effectively barred to Russia, and where the EU is promoting its own eastern partnership, led by Poland and Sweden to intensify European links with other former Soviet republics &ndash; including both Belarus and the Ukraine &ndash; one can see the logic in Russian efforts to extend internal markets, remove barriers to labour mobility and at the same time win the fight for the hearts and minds of the inhabitants of its western gateways, above all in Ukraine.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Politicians like the occasional grand vision, especially one with historical resonance. Yet will all this be worth the effort? The precedents are not reassuring. If the EU&#039;s eastern partnership smacks of an effort to reshape the region in the image of the early modern Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth &ndash; a time of Polish and Swedish regional power when merchants and ideas travelled easily between the Baltic and the Black Sea &ndash; Putin&#039;s Eurasian union seems stuck in the Soviet era. Of course, Soviet ambitions went far beyond Eurasia; they wanted influence in the Middle East, Africa and south-east Asia. And this became clear after 1945, when Stalin&#039;s Russia really did become a world power thanks to its defeat of Nazis and the Kremlin got its chance to build a second world of socialism around the globe that united eastern Europe, the Balkans and the Soviet republics with other socialist partners further afield. Ideas and technology &ndash; above all, ideas about technology and the modernisation of peasant societies &ndash; circulated across the borders of the countries in this second world, as far away as Cuba, Angola, Ethiopia and North Korea. Today some historians remind us that the &quot;third world&quot; was so called precisely because of the sustained tussle for its allegiances in the 1950s and 1960s between the first and second worlds. Yet all of this can be exaggerated. The second world was concentrated on eastern Europe, and other member states came and went. The rise of China weakened the ideological prestige of Moscow. And none of it was ever a match in purely economic terms for the astonishingly powerful global alliance system put together by Washington, linking the powerhouse economies of western Europe and east Asia with the oil-producing states of the Middle East.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The first world definitely won that particular struggle and globalisation &ndash; by which I mean the extraordinary combination of industrial productivity growth in American partners such as Japan and South Korea with the financial flows that reshaped finance after the 1970s &ndash; ultimately brought the Soviet second world to its knees, both because it simply could not compete internationally and because much of eastern Europe had become addicted to western debt. Overall, the effort of sustaining this vast sphere of influence probably cost the USSR far more in purely economic terms than it got back. It had one great achievement to its credit &ndash; the industrialisation along late 19th-century lines of its own backward periphery, but by the late 20th century, that was not enough.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;There is a lesson here to be learned, surely, from an earlier foray into a kind of Eurasianism by Turkey. In the early 1990s, the then president Turgut &Ouml;zal imagined a coming &quot;Turkish century&quot; based on a new union among the Turkic-speaking states of the Eurasian heartlands. After his death, it became abundantly clear that the choice between orienting the Turkish economy east or west was no kind of choice at all. Having learned that lesson, the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/sep/21/erdogan-palestinian-kurds-abbas&quot; title=&quot;Guardian: Erdogan plays Palestinian saviour, but what about the Kurds?&quot;&gt;Erdogan government is pursuing a sort of post-imperial foreign policy&lt;/a&gt; of its own. But what makes it much more powerful than the earlier &Ouml;zal model is not only that it is oriented to the former Ottoman lands in the Balkans and the Middle East rather than to the post-Soviet Black Sea and Caspian republics, but more importantly that it is intended as a complement rather than an alternative to the increasingly European and global orientation of the Turkish economy.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In short, it is no wonder Putin stresses his new vision of deeper integration is not meant as a return to the Soviet past. The question is whether there is any alternative model that makes sense for his proposed union. If the coupling of the Russian economy to the southern Stans brings with it a decoupling from the more powerful regional dynamos to its west and east, it will end up as a drag, not a spur, to growth and Russia will pay a heavy price for an old-fashioned dream of imperial glory.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;related&quot; style=&quot;float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/russia&quot;&gt;Russia&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/europe-news&quot;&gt;Europe&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/vladimir-putin&quot;&gt;Vladimir Putin&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/turkey&quot;&gt;Turkey&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;author&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/mark-mazower&quot;&gt;Mark Mazower&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;terms&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk&quot;&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our &lt;a href=&quot;http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html&quot;&gt;Terms &amp; Conditions&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds&quot;&gt;More Feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;', '2011-10-15T22:45:58+02:00', 'Russia', 'vladimir putins eurasian dream worth effort | mark mazower mark class=terms>');
INSERT INTO `items1` VALUES (1880, 'Assad should reform or quit over Syria uprising, says Dmitry Medvedev', 'http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/07/assad-reform-quit-syria-uprising-medvedev', '&lt;div class=&quot;track&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.22.2/1228?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=Assad+should+reform+or+quit+over+Syria+uprising%2C+says+Dmitry+Medvedev%3AArticle%3A1644786&amp;ch=World+news&amp;c3=Guardian&amp;c4=Syria+%28News%29%2CRussia+%28News%29%2CDmitry+Medvedev%2CBashar+Al-Assad%2CMiddle+East+%28News%29%2CTurkey+%28News%29%2CWorld+news%2CEurope&amp;c5=Unclassified%2CNot+commercially+useful&amp;c6=Martin+Chulov&amp;c7=11-Oct-11&amp;c8=1644786&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=News&amp;c11=World+news&amp;c13=&amp;c25=&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FWorld+news%2FSyria&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;standfirst&quot;&gt;Russian president breaks ranks with Bashar al-Assad for the first time since the start of protests in Syria six months ago&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev, has urged his Syrian counterpart, Bashar al-Assad, to reform or leave office &ndash; the first time the allies have publicly diverged during Syria&#039;s six-month uprising.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The surprise statement, reported by Russian news agencies, came as Turkey &ndash; a former ally of Damascus &ndash; said again that it would consider all options in dealing with the ongoing violence in Syria.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;When pressed on what those options were, the Turkish foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, conceded that military measures would be considered if the situation threatened his country&#039;s security.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Every domestic crisis in Syria will affect Turkey, Iraq, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine and Jordan. It affects the whole region,&quot; he said. &quot;In this regard, there is no other country more important than Syria today. So, when an internal conflict in Syria poses a risk to Turkey, we will take all necessary measures.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Turkey has been weighing a response to the Syrian crisis, which its leaders now say is being caused by a regime crackdown on protesters, some of whom have taken up arms.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Ankara has said it will impose a range of cultural and economic sanctions on Assad&#039;s regime, which insists it is battling terrorists backed by foreign states.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The latest Russian intervention has added to mounting pressure on the Syrian leader.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Earlier this week Moscow helped to veto a US-led resolution before the UN security council, which had threatened further sanctions on Damascus.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Furious lobbying by the US, Britain and Syrian opposition figures appeared to have done little to sway Russia, which has maintained a strategic relationship with the Ba&#039;athist state since the cold war.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&quot;If the Syrian leadership is incapable of conducting such reforms, it will have to go,&quot; Medvedev was reported to have said. &quot;But this decision should be taken not in Nato or certain European countries. It should be taken by the Syrian people and the Syrian leadership.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Meanwhile, activists claimed 21 people were killed across Syria on Friday.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Protesters in Homms said Syrian security forces were targeting mosques in an attempt to stop public gatherings from forming. Friday prayers have acted as a lightning rod for anti-regime dissent for the past six months and there were clashes on most Fridays throughout the summer.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;A Kurdish leader and member of the newly formed Syrian National Council, which sees itself as an alternative government to the Assad regime, was reportedly shot dead by security forces in the northern town of Qaboun.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Mesha&#039;al Timmo, the spokesperson for the Kurdish Future party, was meeting activists inside a private home when armed men burst in and killed him, activists said.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;related&quot; style=&quot;float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/syria&quot;&gt;Syria&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/russia&quot;&gt;Russia&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/dmitry-medvedev&quot;&gt;Dmitry Medvedev&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/bashar-al-assad&quot;&gt;Bashar Al-Assad&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/middleeast&quot;&gt;Middle East&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/turkey&quot;&gt;Turkey&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/europe-news&quot;&gt;Europe&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;author&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/martin-chulov&quot;&gt;Martin Chulov&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;terms&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk&quot;&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our &lt;a href=&quot;http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html&quot;&gt;Terms &amp; Conditions&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds&quot;&gt;More Feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;', '2011-10-15T22:45:59+02:00', 'Syria', 'assad reform quit syria uprising says dmitry medvedev bashar eastmartin class=terms>');
INSERT INTO `items1` VALUES (1881, 'New Politkovskaya charges expected', 'http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade/2011/oct/07/anna-politkovskaya-russia', '&lt;div class=&quot;track&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.22.2/36141?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=New+Politkovskaya+charges+expected%3AArticle%3A1644597&amp;ch=Media&amp;c3=GU.co.uk&amp;c4=Media%2CAnna+Politkovskaya%2CRussia+%28News%29%2CWorld+news%2CJournalist+safety%2CPress+freedom+%28Media%29%2CChechnya%2CVladimir+Putin%2CAlexander+Lebedev+%28Media%29%2CThe+Independent%2CLondon+Evening+Standard&amp;c5=Press+Media%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CMedia+Weekly&amp;c6=Roy+Greenslade&amp;c7=11-Oct-07&amp;c8=1644597&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=Blogpost%2CNews&amp;c11=Media&amp;c13=&amp;c25=Greenslade+blog&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FMedia%2Fblog%2FGreenslade&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;Russian investigators have marked the fifth anniversary of Anna Politkovskaya&#039;s murder by announcing that they will file new charges against previously arrested suspects. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Lom-Ali Gaitukayev, a native of Chechnya, is accused of organising the shooting of the investigative journalist who was critical of Vladimir Putin&#039;s administration.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;New charges against the suspected hitman, Rustam Makhmudov, and several others are expected too.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Makhmudov&#039;s two brothers and former Moscow police officer Sergei Khadzhikurbanov stood trial on charges of helping to stage the killing, but a court found them not guilty in 2009. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Russian supreme court overruled the acquittal and has sent the case back to prosecutors. Gaitukayev is an uncle of the Makhmudovs.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Politkovskaya was gunned down in the elevator of her Moscow apartment building on 7 October 2006. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Investigators also said that Dmitry Pavlyuchenkov, who was a senior police officer at the time of the killing, helped to track Politkovskaya&#039;s movements before she was shot.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The news has been welcomed by Politkovskaya&#039;s newspaper, Novaya Gazeta, which is co-owned by Alexander Lebedev, owner of The Independent and London Evening Standard in Britain.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But the paper also lamented the slow progress on finding the person who ordered the killing.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Politkovskaya was killed on Putin&#039;s birthday, fuelling speculation about the involvement of senior officials in the Kremlin being responsible.  &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Source:&lt;/em&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/5-years-after-politkovskayas-murder-investigators-silent-about-who-might-have-ordered-it/2011/10/07/gIQAFQLyRL_story.html&quot;&gt;AP/Washington Post&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;related&quot; style=&quot;float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/anna-politkovskaya&quot;&gt;Anna Politkovskaya&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/russia&quot;&gt;Russia&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/journalist-safety&quot;&gt;Journalist safety&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/press-freedom&quot;&gt;Press freedom&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/chechnya&quot;&gt;Chechnya&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/vladimir-putin&quot;&gt;Vladimir Putin&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/alexander-lebedev&quot;&gt;Alexander Lebedev&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/theindependent&quot;&gt;The Independent&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/london-evening-standard&quot;&gt;London Evening Standard&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;author&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/roygreenslade&quot;&gt;Roy Greenslade&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;terms&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk&quot;&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our &lt;a href=&quot;http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html&quot;&gt;Terms &amp; Conditions&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds&quot;&gt;More Feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;', '2011-10-15T22:45:59+02:00', 'Media', 'new politkovskaya charges expected russian investigators marked fifth anniversary anna politkovskayas murder announcing file new charges previously arrested suspects lom ali gaitukayev native chechnya accused organising shooting investigative journalist critical vladimir putins charges suspected hitman rustam makhmudov expected brothers moscow police officer sergei khadzhikurbanov stood trial charges helping stage killing court guilty 2009 the russian supreme court overruled acquittal sent case prosecutors gaitukayev uncle gunned elevator moscow apartment building 7 october 2006 said dmitry pavlyuchenkov senior police officer time killing helped track politkovskayas movements shotthe news welcomed politkovskayas newspaper novaya gazeta owned alexander lebedev owner independent london evening standard britainbut paper lamented slow progress finding person ordered killed putins birthday fuelling speculation involvement senior officials kremlin responsible journalist freedom>press putin>vladimir lebedev>alexander evening standard>london evening class=author>');
INSERT INTO `items1` VALUES (1882, 'Retreat: &#039;Edge, bite and a trio of muscular performances&#039;', 'http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/video/2011/oct/14/retreat-video-review', '&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Reel review&lt;/strong&gt;: As no-budget British B-movies go, you could do a lot worse than this tense thriller, says &lt;strong&gt;Xan Brooks&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;author&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/xanbrooks&quot;&gt;Xan Brooks&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;author&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/henrybarnes&quot;&gt;Henry Barnes&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;', '2011-10-15T22:46:01+02:00', 'Cillian Murphy', 'retreat edge bite trio muscular performances reel review budget british b movies lot worse tense thriller says xan class=author>');
INSERT INTO `items1` VALUES (1883, 'On location in Afghanistan for Hell and Back Again', 'http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/gallery/2011/oct/14/afghanistan-hell-back-again-photographs', '&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In pictures&lt;/strong&gt;: Stunning images from the shoot of war photographer Danfung Dennis&#039;s documentary Hell and Back Again&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;', '2011-10-15T22:46:02+02:00', 'Documentary', 'location afghanistan hell in pictures stunning images shoot photographer danfung denniss documentary hell again');
INSERT INTO `items1` VALUES (1884, 'Hollywood lost to Yellow Sea', 'http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2011/oct/14/korea-action-movies-yellow-sea', '&lt;div class=&quot;track&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.22.2/76403?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=Why+Korea%27s+action+movies+blow+Hollywood+out+of+the+Yellow+Sea%3AArticle%3A1647923&amp;ch=Film&amp;c3=GU.co.uk&amp;c4=Action+and+adventure+%28Film+genre%29%2CFilm%2CCulture%2CThriller+%28Film+genre%29%2CSouth+Korea+%28News%29%2CNorth+Korea+%28News%29&amp;c5=Not+commercially+useful%2CMotorsport%2CFilm+Reviews&amp;c6=Danny+Leigh&amp;c7=11-Oct-14&amp;c8=1647923&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=Blogpost&amp;c11=Film&amp;c13=The+view+%28series%29&amp;c25=Film+blog&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FFilm%2FAction+and+adventure&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;standfirst&quot;&gt;Na Hong-jin&#039;s compelling new crime thriller could teach Arnie and co about making fast films that pack a realistic punch&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;These may seem golden times for the action movie. An only slightly embalmed-looking &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/arnold-schwarzenegger&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Arnold Schwarzenegger&lt;/a&gt; is merrily tweeting from the Bulgarian set of The Expendables 2, while his co-star &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/brucewillis&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Bruce Willis&lt;/a&gt; has announced a return to the fray with a fifth Die Hard. Or perhaps that all strikes you as a little short-termist. However much fun is had in the meantime, it can&#039;t be a sign of good health for any genre to become so reliant on men who have clearly, to use the cinematically correct parlance, got &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q37xJtuQ24w&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;too old for this shit&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;All the stranger then that one of the freshest action films in recent memory risks slipping by unnoticed &ndash;  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/movie/143492/yellow-sea&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;The Yellow Sea&lt;/a&gt;, a darkly propulsive South Korean crime thriller featuring all manner of car chases, gunplay and loving scenes of glass lavishly shattering, to be released in Britain next week. Named for the stretch of water that lies between China, North and South Korea, it&#039;s a compelling affair &ndash; the protagonist is a broken gambler from the Chinese border town of Yanbian, who in desperation to find his wife after she escapes to Seoul agrees to be smuggled there to carry out a mob hit. What then unfolds does so in a series of adrenalised setpieces; while the pace of Na Hong-jin&#039;s storytelling might be some way from flawless, the rush of those sequences is dizzying.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Of course, the thing about the action movie is that there&#039;s still a sense in some quarters that its noisy, car-go-boom pleasures exist at one end of a spectrum, with foreign language film at the other. Whereas in fact, as any action fan knows, that divide is bogus. On the most basic level, subtitles cease to be an issue when the focus is flying bullets and stuff blowing up. But also, film-makers from outside Hollywood have always had a knack for stylistically raising the bar and leaving America to catch up &ndash; a tradition spanning from Eisenstein to John Woo to Korea&#039;s own &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/park-chan-wook&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Park Chan-wook&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Yellow Sea is also one of the main attractions at the upcoming&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.koreanfilm.co.uk/&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt; London Korean film festival&lt;/a&gt;, a three-week celebration so self-assured it doesn&#039;t even need to call on the stellar back catalogues of Park or Bong Joon-ho. As befits a country with such a madly diverse film culture, the programme runs from high school K-horror to slapstick 16th-century detective yarns &ndash; but with a cluster of superior action thrillers at its centre. Na&#039;s previous film, the technically staggering &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/movie/125665/chaser&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;The Chaser&lt;/a&gt;, gets another airing on the big screen &ndash; while onetime &quot;Action Kid&quot; Ryoo Seung-wan has a full retrospective. The highlight there is probably his most recent film The Unjust, a sprawling tale of police corruption with a genuine sense of ambivalence among the random head-poundings.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But aside from their facility with blood and pyrotechnics, another aspect of Korean cinema lends its action flicks a particular heft &ndash; their connection to the real world. What really makes The Yellow Sea tick is its grounding in the experience of ethnic Koreans in Chinese-controlled outposts like Yanbian, the mood of semi-lawless gloom dramatic ballast for the chaos of its later stages.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Time and again through the festival&#039;s lineup, the realities of the class divide and the anxiety and sadness of the relationship with the North arise almost as often as ultraviolent bedlam. Of course, South Korea&#039;s film-makers aren&#039;t the first to give action movies a social undercarriage. But that combination has become as much a signature of the country&#039;s cinema as operatic plotting, an ice-cream swirl of unease that runs through even its biggest mainstream hits. The vastly successful 1999 blockbuster &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/movie/84949/shiri&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Shiri&lt;/a&gt; centred on the tension between Seoul and Pyongyang, while Bong&#039;s much-loved monster spectacular &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/movie/114224/host&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;The Host&lt;/a&gt; doubled as a critique of the presence of the US military in South Korea. Here in the west, unless The Expendables 2 finds Arnie and friends taking on the banks, our action still happens firmly in the land of make believe.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;related&quot; style=&quot;float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/actionandadventure&quot;&gt;Action and adventure&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/thriller&quot;&gt;Thriller&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/south-korea&quot;&gt;South Korea&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/north-korea&quot;&gt;North Korea&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;author&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/dannyleigh&quot;&gt;Danny Leigh&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;terms&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk&quot;&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our &lt;a href=&quot;http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html&quot;&gt;Terms &amp; Conditions&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds&quot;&gt;More Feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;', '2011-10-15T22:46:03+02:00', 'Action and adventure', 'hollywood lost yellow sea na hong jins compelling new crime thriller teach arnie making films pack realistic punchthese golden times action movie slightly embalmed looking arnold schwarzenegger merrily tweeting bulgarian set expendables 2 star bruce willis announced return fray fifth hard strikes little short termist fun meantime sign good health genre reliant men clearly use cinematically correct parlance got too old shitall stranger freshest action films recent memory risks slipping unnoticed – the yellow sea darkly propulsive south korean crime thriller featuring manner chases gunplay loving scenes glass lavishly shattering released britain week named stretch water lies china north south korea compelling affair – protagonist broken gambler chinese border town yanbian desperation wife escapes seoul agrees smuggled carry mob hit unfolds does series adrenalised setpieces pace hong jins storytelling way flawless rush sequences dizzyingof course thing action movie theres sense quarters noisy boom pleasures exist end spectrum foreign language film fact action fan knows divide bogus basic level subtitles cease issue focus flying bullets stuff blowing film makers outside hollywood knack stylistically raising bar leaving america catch – tradition spanning eisenstein john woo koreas park chan wookthe yellow sea main attractions upcoming london korean film festival week celebration self assured doesnt need stellar catalogues park bong joon ho befits country madly diverse film culture programme runs high school k horror slapstick 16th century detective yarns – cluster superior action thrillers centre nas previous film technically staggering the chaser gets airing big screen – onetime action kid ryoo seung wan retrospective highlight probably recent film unjust sprawling tale police corruption genuine sense ambivalence random head poundingsbut aside facility blood pyrotechnics aspect korean cinema lends action flicks particular heft – connection real world really makes yellow sea tick grounding experience ethnic koreans chinese controlled outposts like yanbian mood semi lawless gloom dramatic ballast chaos later stagestime festivals lineup realities class divide anxiety sadness relationship north arise ultraviolent bedlam course south koreas film makers arent action movies social undercarriage combination signature countrys cinema operatic plotting ice cream swirl unease runs biggest mainstream hits vastly successful 1999 blockbuster shiri centred tension seoul pyongyang bongs loved monster spectacular the host doubled critique presence military south korea west unless expendables 2 finds arnie friends taking banks action happens firmly land make believesouth korea>north class=author>');
INSERT INTO `items1` VALUES (1885, 'Woody Allen bops Decameron film title on the head', 'http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/oct/14/woody-allen-film-nero-fiddled', '&lt;div class=&quot;track&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.22.2/75699?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=Woody+Allen+swaps+Decameron+film+title+for+Nero+Fiddled%3AArticle%3A1647773&amp;ch=Film&amp;c3=GU.co.uk&amp;c4=Woody+Allen+%28Film%29%2CRomance+%28Film+genre%29%2CComedy+%28Film+genre%29%2CFilm%2CCulture&amp;c5=Not+commercially+useful%2CComedy%2CFilm+Reviews&amp;c6=Andrew+Pulver&amp;c7=11-Oct-14&amp;c8=1647773&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=News&amp;c11=Film&amp;c13=&amp;c25=&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FFilm%2FWoody+Allen&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;standfirst&quot;&gt;Director dubs original title of Jesse Eisenberg-starring Rome romcom &ndash; The Bop Decameron &ndash; too obscure&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The title of Woody Allen&#039;s next film, which has been filmed in Rome, &lt;a href=&quot;http://insidemovies.ew.com/2011/10/13/woody-allen-nero-fiddled/&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;has been changed to Nero Fiddled&lt;/a&gt;. Allen apparently made the decision after concluding that the original title, The Bop Decameron, was too confusing.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In a statement Allen said: &quot;I couldn&#039;t believe how few people had heard of The Decameron even in Rome. And the few that did assumed the movie was based on Boccaccio&#039;s tales, which it&#039;s not.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Rome is the latest European stop for Allen after an increasingly rewarding string of films set in Britain, Spain and France &ndash; the latest of which, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/oct/06/midnight-in-paris-film-review&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Midnight in Paris&lt;/a&gt;, has become the most commercially successful film of his directorial career.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Nero Fiddled, a four-part collection of stories set in the Italian capital, stars Jesse Eisenberg, Ellen Page, Pen&eacute;lope Cruz, and Roberto Benigni, alongside Allen himself, and is expected to be released in 2012.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;related&quot; style=&quot;float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/woodyallen&quot;&gt;Woody Allen&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/romance&quot;&gt;Romance&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/comedy&quot;&gt;Comedy&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;author&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/andrewpulver&quot;&gt;Andrew Pulver&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;terms&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk&quot;&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our &lt;a href=&quot;http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html&quot;&gt;Terms &amp; Conditions&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds&quot;&gt;More Feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;', '2011-10-15T22:46:03+02:00', 'Woody Allen', 'woody bops decameron film title head ');
INSERT INTO `items1` VALUES (1886, 'Contagion is the latest change in Steven Soderbergh&#039;s chameleon career', 'http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/oct/15/steven-soderbergh-contagion', '&lt;div class=&quot;track&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.22.2/37353?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=Contagion+is+the+latest+change+in+Steven+Soderbergh%27s+chameleon+career%3AArticle%3A1647411&amp;ch=Film&amp;c3=Guardian&amp;c4=Steven+Soderbergh+%28Film%29%2CFilm%2CCulture&amp;c5=Not+commercially+useful%2CFilm+Reviews&amp;c6=John+Patterson&amp;c7=11-Oct-15&amp;c8=1647411&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=Feature&amp;c11=Film&amp;c13=&amp;c25=&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FFilm%2FSteven+Soderbergh&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;standfirst&quot;&gt;Star-studded killer virus movie Contagion mixes the spirit of 70s disaster movies with the tone of The Birds&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;For a man who recently said he was retiring to pursue painting as his main form of expression, Steven Soderbergh is all around us at the movies right now. In addition to unleashing the bleakest yet most kinetic apocalyptic thriller in years in the form of &lt;strong&gt;Contagion&lt;/strong&gt;, he also had a hand in producing Lynne Ramsay&#039;s We Need To Talk About Kevin. In the States, Contagion is competing against the smart and critically lauded baseball movie Moneyball, which was a long-nourished Soderbergh project &ndash; and still vaguely feels like one &ndash; that ended up being directed by Bennett Miller. In the pipeline are The Man From UNCLE and a Liberace biopic. Then it&#039;s off to his easel, and turpentine.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I&#039;ll believe it when I see it. If Soderbergh is retiring, so be it, but while I&#039;ve had my differences with him in the past (hint: The Good German), I&#039;d miss him badly. None of his movies makes my top 10, possibly not even the top 100, but his career is priceless, one of a kind, and is perhaps the real work of art he has created.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Why limit yourself to just director or writer-director? Why not be your own cameraman? That way you can be the artist and the brush and the canvas as well. And why be just one film-maker, his career seems to ask, why not be as many of them as you want? Or all of them: Altman today, Dick Lester tomorrow, Don Siegel on Tuesdays, and Mike Hodges or Alain Resnais whenever the hell he feels like it. And still be Steven Soderbergh all day.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;If that means we have to put up with The Good German or Full Frontal once in a while, then it pays off well enough when he spawns Out Of Sight and The Limey back-to-back, then follows them up with Traffic and Erin Brockovich. Pepper the oeuvre with a Solaris here, a King Of The Hill there, two Ches and three Ocean movies, and much besides, and you&#039;ve got yourself a startlingly diverse, all-Soderbergh, film festival.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Let&#039;s add Contagion to the list, an end of the world movie that feels like the tone of The Birds has been transfused into a 70s retro, time-honoured disaster-movie structure, then toothsomely flavoured with the riotous paranoia of the same era. Soderbergh keeps his perspective global, as a killer virus is transported from city to city &ndash; via a thumbprint on a bus window or airliner, say &ndash; and humankind falls apart in terror and panic. Stars are everywhere &ndash; Fishburne, Cotillard, Winslet, Damon &ndash; but no one stands front and centre, the real star is the virus.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;And there&#039;s your Soderbergh touch right there. Apocalypse comes cheap in the movies today: whatever happened to create the blasted and underpeopled landscapes of The Road, The Book Of Eli or Zombieland may have its far more plausible roots in something like what we see in Contagion. Hey Steven, don&#039;t retire just yet.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;related&quot; style=&quot;float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/stevensoderbergh&quot;&gt;Steven Soderbergh&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;author&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/johnpatterson&quot;&gt;John Patterson&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;terms&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk&quot;&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our &lt;a href=&quot;http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html&quot;&gt;Terms &amp; Conditions&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds&quot;&gt;More Feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;', '2011-10-15T22:46:04+02:00', 'Steven Soderbergh', 'contagion latest change steven soderberghs chameleon career ');
INSERT INTO `items1` VALUES (1887, 'Swords on screen: A swash well buckled', 'http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/oct/13/swords-on-screen', '&lt;div class=&quot;track&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.22.2/99463?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=Swords+on+screen%3A+loving+a+swash+well+buckled%3AArticle%3A1646514&amp;ch=Film&amp;c3=Guardian&amp;c4=Film%2CCulture%2CAction+and+adventure+%28Film+genre%29&amp;c5=Not+commercially+useful%2CFilm+Reviews&amp;c6=Anne+Billson&amp;c7=11-Oct-14&amp;c8=1646514&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=Feature%2CComment&amp;c11=Film&amp;c13=Anne+Billson+on+film+%28series%29&amp;c25=&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FFilm%2FAction+and+adventure&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;standfirst&quot;&gt;Action films should regress to an epoch when swords were as prevalent as guns, or forward to a time when firearms don&#039;t work&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Another year, another musketeers movie. What a shame no one thought of rereleasing &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.thomasspurlin.com/2011/08/classic-musings-threefour-musketeers-73.html&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Richard Lester&#039;s two-parter&lt;/a&gt;, or even &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6prWV23jAw&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;the MGM version&lt;/a&gt; with Gene Kelly. But no, swashbuckling on its own is no longer deemed enough to hold the attention of today&#039;s fidgety kids, so Paul WS Anderson gussies up his &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2011/mar/30/three-musketeers-3d-trailer&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;The Three Musketeers&lt;/a&gt; with 3-D, slo-mo and ninja skills. Phew! No danger of us getting bored there, then!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I love swordfights and want to see more of them, preferably not obscured by bells and whistles. Lester&#039;s Musketeer films have some cracking examples, mostly lighthearted, though slapstick gives way to a deadly serious duel towards the end, which goes on for so long that Michael York and Christopher Lee end up tottering with exhaustion.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;That fight choreographer, William Hobbs, was also behind one of the best screen swordfights: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEtPluUi0_U&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;the end of the otherwise humdrum Rob Roy&lt;/a&gt; pits heroic, lumbering Liam Neeson, in big blouse and kilt, against Tim Roth as a psychopathic fop called Archie, a master swordsman. The match is unequal, but the action is terrific, and only ends when one man breaks the rules &ndash; or at least the rules as I remember them quoted by &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CL8mh_4-0s&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Roger Livesey and Anton Walbrook&lt;/a&gt;, in The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Swords are sexier than guns, and not just because they&#039;re longer phallic symbols. Any idiot can fire a gun, but it takes training to wield a rapier. The best duels are like games of chess with extra sadism &ndash; why dispatch opponents quickly when you can humiliate them with your footwork, or inflict death by a thousand cuts? Duelling can be a substitute for sex &ndash; and not just the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9as3GwRpFk&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;seductive fence-off&lt;/a&gt; between Antonio Banderas and Catherine Zeta-Jones in The Mask of Zorro; check out Errol Flynn and Basil Rathbone, smiling at each other during their &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uog-mJYyloQ&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;duel on the beach in Captain Blood&lt;/a&gt;. It&#039;s enough to make you sorry for Olivia de Havilland.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;No one cries &quot;Ha haa!&quot; during a sword-fight quite like Rathbone, reportedly the best fencer in Hollywood, though owing to story demands, he won only one of his on-screen duels. But he provided brilliant opposition for Flynn (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L10fR31jC1w&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;The Adventures of Robin Hood&lt;/a&gt;), Tyrone Power (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McDfLkLqJAE&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;The Mark of Zorro&lt;/a&gt;) and Danny Kaye (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSNGeazCW6I&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;The Court Jester&lt;/a&gt;). The other man all these fights had in common was fencing master &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.weirdwildrealm.com/f-sword-choreographers.html&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Fred Cavens&lt;/a&gt;, also responsible for the seven-minute thriller in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFhfKcwbw5k&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Scaramouche&lt;/a&gt; in which Stewart Granger (wearing slightly distracting stripy tights) and Mel Ferrer swipe at each other all over a theatre.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Scaramouche is particularly pleasing from a swordlover&#039;s point of view since Granger has to train hard to match the skills of his arch enemy. Training is also featured in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118756/&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Le Bossu&lt;/a&gt;, Philippe de Broca&#039;s 1997 version of the oft-filmed Paul F&eacute;val novel, with Vincent Perez enjoying his finest hour as the Duc de Nevers, whose family&#039;s trademark attack, &quot;la botte de Nevers&quot;, entails sticking your blade into a spot between your opponent&#039;s eyes.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Like other martial arts, swordplay is as much about restraint as brute force. While the duelling in Japanese chambara is of a different order to Hollywood swashbuckling, it illustrates perfectly how apparent inaction is as important as action, when swordsman Seiji Miyaguchi (coolest of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/movie/76377/seven-samurai&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;The Seven Samurai&lt;/a&gt;) fells his blustering challenger with one movement. Or when the showdown between  Toshiro Mifune and Tatsuya Nakadai in Sanjuro involves 30 seconds of intense staring before a single thrust unleashes a geyser of blood.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I would like to see action films regress to an epoch when swords were as prevalent as guns, or maybe hop forward to a time where firearms, for whatever reason, don&#039;t work. (And no, I&#039;m sorry, but light sabres don&#039;t cut it.) Maybe it&#039;s time actors were taught how to fence again, so their prowess doesn&#039;t have to be cobbled together in the editing room. It doesn&#039;t hurt that fencing can also be as graceful as dancing. As Rathbone said: &quot;I would not put it under the category of sport; I would put it under the category of the arts.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;related&quot; style=&quot;float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/actionandadventure&quot;&gt;Action and adventure&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;author&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/annebillson&quot;&gt;Anne Billson&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;terms&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk&quot;&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our &lt;a href=&quot;http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html&quot;&gt;Terms &amp; Conditions&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds&quot;&gt;More Feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;', '2011-10-15T22:46:04+02:00', 'Film', 'swords screen swash buckled ');
INSERT INTO `items1` VALUES (1888, 'Shame: world exclusive trailer', 'http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/video/2011/oct/14/shame-trailer-video', '&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Video&lt;/strong&gt;: Watch the trailer for Steve McQueen&#039;s Shame, a drama about sex addiction starring Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;', '2011-10-15T22:46:05+02:00', 'Carey Mulligan', 'shame world exclusive trailer watch trailer steve mcqueens shame drama sex addiction starring michael fassbender carey mulligan');
INSERT INTO `items1` VALUES (1889, 'Roy Rogers rides again at the BFI London film festival', 'http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2011/oct/14/roy-rogers-london-film-festival', '&lt;div class=&quot;track&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.22.2/8204?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=Roy+Rogers+rides+again+at+the+BFI+London+film+festival%3AArticle%3A1647739&amp;ch=Film&amp;c3=GU.co.uk&amp;c4=London+film+festival+2011%2CLondon+film+festival%2CFilm%2CCulture&amp;c5=Unclassified%2CNot+commercially+useful&amp;c6=Geoffrey+Macnab&amp;c7=11-Oct-14&amp;c8=1647739&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=&amp;c11=Film&amp;c13=&amp;c25=Film+blog&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FFilm%2FLondon+film+festival+2011&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;standfirst&quot;&gt;He&#039;s been all but forgotten, but the LFF&#039;s restrospective should spur new interest in the singing cowboy and his palomino, Trigger&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;It&#039;s as if &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001678/&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Roy Rogers&lt;/a&gt; never existed. The &quot;singing cowboy&quot; has almost entirely disappeared from our screens. The only time you&#039;re likely to catch a glimpse of him is when Bob Hope movie &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkg2C_EIea0&quot;&gt;Son of Paleface&lt;/a&gt; turns up on television &ndash; it features Rogers gently sending himself up, as well as his beautiful palomino Trigger, surely the most good-looking horse in the history of westerns, performing a dance.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Rogers (whose real name was Leonard Slye) made more than 80 films. Early in his career, he was one of the original Sons of the Pioneers, the cowboy singing group whose songs included &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQc5gDXQGIs&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Tumbling Tumbleweeds&lt;/a&gt; (featured in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/movie/77069/big.lebowski&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;The Big Lebowski&lt;/a&gt;) and Cool Water. He had his own radio show, his own TV show and there was even a restaurant chain bearing his name. Kids who grew up in Britain in the 1970s will remember Roy Rogers movies as a regular staple of after-school TV, and Roy Rogers annuals as familiar Christmas presents. He was a marketeer and businessman extraordinaire. Nonetheless, since his death in 1998, the Roy Rogers trail has run cold. Not even Quentin Tarantino&#039;s enthusiasm for one or two of his films (&quot;I find myself moved by his common decency,&quot; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/15/movies/whoa-trigger-auteur-alert.html?pagewanted=all&amp;src=pm&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Tarantino told The New York Times&lt;/a&gt;) helped prise Rogers back out into view. Today, kids don&#039;t have any idea who he is.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Last summer&#039;s successful auction of 344 lots from the Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Museum Collection showed that the &quot;singing cowboy&quot; at least retains his nostalgia value. Trigger, who died in 1965 and was promptly stuffed, sold for more than $250,000 to a Nebraska cable TV network, RFD-TV. USA Today reported the network&#039;s chief financial officer Steve Campione as saying: &quot;Rogers reflects the company&#039;s values.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;What values are those? Rogers was nothing if not wholesome. Whereas other cowboys might look grimy and weatherbeaten, Rogers was always squeaky clean. His very natty shirts were always perfectly pressed and his hat sat tidily on his head, however fast he galloped. Watch the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-r6A7TzvUI&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;opening of his TV show&lt;/a&gt; and you&#039;ll understand some of his appeal. Roy is shown galloping very fast, but with perfect poise while shooting off his gun. His partner (and third wife) Dale Evans is riding in his wake, an inane grin on her face. The comical sidekick Pat Brady is third in line and then comes the wonder dog, Bullet, keeping up the rear. Roy Rogers offered a combination of action and suburban folksiness; cowboys are often loners but Rogers liked an entourage.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;This year is the centenary of Rogers&#039;s birth and to mark the occasion, the BFI London film festival is screening two of his films in versions specially restored by the UCLA archive. One, Under Western Stars (1938), is his first starring role. This was the one he made when his fellow &quot;singing cowboy&quot; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/jun/16/gene-autry-first-singing-cowboy&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Gene Autry&lt;/a&gt; failed to turn up to work; Republic Pictures, which had put Rogers under contract and changed his name, drafted him in instead. Rogers was instantly popular in a Capra-esque tale about a cowboy taking on a big, bad businessman. When Autry went off to war in the early 40s, Rogers became undisputed &quot;king of the cowboys&quot;. Not that the rivalry between Autry and Rogers was ever vicious; &quot;There&#039;s plenty of room on the prairie,&quot; Rogers said of the star whose lustre he stole.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The festival&#039;s other film is Rainbow Over Texas from 1946, by which time he was successful enough to play himself &ndash; and gets to&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nW472Wp4dEY&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt; sing a duet with Dale&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&quot;I find Rogers more interesting (than Autry) because he turned his hand to a lot more roles than just straightforward,  Boy Scout B-westerns,&quot; says Clyde Jeavons, archive consultant at the LFF. &quot;Autry had a 10 commandments for the cowboy and was very moralistic in the parts he played. Rogers was slightly more dangerous. He was a very flash dresser and he had a very pretty horse.&quot; Jeavons admits he felt a certain trepidation when he approached LFF artistic director Sandra Hebron about staging a Roy Rogers tribute. &quot;But she jumped at it.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In the 1940s, Rogers was among the biggest stars in Hollywood. He plotted his career with great guile and had a relentless work ethic. However he couldn&#039;t claim all the credit for his success. As Jeavons says, a certain palomino played a crucial role in his ride to the top. &quot;Trigger was known as the smartest horse in the movies &hellip; a heavily bridled horse and a very pretty coloured horse, almost a blonde horse, really. &quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Jeavons says that Rogers is one among many once popular B-movie stars who&#039;ve vanished from the public&#039;s sight. &quot;They&#039;ve disappeared into the background. Who has ever heard of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.b-westerns.com/hgibson.htm&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Hoot Gibson&lt;/a&gt; or &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.b-westerns.com/mccoy.htm&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Tim McCoy&lt;/a&gt; or Ken Maynard or people like that? Rogers and Autry were top of that heap, but still are only vaguely remembered. Maybe it&#039;s time to have a little revival. What do you think?&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&bull; Rainbow Over Texas and Under Western Stars are showing on Saturday 15 October 2011 at noon, NFT1. The programme is presented by UCLA&#039;s Robert Gitt. For tickets go to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bfi.org.uk/lff/node&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;www.bfi.org.uk&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;related&quot; style=&quot;float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/london-film-festival-2011&quot;&gt;London film festival 2011&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/londonfilmfestival&quot;&gt;London film festival&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;author&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/geoffreymacnab&quot;&gt;Geoffrey Macnab&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;terms&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk&quot;&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our &lt;a href=&quot;http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html&quot;&gt;Terms &amp; Conditions&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds&quot;&gt;More Feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;', '2011-10-15T22:46:06+02:00', 'London film festival 2011', 'roy rogers rides bfi london film festival ');
INSERT INTO `items1` VALUES (1890, 'Betty Driver obituary', 'http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2011/oct/15/betty-driver', '&lt;div class=&quot;track&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.22.2/94185?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=Betty+Driver%3AArticle%3A1648263&amp;ch=Television+%26amp%3B+radio&amp;c3=Guardian&amp;c4=Coronation+Street+%28TV%29%2CTelevision+%28Culture%29%2CSoap+opera+%28TV+genre%29%2CDrama+%28TV+genre%29%2CMusic+radio+%28Radio+genre%29%2CTelevision+and+radio+TV%2CMusic%2CFilm%2CCulture%2CTheatre%2CStage%2CUK+news&amp;c5=Not+commercially+useful%2CRadio+Media%2CTelevision+Media%2CTheatre%2CTV&amp;c6=Dennis+Barker&amp;c7=11-Oct-15&amp;c8=1648263&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=Obituary&amp;c11=Television+%26amp%3B+radio&amp;c13=&amp;c25=&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FTelevision+%26amp%3B+radio%2FCoronation+Street&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;standfirst&quot;&gt;Singer, comic actor and stalwart of Coronation Street&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Betty Driver, who has died aged 91, was a gutsy and durable comic actor who meant one thing to young audiences and quite another to those who could remember the second world war and the years immediately after it. To the youthful, she will be remembered as Betty Turpin (later Betty Williams), the barmaid, shoulder to cry on and wife of the policeman Cyril Turpin in Granada television&#039;s Coronation Street, whose cast she joined in 1969.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;To a much older audience, she will also be remembered for her appearances in repertory theatres and in stage revues; as the child star who took over from the popular singer Gracie Fields on a stage tour, doing some of her best-known numbers; and as the principal singer for a year with the leading dance orchestra leader of the time, Henry Hall, on his BBC radio programme, Henry Hall&#039;s Guest Night. She sang for seven years with Hall, and with him and far more mature artists than herself entertained the troops during the war.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Driver was one of the pre-feminist female singer-comedians who made their mark with a perky, slightly rebellious manner in the tradition of Marie Lloyd and Cicely Courtneidge. There was little of the wilting English rose about the songs she sang or the parts she played, even if the bright edifice often concealed her own emotional pain. It helped that she was a large woman who once considered it a victory when she got her weight down to 13 stone.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Born in Leicester, she spent her childhood in Manchester. Her parents were a police inspector and a pianist mother,  determined that her daughter should get a foothold in show business. Her husband was too weak a character to defend his daughter, eventually leaving the police force to run a nightclub in Manchester. In her memoir &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.amazon.co.uk/Betty-Autobiography-Driver/dp/0233997806&quot; title=&quot;Betty: The Autobiography on Amazon&quot;&gt;Betty: The Autobiography&lt;/a&gt; (2000), Driver wrote that she had been at the mercy of &quot;an overbearing, ambitious, cruel and pushy mother whose insistence on putting me into show business at a young age effectively robbed me of my childhood ... [Nellie Driver] was one of the most loathed women in the business.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;At the age of seven, Betty joined the Terence Byron repertory company and played with The Quaintesques, a group of men dressed as women who visited Manchester once a year. The star of this show, Billy Manders, had heard her in the audience loudly singing the choruses and invited her on to the stage. They brought the house down and she was given a bottle of toffees. Soon she was taken by her mother to perform in a police charity concert at Manchester Hippodrome, and was presented with a gold watch by the chief constable, which pleased her mother and father more than her.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;When mother and daughter came to London at the end of her schooling &ndash; at her mother&#039;s instigation &ndash; they did not find theatrical managements receptive. Tours of their offices produced no offers. Instead her mother decided to go straight to individual theatres.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Presenting themselves at the stage door of the Prince of Wales theatre in September 1934 changed their luck. Without a band rehearsal, Betty was allowed to go on stage and sing a number of her favourite songs, and was hired to appear as Gracie Fields&#039;s double in Mr Tower of London. After her first performance, one journalist described her as &quot;a little tomboy from Lancashire&quot;. She was later hired for a long tour of Mr Tower of London when Fields moved on to other projects. Films, BBC broadcasts and appearances in the revues of the leading impresarios CB Cochran and Prince Littler followed.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;It was not until she was 16 that, with the aid of her younger sister Freda, she rebelled against her mother&#039;s view of her as a lucrative child star who should carry on singing in the style of Fields. Freda, who had never been as overawed by her mother as Betty and their father were, threw the songsheets her mother wanted Betty to sing on to the fire and substituted more modern and adult ones. Betty appeared in the cheeky It&#039;s Foolish But It&#039;s Fun at the London Coliseum, and did film work, notably in Ealing Studios comedies. She made Boots! Boots! (1934) with George Formby, Penny Paradise (1938), Let&#039;s Be Famous (1939) and Facing the Music (1941). Her hit recordings started with Jubilee Baby (1934), and went on to include The Sailor With The Navy Blue Eyes, Macnamara&#039;s Band, Pick The Petals Of A Daisy, Jubilee Baby and September In The Rain.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In her 20s, she had a breakdown and collapsed on stage in Birmingham. Her mother, in the wings as usual, threw water over her, and insisted she do the evening performance. When she blacked out again in the evening, her mother still maintained that she was &quot;faking&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;There were other strains. Aided by her sister, she took control of her own financial affairs, only to find that instead of banking her earnings &ndash; which often reached the then impressive sum of &pound;150 a week &ndash; her parents had spent it all on cars, drink and other luxuries for themselves and left none for her.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But she was still bankable. In 1952 the BBC gave her her own regular radio programme, A Date with Betty, broadcast live, and she married her South African husband, Wally Peterson. By then a household name, she appeared in several TV series and had her own roadshow. In 1953 she went to Australia, where she appeared in musical revue, then toured the Middle East and entertained British troops in Cyprus and Germany.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In 1958, she starred on stage in The Lovebirds, followed by a short break as a housewife in South Africa, which did not suit her. Back in Britain, she played in Pillar to Post, made cabaret appearances and did summer seasons, including the immensely popular What a Racket with Arthur Askey at Blackpool. Finding that her husband was not only a philanderer, but was spending her money freely, she separated from him after seven years of marriage. They were divorced 11 years later.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;It was her switch to drama that led to her long association with Granada and Coronation Street. She appeared as Mrs Edgeley, the masterful canteen manager in the TV series Pardon the Expression (1965-66), a Coronation Street spin-off, which also included Arthur Lowe in his Coronation Street role of Leonard Swindley. At one point, she was required to throw him, and in doing so dislocated her hip and injured her back. She appeared with James Bolam in the Granada production of Love On the Dole (1968), Walter Greenwood&#039;s story of poverty and unemployment in the 1930s, before making her first appearance in Coronation Street itself in June 1969.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;By then Betty had virtually given up show business, discouraged by the damage done to her back. &quot;I decided to retire, and with Freda, we ran a couple of hotels in Cheshire. It was there that Harry Kershaw, producer of Coronation Street, persuaded me to audition for Hilda Ogden &ndash; just think, I could have been wearing curlers for 30 years,&quot; she recalled in her 80s. That came to nothing, but a few years later Kershaw stood in one of the bars, heard her talking to other customers and simply asked her, &quot;How would you like to pull pints in the Rovers Return?&quot; He told her that the barmaid character he had in mind for her to play would be called Betty Turpin, and would have her own &quot;warm, homely, nice-to-everyone temperament&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Betty Turpin, later &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.itv.com/coronationstreet/characters/bettywilliams&quot; title=&quot;Betty Driver on Betty Williams: video&quot;&gt;Betty Williams&lt;/a&gt;, became one of the longest-serving characters in the soap, well-known for serving up her signature dish, Betty&#039;s hotpot, in the Rovers Return &ndash; indeed, so well-known that a Lancashire pie manufacturer marketed a hotpot to Betty&#039;s recipe. Cyril died in 1974, and in 1995 Betty married her wartime sweetheart, Billy Williams, only to be widowed again two years later. She appeared in more than 2,800 episodes of the show, the final one broadcast last May.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Driver took part in a Royal Variety Performance in 1989, and ten years later was appointed MBE. She kept faith with her northern roots by living near Altrincham, Cheshire, and collected paintings and antiques.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&bull; Betty (Elizabeth Mary) Driver, actor and singer, born 20 May 1920; died 15 October 2011&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&bull; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.itv.com/coronationstreet/characters/bettywilliams/&quot; title=&quot;Betty Driver video on the ITV Coronation Street site&quot;&gt;Betty Driver talking about her role as Betty Williams&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&bull; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00xp1fc&quot; title=&quot;Betty Driver on a BBC iPlayer recording&quot;&gt;Betty Driver interviewed on Desert Island Discs, BBC Radio 4&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;related&quot; style=&quot;float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/coronation-street&quot;&gt;Coronation Street&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/television&quot;&gt;Television&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/soap-opera&quot;&gt;Soap opera&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/drama&quot;&gt;Drama&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/music-radio&quot;&gt;Music radio&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/theatre&quot;&gt;Theatre&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;author&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/dennis-barker&quot;&gt;Dennis Barker&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;terms&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk&quot;&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our &lt;a href=&quot;http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html&quot;&gt;Terms &amp; Conditions&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds&quot;&gt;More Feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;', '2011-10-15T22:46:06+02:00', 'Coronation Street', 'betty driver obituary soap radio/music radio>music class=author>dennis class=terms>');
INSERT INTO `items1` VALUES (1891, 'This week&#039;s new DVD &amp; Blu-ray', 'http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/oct/15/this-weeks-new-dvd-blu-ray', '&lt;div class=&quot;track&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.22.2/68930?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=This+week%27s+new+DVD+%26amp%3B+Blu-ray%3AArticle%3A1646744&amp;ch=Film&amp;c3=Guardian&amp;c4=DVD+and+video+reviews%2CFilm%2CCulture&amp;c5=Not+commercially+useful%2CFilm+Reviews&amp;c6=Phelim+O%27Neill&amp;c7=11-Oct-15&amp;c8=1646744&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=Review&amp;c11=Film&amp;c13=&amp;c25=&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FFilm%2FDVD+and+video+reviews&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;h2&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vN9eoWHhg1w&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In The Realm Of The Senses&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;strong&gt;; Empire Of Passion; Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;Three separate releases this week from one of Japan&#039;s most progressive and controversial directors, Nagisa Oshima.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Oshima&#039;s bold and inventive early films made him a darling of the critics of world cinema but it was 1976&#039;s long-banned In The Realm Of The Senses (Ai No Corrida) that really put him on the map. It&#039;s a tale of a sexual relationship so obsessive and boundary-breaking that it can only end in tragedy. 1979&#039;s Empire Of Passion covers much similar destructive ground, with another doomed romance, here featuring jealousy, guilt, madness and murder. It&#039;s a heady brew. 1983&#039;s Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence provided Oshima with an unexpected hit, thanks not only to support from the UK&#039;s legendary independent film company Palace Pictures but also to a leading role by David Bowie. Quite what young pop fans thought of seeing their musical hero playing a distant soldier embroiled in a heavy, homoerotic relationship with the Japanese captain of the PoW camp he&#039;s interned in is sadly unrecorded, but the film plays even better today. Bowie is superb, as is Ryuichi Sakamoto, whose evocative soundtrack is one of the best ever to grace a motion picture. It&#039;s time for you to discover Oshima.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence is out on 24 October&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Blu-ray Double Play, StudioCanal&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Cave Of Forgotten Dreams&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;Originally in 3D but just as good here flat, Werner Herzog guides us around some 30,000-year-old cave paintings.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Revolver, DVD &amp; Blu-ray&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Last Night&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;Keira Knightley and Sam Worthington in a movie about infidelity, well delivered, if not exactly original.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Optimum, DVD &amp; Blu-ray&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Control/Requiem For A Dream/Am&eacute;lie/Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;A series of cult classics finally appear on Blu-ray.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Momentum, Blu-ray&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;West Side Story&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;Romeo And Juliet transposed to the streets of New York with lots of classic songs.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Fox, DVD &amp; Blu-ray&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;related&quot; style=&quot;float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/dvdreviews&quot;&gt;DVD and video reviews&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;author&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/phelimoneill&quot;&gt;Phelim O&#039;Neill&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;terms&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk&quot;&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our &lt;a href=&quot;http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html&quot;&gt;Terms &amp; Conditions&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds&quot;&gt;More Feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;', '2011-10-15T22:46:07+02:00', 'DVD and video reviews', 'weeks new dvd & blu ray in realm empire passion merry christmas mr separate releases week japans progressive controversial directors nagisa bold inventive early films darling critics world cinema 1976s long banned realm senses corrida really map tale sexual relationship obsessive boundary breaking end tragedy 1979s empire passion covers similar destructive ground doomed romance featuring jealousy guilt madness murder heady brew 1983s merry christmas mr lawrence provided oshima unexpected hit thanks support uks legendary independent film company palace pictures leading role david bowie quite young pop fans thought seeing musical hero playing distant soldier embroiled heavy homoerotic relationship japanese captain pow camp hes interned sadly unrecorded film plays better today bowie superb ryuichi sakamoto evocative soundtrack best grace motion picture time discover christmas mr lawrence 24 ray double play forgotten 3d just good flat werner herzog guides 30000 year old cave dvd & blu knightley sam worthington movie infidelity delivered exactly dvd & blu sunshine spotless series cult classics finally appear blu blu juliet transposed streets new york lots classic songsfox dvd & blu ray');
INSERT INTO `items1` VALUES (1892, 'This week&#039;s new films', 'http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/oct/15/this-weeks-new-films', '&lt;div class=&quot;track&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.22.2/11306?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=This+week%27s+new+films%3AArticle%3A1646729&amp;ch=Film&amp;c3=Guardian&amp;c4=Film%2CCulture&amp;c5=Not+commercially+useful&amp;c6=Steve+Rose&amp;c7=11-Oct-15&amp;c8=1646729&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=&amp;c11=Film&amp;c13=&amp;c25=&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FFilm%2F&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;h2&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sIGo9z2JDU&amp;ob=av3e&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sleeping Beauty&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;strong&gt; (18) &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;(Julia Leigh, 2011, Aus) Emily Browning, Rachael Blake, Ewen Leslie, Peter Carroll. 101 mins&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;The outer limits of the service industry are explored in this strange anti-fairytale, as a student submits her  unconscious body to the desires of sagging, wealthy old men. There&#039;s no prospect of a prince coming in any sense. Bravely elusive and surreally detached in the manner of Kubrick or Bu&ntilde;uel, it&#039;s occasionally spellbinding.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ei5l3r1dV4I&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Real Steel&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; (12A) &lt;br /&gt;(Shawn Levy, 2011, US) Hugh Jackman, Evangeline Lilly, Dakota Goyo. 128 mins&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;Can Jackman train a robot to fight while reconnecting with his estranged son and his old flame? Or will this family-friendly amalgam of Rocky and Transformers subvert the formula of every fight movie ever?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQd3MwT2fAM&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Three Musketeers&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; (12A) &lt;br /&gt;(Paul WS Anderson, 2011, Ger/Fra/UK/US) Logan Lerman, Matthew Macfadyen, Milla Jovovich. 110 mins&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Resident Evil director delivers action spectacle by any means necessary. Forget 17th-century history; bring on the aerial warships!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jXReCaZ5Ts&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Greatest Movie Ever Sold&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;strong&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;(12A) &lt;br /&gt;(Morgan Spurlock, 2011, US) 88 mins&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;Prankster Spurlock turns product placement inside out with a movie that chronicles itself selling its own soul. Fun but shallow, it&#039;s got self-defeat built in.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBQa2STOvpo&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Retreat&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; (15) &lt;br /&gt;(Carl Tibbetts, 2011, UK) Cillian Murphy, Thandie Newton, Jamie Bell. 90 mins&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;A troubled couple&#039;s island getaway goes awry when a stranger turns up warning of disease on the mainland &ndash; a neat set-up for a claustrophobic little thriller.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2kXUY7SmkE&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Everything Must Go&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; (15) &lt;br /&gt;(Dan Rush, 2010, US) Will Ferrell, Rebecca Hall, Christopher Jordan Wallace. 97 mins&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;Ferrell without the laughs in a life-crisis drama. His lonely loser decides to sell possessions and start over.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7woppidfvtc&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Texas Killing Fields&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; (15) &lt;br /&gt;(Ami Canaan Mann, 2011, US) Sam Worthington, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Jessica Chastain. 105 mins&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;Detective mystery that can&#039;t live up to its setting: the bayous of Texas, where corpses keep turning up.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiJP1NFttPQ&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Albatross&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; (15) &lt;br /&gt;(Niall MacCormick, 2011, UK) Jessica Brown Findlay, Sebastian Koch, Felicity Jones. 90 mins&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;A wayward teen infiltrates the household of a blocked writer and his family in this coming-of-ager. Downton Abbey&#039;s Brown Findlay looks set for bigger things.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Hzz4iTwSsI&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hell And Back Again&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; (15) &lt;br /&gt;(Danfung Dennis, 2011, UK/US) 88 mins&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;A US soldier&#039;s tour in Afghanistan is contrasted with his painful return to civilian life in this superior doc, which benefits from a photojournalist&#039;s eye and a generous heart.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jdpg9NsgEaI&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Dolphin Tale&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; (U) &lt;br /&gt;(Charles Martin Smith, 2011, US) Harry Connick Jr, Morgan Freeman, Nathan Gamble. 113 mins&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;Unashamedly inspirational tale of a boy who nurses an injured dolphin and, y&#039;know, heals us all. It&#039;s full of kind people and cute animals, so you can&#039;t hate it.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSF4UmPs1tw&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Footloose&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; (12A) &lt;br /&gt;(Craig Brewer, 2011, US) Kenny Wormald, Julianne Hough, Dennis Quaid. 113 mins&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;No surprises in this remake of the 1980s dancing hit, whose notion of teenage rebellion is so tame, it should be outlawed.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;Out from Friday&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Restless&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Mia Wasikowska leads a kook-tastic romance.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;We Need To Talk About Kevin&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Tilda Swinton goes into motherhood meltdown.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Contagion&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Steven Soderbergh invites the A-list to his global pandemic.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Footage from the radical US movement.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Paranormal Activity 3&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Things go bump in the camcorder, again.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Blood In The Mobile&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Documentary linking mobile phones to third world warfare.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Four&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Minimal British kidnap-gone-wrong thriller.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Reuniting The Rubins&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;British Jewish comedy starring Timothy Spall.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Yellow Sea&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Action-packed Korean thriller.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;Coming soon&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In two weeks &hellip; &lt;/strong&gt;Spielberg and Jackson&#039;s animated &lt;strong&gt;The Adventures Of Tintin&lt;/strong&gt; ... Civil rights-era smash &lt;strong&gt;The Help&lt;/strong&gt; ...&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In three weeks &hellip;&lt;/strong&gt; Ryan Gosling leads Clooney&#039;s campaign drama &lt;strong&gt;The Ides Of March &lt;/strong&gt;&hellip; Shakespeare taken down in &lt;strong&gt;Anonymous &lt;/strong&gt;&hellip;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In a month &hellip;&lt;/strong&gt; Johnny Depp is Hunter S Thompson in &lt;strong&gt;The Rum Diary &lt;/strong&gt;&hellip; Ben Stiller and Eddie Murphy mastermind &lt;strong&gt;Tower Heist &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;author&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/steverose&quot;&gt;Steve Rose&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;terms&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk&quot;&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our &lt;a href=&quot;http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html&quot;&gt;Terms &amp; Conditions&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds&quot;&gt;More Feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;', '2011-10-15T22:46:08+02:00', 'Film', 'weeks new films real steel 12a shawn levy 2011 hugh jackman evangeline lilly dakota goyo 128 minscan jackman train robot fight reconnecting estranged old flame family friendly amalgam rocky transformers subvert formula fight movie everthe 12a paul ws anderson 2011 ger/fra/uk/us logan lerman matthew macfadyen milla jovovich 110 minsthe resident evil director delivers action spectacle means necessary forget 17th century history bring aerial warshipsthe greatest movie 12a morgan spurlock 2011 88 spurlock turns product placement inside movie chronicles selling soul fun shallow got self defeat built in');
INSERT INTO `items1` VALUES (1893, 'This week&#039;s new film events', 'http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/oct/15/this-weeks-new-film-events', '&lt;div class=&quot;track&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.22.2/15665?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=This+week%27s+new+film+events%3AArticle%3A1646601&amp;ch=Film&amp;c3=Guardian&amp;c4=Film%2CCulture&amp;c5=Not+commercially+useful&amp;c6=Steve+Rose&amp;c7=11-Oct-15&amp;c8=1646601&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=&amp;c11=Film&amp;c13=&amp;c25=&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FFilm%2F&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;h2&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://turnercontemporary.org&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Youth Culture History&lt;/a&gt;, Margate&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Turner Contemporary has already put Margate on the art map since it opened in its new home on the Kent coast in April, and now this spin-off from their current youth culture exhibition livens up the local film scene with two vintage double bills. First up is a skinhead pairing of This Is England and Mike Leigh&#039;s Meantime &ndash; the latter with a young Gary Oldman on fine, loutish form. Then on Sunday, the clock winds further back to the 1960s biker gangs of The Leather Boys and Liverpudlian thriller Violent Playground, both quality dramas and faithful records of the postwar teen scene.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Carlton Cinema Westgate, Sat &amp; Sun&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://documentfilmfestival.org&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Document 9&lt;/a&gt;, Glasgow&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;This grassroots human rights documentary festival is Scotland&#039;s largest, and in no danger of running out of subject matter. This year&#039;s theme is A Year Of Protest and there are hundreds of long and short films on the many recent political and social uprisings, not to mention immigration, miscarriages of justice, poverty, exclusion, forgotten conflicts and other subjects in need of attention. That doesn&#039;t mean it&#039;s all bad news. There&#039;s a new documentary on firebrand MP Bernadette Devlin McAliskey who&#039;ll also be chairing a discussion, while Cultures Of Resistance details how graffiti and hip-hop can make a difference and How To Start A Revolution praises Gene Sharp, influential guru of non-violent dictator-toppling. And if even that&#039;s too serious for you, there&#039;s also world music, art and comedy.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;CCA and various venues, to 23 Oct&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://londongreekfilmfestival.com&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Greek Film Festival&lt;/a&gt;, London&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;Despite its parlous financial state, Greece&#039;s film-making is enjoying a higher profile than ever thanks to agreeably offbeat exports such as Dogtooth and Attenberg. Is there more where that came from? The best candidates here might be December Riots, a thriller inspired by the teenage shooting that sparked off riots in Athens in 2008, or 45 Square Metres, a sympathetic look at minimum-wage Athens life. Understandably, there are more short films than features, but there are also documentaries, Byron &ndash; Ballad For A Demon, about the poet in Greece, and a tribute screening of Michael Cacoyannis&#039;s The Cherry Orchard.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Westbourne Studios, W11, Mon to 25 Oct&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://purbeckfilm.com&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Purbeck Film Festival&lt;/a&gt;, Across Dorset&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;If you thought pop-up cinema was a recent, metropolitan innovation, you should go to Dorset more often. Now in its 15th year, this claims to be the longest-running rural festival in the UK, and its unofficial motto is &quot;wherever we can find a 13 amp plug&quot;. The programme of recent world cinema hits won&#039;t have them flocking in from the capital, but the ad hoc spirit might give them some pointers. This year you get Breakfast At Tiffany&#039;s in the Fab Frocks dress shop in Bournemouth, Harvey at a scenic coastal pub and Ridley Scott&#039;s A Good Year in the garden centre, plus countless showings in village halls, hotels, pubs, parks, restaurants, and even cinemas across the county. Not to mention an overlap with the Screen Bites festival, where each film is preceded by a mini farmers&#039; market selling local produce &ndash; let&#039;s see Hoxton do that!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Various venues, to 29 Oct&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;author&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/steverose&quot;&gt;Steve Rose&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;terms&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk&quot;&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our &lt;a href=&quot;http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html&quot;&gt;Terms &amp; Conditions&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds&quot;&gt;More Feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;', '2011-10-15T22:46:08+02:00', 'Film', 'weeks new film events youth culture history margatethe turner contemporary margate art map opened new home kent coast april spin current youth culture exhibition livens local film scene vintage double bills skinhead pairing england mike leighs meantime – young gary oldman fine loutish form sunday clock winds 1960s biker gangs leather boys liverpudlian thriller violent playground quality dramas faithful records postwar teen cinema westgate sat & sundocument 9 glasgowthis grassroots human rights documentary festival scotlands largest danger running subject matter years theme year protest hundreds long short films recent political social uprisings mention immigration miscarriages justice poverty exclusion forgotten conflicts subjects need attention doesnt mean bad news theres new documentary firebrand mp bernadette devlin mcaliskey wholl chairing discussion cultures resistance details graffiti hip hop make difference start revolution praises gene sharp influential guru violent dictator toppling thats theres world music art various venues 23 octgreek film festival parlous financial state greeces film making enjoying higher profile thanks agreeably offbeat exports dogtooth attenberg came best candidates december riots thriller inspired teenage shooting sparked riots athens 2008 45 square metres sympathetic look minimum wage athens life understandably short films features documentaries byron – ballad demon poet greece tribute screening michael cacoyanniss cherry studios w11 25 octpurbeck film festival dorsetif thought pop cinema recent metropolitan innovation dorset 15th year claims longest running rural festival uk unofficial motto 13 amp plug programme recent world cinema hits wont flocking capital ad hoc spirit pointers year breakfast tiffanys fab frocks dress shop bournemouth harvey scenic coastal pub ridley scotts good year garden centre countless showings village halls hotels pubs parks restaurants cinemas county mention overlap screen bites festival film preceded mini farmers market selling local produce – lets hoxton venues 29 oct');
INSERT INTO `items1` VALUES (1894, 'A new film asks &#039;where is Bernadette Devlin?&#039;', 'http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/the-womens-blog-with-jane-martinson/2011/oct/15/bernadette-devlin-london-film-festival', '&lt;div class=&quot;track&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.22.2/29156?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=A+new+film+asks+%27where+is+Bernadette+Devlin%3F%27%3AArticle%3A1648170&amp;ch=Life+and+style&amp;c3=Guardian&amp;c4=Women+and+women%27s+interests%2CLife+and+style%2CFilm%2CLondon+film+festival%2CLondon+film+festival+2011%2CCulture&amp;c5=Unclassified%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CWomen&amp;c6=Maggie+O%27Kane&amp;c7=11-Oct-15&amp;c8=1648170&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=Blogpost%2CFeature&amp;c11=Life+and+style&amp;c13=&amp;c25=Women%27s+blog+with+Jane+Martinson&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FLife+and+style%2FWomen&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;standfirst&quot;&gt;Notes on a Political Journey, which has been shortlisted for the Grierson award, revisits the life of an extraordinary and uncompromising woman&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;She survived an assassination attempt, but Bernadette Devlin is best remembered as the 21-year-old Irish republican from Ulster who, in 1972, strode across the floor of the House of Commons to punch Reginald &shy;Maudling, home secretary of the Conservative &shy;government. His grave mistake had been to suggest that the &shy;British army had fired only in &shy;self-&shy;defence on Bloody Sunday when they shot dead 13 civil rights &shy;protesters. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Now 64, a new &shy;documentary, Bernadette: Notes on a &shy;Political Journey &shy;revisits the life of a woman who still holds the record as Britain&#039;s youngest elected female MP. The documentary, which took almost 10 years to make, is about political passion, &shy;courage and commitment from two women who still spark with both. Devlin today works in a cross &shy;community organisation that advocates for&shy; &shy;immigrants, the disabled, and other minority or marginalised groups. Filmmaker and c&shy;ampaigner Lelia Doolan, 77, funded the project &shy;herself for the first seven years while &shy;fellow &shy;film-makers also gave some services for free. Now the winner of the best &shy;documentary at the Galway film festival, it has been shortlisted for the &shy;prestigious &shy;Grierson award in London.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Doolan says that she made the film because she saw Devlin&#039;s role as a human rights campaigner and as a radical &shy;feminist being wiped from Irish history: &quot;She had been at the heart of the civil rights movement and republican socialism from the beginning &ndash; but when it came to the peace process and I saw Bono sending Hume and Trimble, I thought, where is &shy;Bernadette? So we had a concert for her in Galway in 1998 and I asked her if she would be &shy;agreeable to a documentary, not about her private life but about her ideas, and she agreed.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Rebellious, awkward and &shy;contrary&quot; is how Devlin was once described. Those who know &shy;Doolan talk of an extraordinary, but also uncompromising woman. The two achievements of the &shy;documentary, says  Doolan, are: &quot;We got it made and that it might give people courage.&quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&bull; Bernadette: Notes on a Political Journey &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bfi.org.uk/lff/node/1634&quot;&gt;will be shown at BFI Southbank&lt;/a&gt; as part of the London film festival on 15, 16 and 17 October 2011&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;related&quot; style=&quot;float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/women&quot;&gt;Women&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/londonfilmfestival&quot;&gt;London film festival&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/london-film-festival-2011&quot;&gt;London film festival 2011&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;author&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/maggieokane&quot;&gt;Maggie O&#039;Kane&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;terms&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk&quot;&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our &lt;a href=&quot;http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html&quot;&gt;Terms &amp; Conditions&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds&quot;&gt;More Feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;', '2011-10-15T22:46:09+02:00', 'Women', 'new film asks bernadette devlin ');
INSERT INTO `items1` VALUES (1895, 'Arrested Development is back but shouldn&#039;t we just let cancelled shows die?', 'http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2011/oct/15/arrested-development-let-cancelled-shows-die', '&lt;div class=&quot;track&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.22.2/22743?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=Arrested+Development+is+back+but+shouldn%27t+we+just+let+cancelled+shows+d%3AArticle%3A1646808&amp;ch=Television+%26amp%3B+radio&amp;c3=Guardian&amp;c4=Television+%28Culture%29%2CTelevision+and+radio+TV%2CArrested+Development%2CFilm%2CCulture&amp;c5=Unclassified%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CTelevision+Media&amp;c6=Jonathan+Bernstein&amp;c7=11-Oct-15&amp;c8=1646808&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=Feature&amp;c11=Television+%26amp%3B+radio&amp;c13=&amp;c25=&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FTelevision+%26amp%3B+radio%2FTelevision&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;standfirst&quot;&gt;What&#039;s behind the clamour for more Veronica Mars and Entourage? Could it be their newly unemployed makers suddenly having time to tweet?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Soon after &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/arrested-development&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Arrested Development&lt;/a&gt; went off the air in 2006, the show&#039;s creator, Mitch Hurwitz, announced tentative plans to make a movie following the exploits of the Bluth family. Over the next five years, Hurwitz would remain optimistic about the progress of the feature but reticent too. Many believed it would never happen, but then earlier this month Hurwitz made public his intentions not only to release the film in 2013 but to produce a new miniseries which would lead up to it. Now that it looms on the horizon, though, the question has to be asked: do we really need an Arrested Development movie?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Don&#039;t get me wrong: the sheer tonnage of gags, its rich seam of characterisation, and ability to flip from the absurd and profane to the wistful made it a privilege to be part of what was never going to be more than a select, discerning audience for the show. But is there really a further chapter of the Bluth saga that Hurwitz is desperate to write? Or were the critical lambastings handed out to his barely watched post-Arrested comedies &ndash; the animated Sit Down Shut Up and the sitcom Running Wilde &ndash; the real impetus to return? Obviously, Hurwitz is a monster talent and it would be foolish to discount the chances of him making magic, but he&#039;s far from the only creative type convinced there&#039;s still an audience for a cancelled show.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Take the lovely, talented &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2008/oct/11/kristen-bell-heroes&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Kristen Bell&lt;/a&gt; for example. She can&#039;t let an interview or even a tweet pass by without trying to drum up fan support for a big-screen continuation of her high-school PI show Veronica Mars. That show&#039;s creator, a genuine, if luckless, TV genius named Rob Thomas, is campaigning hard to turn another of his creations, the semi-improvised comedy Party Down, into a presumably Christopher Guest-like ensemble movie. Kristin: Veronica Mars had a brilliant first season. It was like a gum-chewing, wisecracking film noir that followed a single murder case over twenty-two episodes. By season three, Veronica was out of high school and investigating campus crimes, ie: everything that made her special was long gone. Rob: Party Down was a terrific, heartfelt show that encompassed a little of the spirit of the original Office. Its viewing figures barely reached fifty thousand. There is no audience for either of these movies. Rob: write another show about a teenage detective and keep her in high school as long as humanly possible. Kristin: play her wizened mentor. Thank you.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Then there&#039;s the long-gestating &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/24&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;24&lt;/a&gt; movie. I feel like I&#039;ve already seen the best possible version of it; it was called Taken and starred Liam Neeson. Whether you watched it episode by episode or consumed entire seasons in marathon sittings, the main pleasure of 24 was getting lost in endless twists and insanely high stakes. The smartest route for a film to take would be to put one of Jack Bauer&#039;s remaining loved ones in jeopardy and then unleash an orgy of violence and sleeper holds. The least smart route would be to have Jack save the world from another terrorist cell. Which is what you suspect might happen.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;Serenity embodied the problem with retooling TV shows that weren&#039;t hits: they have to devote a hefty chunk of screentime to re-introducing their characters and premises&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;What advice does one give to mega-successful actor-producer- director Peter Berg? He directed Friday Night Lights, a movie about the effect of high school football on a small Texan town, and then oversaw its adaptation into a TV series so beloved that NBC let it survive though five beautiful seasons. And what a satisfying elegiac ending, with the most believable and enviable married couple on television, Coach Eric Taylor and his combative but devoted guidance teacher wife Tami finally leaving Dillon, Texas for a new life in Philadelphia. I don&#039;t blame Berg for not wanting to let those characters go. That&#039;s why he&#039;s making a new Friday Night Lights movie. Maybe it&#039;ll be heart-rending and ridiculously affecting. Maybe it won&#039;t have a plot that contrives a reason for the Taylors to leave Philadelphia and come back to small-town Texas. Maybe.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;As much as these potential small-to-big screen translations reek of potential disaster, the journey from living room to multiplex has been made successfully; most recently by &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/the-inbetweeners&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;The Inbetweeners&lt;/a&gt;, most lucratively by Sex And The City, and most impressively by South Park. Mark Wahlberg will probably reap similar rewards with the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2011/sep/10/entourage-jonathan-bernstein-wahlberg&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Entourage&lt;/a&gt; movie he set in motion seconds after the end of the HBO show. Hurwitz, Bell and Berg aren&#039;t looking at those movies, however. They&#039;re looking at Serenity. This was a film derived from Joss Whedon&#039;s space western Firefly, whose treatment by the Fox Network remains one of the most egregious examples of corporate insensitivity in decades: they underpromoted it, they postponed it, they rescheduled it, they showed episodes out of order and then they cancelled it. Whedon&#039;s impassioned online following and the steady sales of the DVD box set meant, however, that a movie rose from its ashes. Die-hard Whedonites were thrilled by the power of their fandom but was anyone really bowled over by Serenity? Serenity embodied the problem with retooling TV shows that weren&#039;t massive hits: they have to devote a hefty chunk of screentime to re-introducing their characters and re-establishing their premises. (By the time the second X-Files movie showed up, Mulder and Scully had been off the pop culture map for so long, that no one cared.)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Producers aren&#039;t thinking about the film, though, they&#039;re thinking about the movement. If we were living in the dark days before social media and box sets, I&#039;m not so sure we would see as many striving to extend the lives of their low-rated shows. But if you&#039;re one of the creative types responsible for, say, The Playboy Club (recently cancelled after three episodes) and you now have the time to spend your days and nights retweeting testimonials from followers demanding the immediate return of your brilliant show, wouldn&#039;t you be convinced your dead TV show deserved to live on as a movie?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;It&#039;s impossible to fault Mitch Hurwitz for wanting to keep his most cherished creations alive. It&#039;s also hard not to wish he&#039;d had the same reaction as David Simon to the idea of a movie of The Wire: &quot;I have no interest in doing it just to do it.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;related&quot; style=&quot;float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/television&quot;&gt;Television&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/arrested-development&quot;&gt;Arrested Development&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;author&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/jonathanbernstein&quot;&gt;Jonathan Bernstein&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;terms&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk&quot;&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our &lt;a href=&quot;http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html&quot;&gt;Terms &amp; Conditions&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds&quot;&gt;More Feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;', '2011-10-15T22:46:09+02:00', 'Television', 'arrested development shouldnt just let cancelled shows ');
INSERT INTO `items1` VALUES (1896, 'The Measure | Fashion', 'http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/oct/14/strictly-come-dancing-gus-van-sant', '&lt;div class=&quot;track&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.22.2/93047?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=The+Measure+%7C+Fashion%3AArticle%3A1641032&amp;ch=Life+and+style&amp;c3=Guardian&amp;c4=Gus+van+Sant%2CStrictly+Come+Dancing%2CFilm%2CTelevision+and+radio+TV%2CWomen%27s+shoes+%28Fashion%29%2CFashion%2CLife+and+style&amp;c5=Unclassified%2CFashion+and+Beauty%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CUnclassifed+Contributors%2CTV&amp;c6=&amp;c7=11-Oct-14&amp;c8=1641032&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=Feature&amp;c11=Life+and+style&amp;c13=The+measure+%28series%29&amp;c25=&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FLife+and+style%2FGus+van+Sant&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;standfirst&quot;&gt;Thumbs up: Mel &amp; Sue, Henry Hopper (and the new Van Sant movie), gold ice buckets (yes, really). Thumbs down: Edwina Currie on Strictly, Chelsea boots and knitting&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;Going up&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1375330/&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Henry Hopper&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;strong&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;Lead in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7t29dNoTxs&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;the new Gus Van Sant film Restless&lt;/a&gt;, which has a&amp;nbsp;very fashiony trailer, including amaze sunglasses on HH and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1985859/&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Mia Wasikowska&lt;/a&gt; in  an animal-print coat&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The statement earring&lt;/strong&gt; Our&amp;nbsp;numero uno style takeout from Milan  fashion week&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&#039;I&#039;ll have a salad &ndash; and a side of macaroni cheese&#039;&lt;/strong&gt; The fashionable dinner order overheard at Gordon Ramsay&#039;s new &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.gordonramsay.com/breadstreetkitchen&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Bread Street Kitchen&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Gold ice buckets &lt;/strong&gt;Latest interior crush. Particularly &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.amara.co.uk/products/mmontgomery-wine-cooler&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Ralph Lauren&#039;s &quot;Montgomery&quot;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.monicavinader.com/breakthrough-fiji-bracelet&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Monica Vinader&#039;s Fiji bracelets&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;strong&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;Breast Cancer Awareness month is the perfect excuse to add a silver-and-pink version to your wrist-stack&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.melandsue.co.uk/&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Mel &amp; Sue&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;strong&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;Will surely be inundated with TV offers after &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b013pqnm&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;The Great British Bake Off&lt;/a&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;Going down&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Knitting &lt;/strong&gt;This winter&#039;s ironic craft of choice is crochet. See&amp;nbsp;Christopher  Kane&#039;s skirts  and knits&amp;nbsp;for ref&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bbc.co.uk/strictlycomedancing/2011/dancers/celebrity/edwina_currie.shtml&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Edwina Currie&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;strong&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;Strictly.  Barrel. Scrape. Etc&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Quiet clothes &lt;/strong&gt;Next spring your party dress should be so heavily embellished, it rustles as you walk&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Chelsea boots &lt;/strong&gt;This week brothel creepers are the women&#039;s left-field flat of the mo, OK?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;related&quot; style=&quot;float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/gus-van-sant&quot;&gt;Gus van Sant&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/strictly-come-dancing&quot;&gt;Strictly Come Dancing&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/fashion/womens-shoes&quot;&gt;Women&#039;s shoes&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;terms&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk&quot;&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our &lt;a href=&quot;http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html&quot;&gt;Terms &amp; Conditions&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds&quot;&gt;More Feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;', '2011-10-15T22:46:10+02:00', 'Gus van Sant', 'measure | fashion ');
INSERT INTO `items1` VALUES (1897, 'Dear Me: celebrity letters to their younger selves &ndash; interactive', 'http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/interactive/2011/oct/14/dear-me-celebrity-letters-extract', '&lt;p&gt;Don&#039;t do drugs, stop hating your thighs, buy shares in Google: 10 celebrities write letters to their 16-year-old selves with some choice words of advice&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;author&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/chrisfenn&quot;&gt;Chris Fenn&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;', '2011-10-15T22:46:11+02:00', 'Books', 'dear celebrity letters younger selves – interactive dont drugs stop hating thighs buy shares google 10 celebrities write letters 16 year old selves choice words advice');
INSERT INTO `items1` VALUES (1898, 'Lucy Mangan&#039;s pick of the week: The story, the stat, the quote, the tweet', 'http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2011/oct/14/lucy-mangans-pick-of-the-week', '&lt;div class=&quot;track&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.22.2/28985?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=Lucy+Mangan%27s+pick+of+the+week%3A+The+story%2C+the+stat%2C+the+quote%2C+the+twee%3AArticle%3A1647681&amp;ch=From+the+Guardian&amp;c3=Guardian&amp;c4=NHS+%28Society%29%2CHealth+%28Society%29%2CSociety%2CRecession+%28UK%29%2CEconomics+%28Business%29%2CBusiness%2CFamily+%28Life+and+style%29%2CFinancial+crisis+%28Business%29%2CGlobal+recession%2CSamuel+L+Jackson%2CFilm%2CTwitter+%28Technology%29%2CMedia%2CInternet&amp;c5=Society+Weekly%2CDigital+Media%2CCredit+Crunch%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CBusiness+Markets%2CMedia+Weekly%2CTechnology+Gadgets%2CHealth+Society%2CFilm+Reviews%2CFamily+and+Relationships&amp;c6=Lucy+Mangan&amp;c7=11-Oct-14&amp;c8=1647681&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=Feature&amp;c11=From+the+Guardian&amp;c13=This+week&amp;c25=&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FFrom+the+Guardian%2FNHS&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;standfirst&quot;&gt;Lucy Mangan on the people and stories in the media spotlight over the past seven days&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The story&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;NHS&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Another good week for Dave and the boys. Another sacred national institution quietly set fair to be reduced to rubble in the next few years. If only they could just stick to things that don&#039;t matter, like dicking about with the monarchy. At least when you abolish the right to primogeniture, we can all entertain ourselves with the hope that fate will one day allow Anne to be king.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Despite sterling work from&amp;nbsp;Lords Owen, Hennessy and Rea, despite 150,000 protesting signatures gathered by the 38 Degrees campaign, the NHS reforms bill was passed. &quot;Reforms&quot; meaning here &quot;the changes we&#039;re making that we promised in our worthless manifestos we wouldn&#039;t, not least because they involve yet more expensive top-down reorganisation when, uh, due to our other promises not&amp;nbsp;exactly working out either, an unfixed economy ain&#039;t giving us any extra cash to splash out on consultants (the bad sort,&amp;nbsp;not the helpful, Adam Werritty sort)&quot;. Just strip the country and sell it for parts, would you? It&#039;ll be quicker and less painful than this.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The stat&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&pound;2,000&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The annual amount average household income will fall in&amp;nbsp;the coming year, which should make it even&amp;nbsp;harder to pay all those health insurance premiums you&#039;re going to&amp;nbsp;need.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The quote&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&#039;Cancelled due to &hellip;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&hellip; lack of interest.&quot; Portsmouth council withdraws a Safe Sex for Over-60s class&amp;nbsp;from its programme of events at its&amp;nbsp;60+ festival&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The tweet&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Can a muhthafucker say fuck on here?&quot; The star of Pulp Fiction and Snakes on a Plane launches his Twitter account with an apposite question.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;related&quot; style=&quot;float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/nhs&quot;&gt;NHS&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/health&quot;&gt;Health&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/recession&quot;&gt;Recession&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/economics&quot;&gt;Economics&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/family&quot;&gt;Family&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/financial-crisis&quot;&gt;Financial crisis&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/globalrecession&quot;&gt;Global recession&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/samuel-l-jackson&quot;&gt;Samuel L Jackson&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/twitter&quot;&gt;Twitter&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/internet&quot;&gt;Internet&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;author&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/lucymangan&quot;&gt;Lucy Mangan&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;terms&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk&quot;&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our &lt;a href=&quot;http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html&quot;&gt;Terms &amp; Conditions&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds&quot;&gt;More Feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;', '2011-10-15T22:46:11+02:00', 'NHS', 'lucy mangans pick week story stat quote tweet samuel class=author>');
INSERT INTO `items1` VALUES (1899, 'Saved; The Phoenix of Madrid; Iphigenia &ndash; review', 'http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2011/oct/14/saved-phoenix-madrid-iphigenia-review', '&lt;div class=&quot;track&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.22.2/51713?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=Saved%3B+The+Phoenix+of+Madrid%3B+Iphigenia+*+review%3AArticle%3A1648043&amp;ch=Stage&amp;c3=Obs&amp;c4=Edward+Bond+%28Playwright%29%2CTheatre%2CStage%2CCulture%2CSarah+Kane+%28Playwright%29%2CMike+Leigh+%28Film%29&amp;c5=Not+commercially+useful%2CFilm+Reviews%2CTheatre&amp;c6=Susannah+Clapp&amp;c7=11-Oct-14&amp;c8=1648043&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=Review&amp;c11=Stage&amp;c13=&amp;c25=&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FStage%2FEdward+Bond&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;standfirst&quot;&gt;Lyric Hammersmith, London; Theatre Royal Bath&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;People go to &lt;strong&gt;Saved &lt;/strong&gt;thinking they know what they will see. They&#039;ve been told often enough. A baby is stoned to death in a park by a group of youths; a middle-aged woman has her stocking provocatively darned (she&#039;s inside it: &#039;You watch where yer pokin&#039;) by her daughter&#039;s young admirer. These are the scenes that caused Edward Bond&#039;s play to be &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2003/apr/23/theatre.samanthaellis&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;banned by the Lord Chamberlain in 1965&lt;/a&gt;; these are the scenes that have made it famous.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Yet in Sean Holmes&#039;s superb production, the play looks less simply confrontational and rebarbative than&amp;nbsp;the stoning suggests. It is intricate, far-reaching and believable. Intervening history &ndash; the killing of James Bulger, the Baby P case &ndash; may have added to its credibility, but its real&amp;nbsp;force isn&#039;t adventitious. The horror begins to look inevitable.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The action uncurls with a series of terrible small blows. A young mother hears her child crying and can&#039;t face going to see what&#039;s the matter with &quot;it&quot;. The boys begin the torture of the baby as a game and a dare, muttering &quot;Rockabye baby&quot; before spinning the pram between them as if it were a football. The girl returns to her child and wheels away the pram, talking lackadaisically to its contents. She doesn&#039;t know the baby is dead: she doesn&#039;t look under the hood.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Susan Brown is the woman who doesn&#039;t speak to her hubby but screeches to the rest of the world as if willing herself into existence. Michael Feast as her husband is silent and somnolent &ndash; he pops his head round the sitting-room door, notices his daughter screwing a stranger and pops out again. Yet he cuts a loaf of bread as if he were hacking up a murder victim. Lia Saville is the girl whose hopes shrivel, not because her child dies, but because one of the men who killed the baby leaves her. She can summon a dreadful perkiness, but is mostly stunned, lethargic. Every now and then she seems on the point of breakdown: her hands twitch as if she were trying to shake off her skin. Morgan Watkins is the boy who tries to behave decently but embeds himself further into the prevailing despair: he gangles, lopsided with the difficulty of it all.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Saved&lt;/em&gt; now looks far more theatrically influential than its controversial reputation might suggest. It has the numbed torpor of Mike Leigh characters (&lt;em&gt;Bleak Moments &lt;/em&gt;was first staged five years later); it has the naked ferocity of Sarah Kane&#039;s &lt;em&gt;Blasted&lt;/em&gt;, which Holmes directed at the Lyric a year ago.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;A wild introduction to the play script from Bond ascribes the violence in the play to a loss of &quot;political cohesion&quot; and &quot;social self-respect&quot; among &quot;working people&quot;. He traces this backwards to the war and forwards to the coalition. You can go quite a long way with him on the subject of banks and consumerism and Andy Coulson and yet be staggered by the suggestion &ndash; which he describes as a dramatic paradox &ndash; that the youths kill the baby &quot;to regain their self-respect&quot;. This is an&amp;nbsp;introduction that will be held against him, and from which someone should have, well, saved him. His play is far more persuasive than his explanation. It is a strength of &lt;em&gt;Saved &lt;/em&gt;that it doesn&#039;t supply a sociological critique; it simply presents a picture. With so much persuasive detail that spectators feel implicated.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Ustinov Studio is being reborn. Laurence Boswell, its new artistic director, has big plans for the small space. Over the next three years there&amp;nbsp;are to be 18 in-house productions&amp;nbsp;in the 125-seater theatre: these will be of plays unknown to British audiences and will be staged in themed seasons. This should bring an entirely new &ndash; and needed &ndash; dimension&amp;nbsp;to Bath theatre.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;His first season, whose theme is hard to find, is intriguing, if not resounding. Boswell has himself translated &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.theatreroyal.org.uk/page/3029/The+Phoenix+of+Madrid/203&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Phoenix of Madrid&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; by Calder&oacute;n de la Barca, the 17th-century Spanish playwright best known for his philosophical drama &lt;em&gt;Life Is a Dream.&lt;/em&gt; He&#039;s done a sparky job with the romantic farce, tweaking up its self-referential modernity &ndash; &quot;It&#039;s as if we are in a play by Calder&oacute;n de la Barca&quot; &ndash; without dropping into geezer-speak. The action &ndash; various bits of ruff chasing after different farthingales &ndash; scampers along, helped by Ti Green&#039;s handsome copper-coloured design: walls slide and open up, much as the plot doubles back on itself.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The link between this and Goethe&#039;s version of Euripides&#039; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.theatreroyal.org.uk/page/3029/Iphigenia/204&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Iphigenia&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;strong&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;isn&#039;t immediately clear: Goethe admired Calder&oacute;n but, on this showing, doesn&#039;t seem to have been greatly influenced by his style. Still, in Meredith Oakes&#039;s nimble new translation, this is a drama well worth rediscovering, both for the patient (admittedly not very brisk) logic of its debate and for the unexpected manner in which hope pierces the blackness. You don&#039;t expect much joy in a play in which giant meat hooks dangle over an altar, but Iphigenia&#039;s recognition of her brother, and his sloughing off of madness, are radiant moments.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Laura Rees, who is rather charmless&amp;nbsp;in &lt;em&gt;The Phoenix of Madrid&lt;/em&gt;, comes into her own here in the title part: she is steady, rational and velvet-toned, like an ideal head girl or recently elected MP. Boswell directs both plays, and choreographs &lt;em&gt;Iphigenia&lt;/em&gt; particularly deftly: nothing is rushed but nothing is static. The space is confined but characters proceed with a stately grandeur of gesture. As if it were the Greeks not the Romans who belonged to Bath.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;related&quot; style=&quot;float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/edwardbond&quot;&gt;Edward Bond&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/theatre&quot;&gt;Theatre&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/kane&quot;&gt;Sarah Kane&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/mikeleigh&quot;&gt;Mike Leigh&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;author&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/susannahclapp&quot;&gt;Susannah Clapp&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;terms&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk&quot;&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our &lt;a href=&quot;http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html&quot;&gt;Terms &amp; Conditions&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds&quot;&gt;More Feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;', '2011-10-15T22:46:12+02:00', 'Edward Bond', 'saved phoenix madrid iphigenia – review ');
INSERT INTO `items1` VALUES (1900, 'BP oil disaster documentary rakes over big questions about the spill | Suzanne Goldenberg', 'http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/oct/14/bp-oil-disaster-documentary-questions', '&lt;div class=&quot;track&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.22.2/55566?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=BP+oil+disaster+documentary+rakes+over+big+questions+about+the+spill%3AArticle%3A1647958&amp;ch=Environment&amp;c3=GU.co.uk&amp;c4=BP+oil+spill+Deepwater+Horizon%2CDocumentary+%28Film+genre%29%2CPollution+%28Environment%29%2COil+%28environment%29%2COil+spills+%28Environment%29%2CBP+%28Business%29%2CFilm%2CCulture%2CEnvironment&amp;c5=Environment+Conservation%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CEnergy%2CEthical+Living&amp;c6=Suzanne+Goldenberg&amp;c7=11-Oct-14&amp;c8=1647958&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=Blogpost&amp;c11=Environment&amp;c13=&amp;c25=Environment+blog&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FEnvironment%2Fblog%2FEnvironment+blog&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;standfirst&quot;&gt;The Big Fix raises concerns over Obama administration&#039;s use of toxic chemical Corexit and BP&#039;s leverage in the crisis&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;It&#039;s not every film that sets off on a mini-road trip with Peter Fonda, only to veer off into a night-vision goggle surveillance of a BP facility.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But then, the events of last year&#039;s BP oil disaster have so far been largely revisited in books, not documentaries. Until now, when a new documentary about the Gulf of Mexico oil spill has its premiere at the New Orleans film festival.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://greenplanet3d.com/films/6/&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;The Bix Fix&lt;/a&gt;, by Josh and Rebecca Tickell, re-opens some of the most persistent questions about last year&#039;s oil spill. How BP was able to exert so much control over the crisis as it unfolded? What were the long-term health consequences of using a &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/may/20/gulf-oil-spill-chemical-dispersant&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;toxic chemical, Corexit&lt;/a&gt;, to break up the oil and drive it underwater?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Rebecca Tickell herself had a serious reaction to the chemical after being out on the open water &ndash; and as it turned out so did the doctor she consulted in an Alabama beach town. She still has health problems.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Josh Tickell, who grew up in Louisiana, said the Obama administration&#039;s decision to allow the use of Corexit, which is banned in Britain, was the biggest surprise in the making of the film.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&quot;The most shocking thing to me was the disregard with which the people of the Gulf region were dealt,&quot; Tickell said.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Specifically I think that there was sort of a turn-a-blind-eye attitude towards the spraying of dispersants to clean up the spill. I don&#039;t think anyone wanted to look too deeply at the consequences.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;related&quot; style=&quot;float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/bp-oil-spill&quot;&gt;BP oil spill&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/documentary&quot;&gt;Documentary&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/pollution&quot;&gt;Pollution&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/oil&quot;&gt;Oil&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/oil-spills&quot;&gt;Oil spills&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/bp&quot;&gt;BP&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;author&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/suzannegoldenberg&quot;&gt;Suzanne Goldenberg&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;terms&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk&quot;&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our &lt;a href=&quot;http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html&quot;&gt;Terms &amp; Conditions&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds&quot;&gt;More Feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;', '2011-10-15T22:46:12+02:00', 'BP oil spill', 'bp oil disaster documentary rakes big questions spill | suzanne goldenberg the bix fix josh rebecca tickell opens persistent questions years oil spill bp able exert control crisis unfolded long term health consequences using toxic chemical corexit break oil drive tickell reaction chemical open water – turned did doctor consulted alabama beach town health tickell grew louisiana said obama administrations decision allow use corexit banned britain biggest surprise making shocking thing disregard people gulf region dealt tickell i think sort turn blind eye attitude spraying dispersants clean spill i think wanted look deeply class=related style=float left right 10px 10px>bp oil spills>oil class=author>');
INSERT INTO `items1` VALUES (1901, 'Roddy Frame &ndash; review', 'http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/oct/14/roddy-frame-review', '&lt;div class=&quot;track&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.22.2/79690?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=Roddy+Frame+*+review%3AArticle%3A1647804&amp;ch=Music&amp;c3=Guardian&amp;c4=Pop+and+rock+%28Music+genre%29%2CMusic%2CCulture%2CJohn+Hughes&amp;c5=Pop+Music%2CNot+commercially+useful&amp;c6=Dave+Simpson&amp;c7=11-Oct-14&amp;c8=1647804&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=Review%2CLive+music+review&amp;c11=Music&amp;c13=&amp;c25=&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FMusic%2FPop+and+rock&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;standfirst&quot;&gt;Deaf Institute, Manchester&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Is everyone alright up there?&quot; asks Roddy Frame, eyeing the venue&#039;s miniscule balcony. &quot;It&#039;s just like the Palladium in here.&quot; Hardly, but the Scottish singer-songwriter has been daring to dream ever since his old band Aztec Camera&#039;s 1983 debut, &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Land,_Hard_Rain&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;High Land, Hard Rain,&lt;/a&gt; catapulted him from East Kilbride to international stardom when he was just 19. Appearances are rarer now, but his enduring reputation as one&amp;nbsp;of the finest songwriters of the last 30 years means gigs like this are a white-hot ticket.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Frame of 2011 isn&#039;t the political idealist who once offered his help to the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2011/jan/21/archive-orange-juice-miners-strike-benefit-1985&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;National Union of Mineworkers&lt;/a&gt;, but a romantic wordsmith who documents love&#039;s ups and downs with guitars, big tunes and words as poetically beautiful as &quot;Clusters of heavenly jewels, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.lipwalklyrics.com/lyrics/507519-azteccamera-thenorthstar.html&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;gaze down on Earth&#039;s lonely fools&lt;/a&gt;.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;With his perfect quiff, soaring croon, stunning fingerpicking and chiming jangles, Frame could almost be Morrissey and Marr inhabiting the same body. In plain black shirt, the handsome 47-year-old looks absurdly youthful, eschewing the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2002/aug/16/artsfeatures.shopping1&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Postcard Records-era fashion sense&lt;/a&gt; inspired by Mark E Smith&#039;s tank tops, and visibly thrilled to be back.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&quot;I&#039;m not prolific,&quot; he quips, perhaps unwittingly explaining his career stops and starts. But the new White Pony &ndash; inspired by the late film-maker &lt;a href=&quot;http://wellknowwhenwegetthere.blogspot.com/2009/08/sincerely-john-hughes.html&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;John Hughes&#039;s mentoring of a young girl&lt;/a&gt; &ndash; sounds every bit as skyscraping as the oldies. From &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CM3mB6WrhJ4&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Oblivious&lt;/a&gt; to a tear-jerking &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ken3aiFzyDY&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Down the Dip&lt;/a&gt;, they tumble forth in an embarrassment of riches. When the crowd sing the first verse of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0NvZ4SsXAw&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Walk Out to&amp;nbsp;Winter&lt;/a&gt;, you fear grown men will start weeping, but a euphoric &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4pWcVPUybE&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Somewhere in My Heart&lt;/a&gt; suggests Frame is the sound of forever-young Scotland, immortalised by the belief: &quot;The closest thing to heaven is to rock&#039;n&#039;roll.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;rating&quot;&gt;Rating: 4/5&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;related&quot; style=&quot;float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/popandrock&quot;&gt;Pop and rock&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/john-hughes&quot;&gt;John Hughes&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;author&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/davesimpson&quot;&gt;Dave Simpson&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;terms&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk&quot;&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our &lt;a href=&quot;http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html&quot;&gt;Terms &amp; Conditions&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds&quot;&gt;More Feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;', '2011-10-15T22:46:16+02:00', 'Pop and rock', 'roddy frame – review ');
INSERT INTO `items1` VALUES (1902, 'The Hurt Locker v Jeffrey Sarver: bomb sergeant&#039;s lawsuit blasted out of court', 'http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/oct/14/hurt-locker-jeffrey-sarver-lawsuit', '&lt;div class=&quot;track&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.22.2/19249?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=The+Hurt+Locker+v+Jeffrey+Sarver%3A+bomb+sergeant%27s+lawsuit+blasted+out+of%3AArticle%3A1647868&amp;ch=Film&amp;c3=GU.co.uk&amp;c4=Film%2CKathryn+Bigelow%2CAction+and+adventure+%28Film+genre%29%2CThriller+%28Film+genre%29%2CCulture%2CUS+military+%28News%29%2CUS+news&amp;c5=Film+Awards%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CFilm+Reviews&amp;c6=Henry+Barnes&amp;c7=11-Oct-14&amp;c8=1647868&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=News&amp;c11=Film&amp;c13=&amp;c25=&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FFilm%2FKathryn+Bigelow&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;standfirst&quot;&gt;US war veteran loses case against makers of best picture Oscar-winner, but insists film is based on him&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;US army sergeant Jeffrey Sarver, the bomb disposal expert who claimed he was the uncredited inspiration for the lead character in Oscar-winning Iraq war drama &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/03/bomb-expert-blasts-hurt-locker&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;The Hurt Locker&lt;/a&gt;, has had his lawsuit against the film-makers &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.deadline.com/2011/10/judge-dismisses-hurt-locker-lawsuit&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;dismissed by a LA federal judge&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sarver filed a suit in March, days before Kathryn Bigelow&#039;s film went on to win several Oscars at the 2010 Academy awards. He argued that screenwriter Mark Boal, who had spent time embedded with Sarver&#039;s Explosive Ordnance Disposal unit in Iraq, had written Jeremy Renner&#039;s protagonist around Sarver&#039;s own life, which had led to ridicule from his fellow servicemen. Among the details Sarver claimed were appropriated by Boal was the nickname for Renner&#039;s character, Blaster One, which was Sarver&#039;s call sign in Iraq. &quot;Hollywood has made billions exploiting veterans,&quot; said Sarver at the time.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In this case, judge Jacqueline Nguyen disagreed. &quot;The value of The Hurt Locker unquestionably derived from the creativity and skill of the writers, directors and producers who conceived, wrote, directed, edited and produced it,&quot; she said in a 22-page statement explaining her ruling.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&quot;The Hurt Locker was inspired by many soldiers I met and interviewed during my time reporting in Iraq and elsewhere,&quot; said Boal, who won an Oscar for his original screenplay. &quot;It was a disservice to all of those other soldiers for Sgt Sarver to claim that he was the only soldier who was the basis for the hero of the film.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&quot;We are not going to stop representing the rights of Sgt Sarver and other military members, and the privacy of their families,&quot; &lt;a href=&quot;http://news.yahoo.com/judge-tosses-iraq-vets-lawsuit-over-hurt-locker-171319018.html&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Sarver&#039;s lawyer, Todd Weglarz, told AP&lt;/a&gt;. He intends to appeal the ruling.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;related&quot; style=&quot;float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/kathryn-bigelow&quot;&gt;Kathryn Bigelow&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/actionandadventure&quot;&gt;Action and adventure&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/thriller&quot;&gt;Thriller&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/us-military&quot;&gt;US military&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/usa&quot;&gt;United States&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;author&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/henrybarnes&quot;&gt;Henry Barnes&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;terms&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk&quot;&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our &lt;a href=&quot;http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html&quot;&gt;Terms &amp; Conditions&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds&quot;&gt;More Feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;', '2011-10-15T22:46:16+02:00', 'Film', 'hurt locker v jeffrey sarver bomb sergeants lawsuit blasted court us veteran loses case makers best picture oscar winner insists film based himus army sergeant jeffrey sarver bomb disposal expert claimed uncredited inspiration lead character oscar winning iraq drama the hurt locker lawsuit film makers dismissed federal filed suit march days kathryn bigelows film went win oscars 2010 academy awards argued screenwriter mark boal spent time embedded sarvers explosive ordnance disposal unit iraq written jeremy renners protagonist sarvers life led ridicule fellow servicemen details sarver claimed appropriated boal nickname renners character blaster sarvers sign iraq hollywood billions exploiting veterans said sarver case judge jacqueline nguyen disagreed value hurt locker unquestionably derived creativity skill writers directors producers conceived wrote directed edited produced said 22 page statement explaining hurt locker inspired soldiers i met interviewed time reporting iraq said boal won oscar original screenplay disservice soldiers sgt sarver claim soldier basis hero going stop representing rights sgt sarver military members privacy families sarvers lawyer todd weglarz told ap intends appeal rulingkathryn military>us class=author>');
INSERT INTO `items1` VALUES (1903, 'Matt Damon hopes to be Bourne again', 'http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/oct/14/matt-damon-hopes-bourne-again', '&lt;div class=&quot;track&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.22.2/98393?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=Matt+Damon+hopes+to+be+Bourne+again%3AArticle%3A1647723&amp;ch=Film&amp;c3=GU.co.uk&amp;c4=Matt+Damon+%28Film%29%2CFilm%2CAction+and+adventure+%28Film+genre%29%2CCrime+%28Film+genre%29%2CPaul+Greengrass+%28Film%29%2CCulture&amp;c5=Not+commercially+useful%2CFilm+Reviews&amp;c6=Ben+Child&amp;c7=11-Oct-14&amp;c8=1647723&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=News&amp;c11=Film&amp;c13=&amp;c25=&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FFilm%2FMatt+Damon&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;standfirst&quot;&gt;The actor says he would like to work with Paul Greengrass on another Bourne adventure, despite Jeremy Renner replacing him in the next instalment of the spy series, The Bourne Legacy&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;He may have been replaced by &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/apr/22/bourne-legacy-lead-jeremy-renner&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Jeremy Renner in the long-running spy series&lt;/a&gt; but Matt Damon still hopes to return as &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/dec/03/pass-notes-jason-bourne-greengrass?intcmp=239&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Jason Bourne&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Damon chose not to star in the fourth film in the critically acclaimed saga after &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/dec/02/paul-greengrass-quits-bourne-film&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;director Paul Greengrass declined to sign on&lt;/a&gt;. Studio Universal then made the decision to retool the series with a new actor in the main role, but crucially not as Bourne. Tony Gilroy, who wrote the first three films, will step up to the director&#039;s role for The Bourne Legacy, which is due out in 2012.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&quot;I was always fine with them doing another Bourne movie as long as it didn&#039;t preclude me and Paul from doing another Bourne,&quot; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.shortlist.com/entertainment/films/matt-damon#image-rotator-1&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Damon told Shortlist.com&lt;/a&gt; . &quot;From what I understand, it doesn&#039;t at all, so that&#039;s fine. I really want to do another one with Paul and I&#039;m sure it&#039;ll happen someday, but for now they&#039;re doing this. And I&#039;m a huge Jeremy Renner fan. I&#039;m sure he&#039;ll be great. I&#039;m keeping hope, man.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Damon will next be seen on the big screen in the Steven Soderbergh thriller &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/movie/142865/contagion&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Contagion&lt;/a&gt; , also starring Laurence Fishburne, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Winslet and Marion Cotillard, which arrives on British screens later this month. He also takes the lead in the upcoming Cameron Crowe-directed drama &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/movie/142859/we-bought-a-zoo&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;We Bought a Zoo&lt;/a&gt; , opposite Scarlett Johansson, which is out in the UK in December.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;related&quot; style=&quot;float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/mattdamon&quot;&gt;Matt Damon&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/actionandadventure&quot;&gt;Action and adventure&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/crime&quot;&gt;Crime&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/paulgreengrass&quot;&gt;Paul Greengrass&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;author&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/benchild&quot;&gt;Ben Child&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;terms&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk&quot;&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our &lt;a href=&quot;http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html&quot;&gt;Terms &amp; Conditions&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds&quot;&gt;More Feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;', '2011-10-15T22:46:17+02:00', 'Matt Damon', 'matt damon hopes bourne ');
INSERT INTO `items1` VALUES (1904, 'First sight: Tom Cullen', 'http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2011/oct/13/first-sight-tom-cullen', '&lt;div class=&quot;track&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.22.2/6543?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=First+sight%3A+Tom+Cullen%3AArticle%3A1646912&amp;ch=Culture&amp;c3=Guardian&amp;c4=Film%2CFestivals+%28Culture%29%2CCulture&amp;c5=Not+commercially+useful&amp;c6=Cath+Clarke&amp;c7=11-Oct-13&amp;c8=1646912&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=Feature&amp;c11=Culture&amp;c13=First+sight+%28Music+and+film+series%29&amp;c25=&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FCulture%2FFestivals&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;standfirst&quot;&gt;An actor who stars in a tiny British film that has exploded into a breakout hit&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Who is he?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;A 26-year-old actor from Cardiff who reckons he&#039;s the jammiest man alive. That&#039;s after starring in a tiny British film, Weekend &ndash; shot over 17 days in Nottingham &ndash; which has exploded into one of 2011&#039;s breakout hits.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What kind of breakout are we talking about: studio bidding wars and sell-out multiplex runs?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;No &ndash; the kind that points to big, bright futures for everyone involved. The buzz started at SXSW, which had to put on extra screenings. They queued round the block at one cinema when it opened in New York after the NY Times called it &quot;one of the most satisfying love stories you are likely to see on screen this year.&quot; Cullen plays Russell, who&#039;s gay and spends the weekend with a guy he picks up at a bar &ndash; think Before Sunrise. He says he related instantly to his&amp;nbsp;character.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How so?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Russell is a bit lost, trying to work out where he fits in with the&amp;nbsp;world. Cullen himself came to acting later than most. In his own words: &quot;I fell in love with a girl. We had a house and a dog. I found myself working in this restaurant, a bit fat, depressed.&quot; He woke up one morning, applied to drama school and never looked back. And while he might be jammy, his natural, fearless turn in Weekend happens to be dazzling.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What next?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;An HBO series, then Charlie Brooker&#039;s latest TV venture. And he is nominated for best British newcomer at the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bfi.org.uk/lff/&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;London film festival&lt;/a&gt;, where Weekend screens tomorrow.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;related&quot; style=&quot;float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/festivals&quot;&gt;Festivals&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;author&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/cathclarke&quot;&gt;Cath Clarke&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;terms&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk&quot;&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our &lt;a href=&quot;http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html&quot;&gt;Terms &amp; Conditions&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds&quot;&gt;More Feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;', '2011-10-15T22:46:17+02:00', 'Film', 'sight tom cullen an actor stars tiny british film exploded breakout hea 26 year old actor cardiff reckons hes jammiest alive thats starring tiny british film weekend – shot 17 days nottingham – exploded 2011s breakout kind breakout talking studio bidding wars sell multiplex – kind points big bright futures involved buzz started sxsw extra screenings queued round block cinema opened new york ny times called satisfying love stories likely screen year cullen plays russell whos gay spends weekend guy picks bar – think sunrise says related instantly bit lost trying work fits world cullen came acting later words i fell love girl house dog i working restaurant bit fat depressed woke morning applied drama school looked jammy natural fearless turn weekend happens hbo series charlie brookers latest tv venture nominated best british newcomer london film festival weekend screens tomorrow');
INSERT INTO `items1` VALUES (1905, 'Texas Killing Fields &ndash; review', 'http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/oct/13/texas-killing-fields-film-review', '&lt;div class=&quot;track&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.22.2/19627?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=Texas+Killing+Fields+*+review%3AArticle%3A1646891&amp;ch=Film&amp;c3=Guardian&amp;c4=Jessica+Chastain+%28Film%29%2CThriller+%28Film+genre%29%2CCrime+%28Film+genre%29%2CFilm%2CCulture&amp;c5=Unclassified%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CFilm+Reviews&amp;c6=Cath+Clarke&amp;c7=11-Oct-13&amp;c8=1646891&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=Review&amp;c11=Film&amp;c13=&amp;c25=&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FFilm%2FJessica+Chastain&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;standfirst&quot;&gt;There&#039;s a noirish moodiness to this Texas-set thriller, but director Ami Canaan Mann doesn&#039;t make the most of her high-profile actors&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Forget about murder: this moody cop thriller is guilty of a more heinous offence &ndash; criminal negligence of its dream-team cast. Michael Mann produces daughter Ami Canaan Mann&#039;s second feature, with Sam Worthington as a tough Texas detective. He&#039;s investigating the murder of a teenage prostitute while his ex-wife (Jessica Chastain), a cop in the next county, is stumped by the disappearance of another girl. Mann Jr effectively evokes an eerie, chilling, tension: the landscape all parched backwoods and murderous intent, knotted trees that might once have oozed blood red. But the story goes nowhere, and her actors default to a soulful noirish brooding, suggestive of tempestuous inner lives.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;rating&quot;&gt;Rating: 2/5&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;related&quot; style=&quot;float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/jessica-chastain&quot;&gt;Jessica Chastain&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/thriller&quot;&gt;Thriller&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/crime&quot;&gt;Crime&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;author&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/cathclarke&quot;&gt;Cath Clarke&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;terms&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk&quot;&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our &lt;a href=&quot;http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html&quot;&gt;Terms &amp; Conditions&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds&quot;&gt;More Feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;', '2011-10-15T22:46:18+02:00', 'Jessica Chastain', 'texas killing fields – review ');
INSERT INTO `items1` VALUES (1906, 'Retreat &ndash; review', 'http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/oct/13/retreat-film-review', '&lt;div class=&quot;track&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.22.2/19928?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=Retreat+*+review%3AArticle%3A1646885&amp;ch=Film&amp;c3=Guardian&amp;c4=Cillian+Murphy%2CThandie+Newton%2CThriller+%28Film+genre%29%2CFilm%2CCulture&amp;c5=Unclassified%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CFilm+Reviews&amp;c6=Peter+Bradshaw&amp;c7=11-Oct-13&amp;c8=1646885&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=Review&amp;c11=Film&amp;c13=&amp;c25=&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FFilm%2FCillian+Murphy&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;standfirst&quot;&gt;A neat, tense thriller from a first time director that provides a decent role for Jamie Bell&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Here is a workmanlike suspense thriller directed and co-written by newcomer Carl Tibbetts. Cillian Murphy and Thandie Newton play an anxious couple making a tense return to an utterly secluded island; this is to be a &quot;retreat&quot; for them, a place to heal their emotional wounds. The CB radio which is their only means of contacting the mainland goes dead, and then they encounter a sinister stranger played by Jamie Bell, who has a terrifying story to tell. Is it the truth? Or is it a manipulative lie? This is a neat, well-crafted three-hander, making good use of its location; it really is a meaty role for Bell, who lets rip in what might be his most eye-catching part since Billy Elliot.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;rating&quot;&gt;Rating: 3/5&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;related&quot; style=&quot;float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/cillian-murphy&quot;&gt;Cillian Murphy&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/thandie-newton&quot;&gt;Thandie Newton&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/thriller&quot;&gt;Thriller&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;author&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/peterbradshaw&quot;&gt;Peter Bradshaw&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;terms&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk&quot;&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our &lt;a href=&quot;http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html&quot;&gt;Terms &amp; Conditions&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds&quot;&gt;More Feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;', '2011-10-15T22:46:18+02:00', 'Cillian Murphy', 'retreat – review a neat tense thriller time director provides decent role jamie bellhere workmanlike suspense thriller directed written newcomer carl tibbetts cillian murphy thandie newton play anxious couple making tense return utterly secluded island retreat place heal emotional wounds cb radio means contacting mainland goes dead encounter sinister stranger played jamie bell terrifying story tell truth manipulative lie neat crafted hander making good use location really meaty role bell lets rip eye catching billy elliotrating 3/5cillian newton>thandie class=author>');
INSERT INTO `items1` VALUES (1907, 'Pom Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold &ndash; review', 'http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/oct/13/pom-wonderful-greatest-movie-ever-sold-review', '&lt;div class=&quot;track&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.22.2/11944?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=Pom+Wonderful+Presents%3A+The+Greatest+Movie+Ever+Sold+*+review%3AArticle%3A1646882&amp;ch=Film&amp;c3=Guardian&amp;c4=Documentary+%28Film+genre%29%2CFilm%2CCulture%2CMorgan+Spurlock&amp;c5=Unclassified%2CNot+commercially+useful&amp;c6=Peter+Bradshaw&amp;c7=11-Oct-13&amp;c8=1646882&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=Review&amp;c11=Film&amp;c13=&amp;c25=&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FFilm%2FDocumentary&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;standfirst&quot;&gt;Morgan Spurlock&#039;s new joke-doc is about branding and sponsorship &ndash; but irony will only get you so far&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Morgan Spurlock is back with another of his neat high-concept joke-docs. He&#039;s made a movie about product placement in the movies, and raised his film&#039;s entire $1.5m cost through product placement. Only about 20% of the film is about the subject matter itself: the rest of the time is spent on the tongue-in-cheek plugging of his sponsors and showing how he got them to contribute in the first place. Before this, I hadn&#039;t grasped that the notion of &quot;product placement&quot; is in fact pass&eacute;; now it&#039;s all about &quot;co-promotion&quot;. Robert Downey Jr will be seen munching on a certain brand of burger in Iron Man, and that burger chain will have ads for the movie slathered all over its retail outlets. Here, irony only stretches so far. But Spurlock interestingly demonstrates the concept of &quot;brand-friendliness&quot;: once a project is deemed to be brand-friendly, corporate customers come rushing in. Brand sponsorship for small-scale movies is perfectly possible. Spurlock may have put an idea in the heads of many indie film-makers.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;rating&quot;&gt;Rating: 3/5&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;related&quot; style=&quot;float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/documentary&quot;&gt;Documentary&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/morgan-spurlock&quot;&gt;Morgan Spurlock&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;author&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/peterbradshaw&quot;&gt;Peter Bradshaw&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;terms&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk&quot;&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our &lt;a href=&quot;http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html&quot;&gt;Terms &amp; Conditions&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds&quot;&gt;More Feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;', '2011-10-15T22:46:19+02:00', 'Documentary', 'pom wonderful presents greatest movie sold – review ');
INSERT INTO `items1` VALUES (1908, 'The Three Musketeers &ndash; review', 'http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/oct/13/the-three-musketeers-review', '&lt;div class=&quot;track&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.22.2/25330?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=The+Three+Musketeers+*+review%3AArticle%3A1646861&amp;ch=Film&amp;c3=Guardian&amp;c4=Film%2CJames+Corden%2CAction+and+adventure+%28Film+genre%29%2CCulture&amp;c5=Unclassified%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CFilm+Reviews&amp;c6=Peter+Bradshaw&amp;c7=11-Oct-13&amp;c8=1646861&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=Review&amp;c11=Film&amp;c13=&amp;c25=&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FFilm%2FJames+Corden&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;standfirst&quot;&gt;The musketeers are steampunk superheroes, cruising through the skies in an armed airship, but it&#039;s all a bit ho-hum&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Nothing looks as messy as an unbuckled swash, and sadly that&#039;s what we get here. Richard Lester gave us the fondly remembered version of Dumas&#039;s novel in the 70s, with much swordplay, wenches and cleavages. Here, the musketeers are steampunk superheroes, cruising through the skies in an armed airship. They battle for love and honour, and save France from the scheming Cardinal Richelieu, played by Christoph Waltz: the one actor who puts a bit of fizz into the film. It&#039;s all a bit ho-hum &ndash; James Corden has the Roy Kinnear role of comedy fat servant, but there&#039;s not much for him, or anyone else, to work with.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;rating&quot;&gt;Rating: 2/5&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;related&quot; style=&quot;float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/james-corden&quot;&gt;James Corden&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/actionandadventure&quot;&gt;Action and adventure&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;author&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/peterbradshaw&quot;&gt;Peter Bradshaw&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;terms&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk&quot;&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our &lt;a href=&quot;http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html&quot;&gt;Terms &amp; Conditions&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds&quot;&gt;More Feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;', '2011-10-15T22:46:20+02:00', 'Film', 'musketeers – review ');
INSERT INTO `items1` VALUES (1909, 'Hell and Back Again &ndash; review', 'http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/oct/13/hell-and-back-again-review', '&lt;div class=&quot;track&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.22.2/19090?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=Hell+and+Back+Again+*+review%3AArticle%3A1646874&amp;ch=Film&amp;c3=Guardian&amp;c4=Film%2CCulture%2CDocumentary+%28Film+genre%29%2CAfghanistan+%28News%29%2CWorld+news&amp;c5=Not+commercially+useful&amp;c6=Peter+Bradshaw&amp;c7=11-Oct-13&amp;c8=1646874&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=Review&amp;c11=Film&amp;c13=&amp;c25=&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FFilm%2FDocumentary&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;standfirst&quot;&gt;Eyewitness film of military action in Afghanistan combines with the story of a wounded soldier going home, and it pulls no punches&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Ten years of military involvement in Afghanistan is a grim anniversary. We have seen two reportage movies about this: Janus Metz Pedersen&#039;s Armadillo, about Danish troops, and Restrepo, by Sebastian Junger and the late Tim Hetherington. Here is a third; they might come to be seen as some kind of trilogy. Danfung Dennis, an embedded photojournalist and cameraman, begins with his eyewitness film of the military action and then goes home with 25-year-old Nathan Harris, who has been shot in the hip by the Taliban. Pain-wracked, Harris becomes hooked on his medication and on handling, caressing and generally obsessing about his handgun: all too clearly, he is beginning to imagine using it on himself. This pulls no punches. &lt;strong&gt;  &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;rating&quot;&gt;Rating: 4/5&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;related&quot; style=&quot;float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/documentary&quot;&gt;Documentary&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/afghanistan&quot;&gt;Afghanistan&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;author&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/peterbradshaw&quot;&gt;Peter Bradshaw&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;terms&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk&quot;&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our &lt;a href=&quot;http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html&quot;&gt;Terms &amp; Conditions&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds&quot;&gt;More Feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;', '2011-10-15T22:46:20+02:00', 'Film', 'hell – review ');
INSERT INTO `items1` VALUES (1910, 'Footloose &ndash; review', 'http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/oct/13/footloose-film-review', '&lt;div class=&quot;track&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.22.2/14234?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=Footloose+*+review%3AArticle%3A1646869&amp;ch=Film&amp;c3=Guardian&amp;c4=Musical+%28Film+genre%29%2CRomance+%28Film+genre%29%2CFilm%2CCulture&amp;c5=Not+commercially+useful&amp;c6=Steve+Rose&amp;c7=11-Oct-13&amp;c8=1646869&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=Review&amp;c11=Film&amp;c13=&amp;c25=&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FFilm%2FMusical&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;standfirst&quot;&gt;This remake of the 1984 teen-dance classic is actually pretty decent, even if its hero is a squeaky-clean example of youthful rebellion&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The idea of an American town outlawing dancing was a stretch back in 1984, but in the intervening years, it&#039;s actually become &lt;em&gt;more&lt;/em&gt; believable &ndash; which goes some way to justifying this remake. The setting is now the deep south but the basics are the same: city newcomer (Kenny Wormald) defies dance-hating rural preacher (Dennis Quaid) and romances his daughter. The dancing has come on, though, in both quality and variety. The movie&#039;s highlights are a bracing parking-lot crunk jam and a gymnastic solo to the White Stripes, though you also get country rehashes of Kenny Loggins and, er, line dancing. Scenes are clumsily bolted together, but what&#039;s most intriguing about Footloose is its message of community activism rather than youth rebellion. Instead of dropping out and forming a biker gang, our clean-living hero petitions the town council with a well-constructed argument. He&#039;s a rebel with a cause, and he&#039;s prepared to go through the correct channels to justify it.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;rating&quot;&gt;Rating: 3/5&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;related&quot; style=&quot;float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/musical&quot;&gt;Musical&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/romance&quot;&gt;Romance&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;author&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/steverose&quot;&gt;Steve Rose&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;terms&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk&quot;&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our &lt;a href=&quot;http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html&quot;&gt;Terms &amp; Conditions&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds&quot;&gt;More Feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;', '2011-10-15T22:46:21+02:00', 'Musical', 'footloose – review ');
INSERT INTO `items1` VALUES (1911, 'Steve Jobs: his life and career &ndash; video', 'http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/video/2011/oct/06/steve-jobs-life-career-video', '&lt;p&gt;Technology editor Charles Arthur looks back at the career of the driving force behind Apple, Steve Jobs&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;author&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/charlesarthur&quot;&gt;Charles Arthur&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;author&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/richard-sprenger&quot;&gt;Richard Sprenger&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;', '2011-10-15T22:46:23+02:00', 'Steve Jobs', 'steve jobs life career – video technology editor charles arthur looks career driving force apple steve jobsrichard style=clearboth />');
INSERT INTO `items1` VALUES (1912, 'Pixar&#039;s new films: dinosaurs and the human mind', 'http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2011/aug/22/pixar-new-films-dinosaurs-muppets', '&lt;div class=&quot;track&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.22.2/87097?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=Pixar%27s+new+films%3A+dinosaurs%2C+Muppets+and+the+human+mind%3AArticle%3A1623107&amp;ch=Film&amp;c3=GU.co.uk&amp;c4=Film%2CCulture%2CPixar%2CAnimation+%28Film+genre%29&amp;c5=Not+commercially+useful%2CFilm+Reviews&amp;c6=Ben+Child&amp;c7=11-Aug-22&amp;c8=1623107&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=News&amp;c11=Film&amp;c13=&amp;c25=Film+blog&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FFilm%2FPixar&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;standfirst&quot;&gt;After a tantalising preview of the animation studio&#039;s forthcoming slate, are we seeing it move confidently into middle age?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;After the disappointment of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/video/2011/jul/22/cars-2-pixar&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Cars 2&lt;/a&gt;, it&#039;s an intriguing time for Pixar watchers. Will the groundbreaking animation studio, who managed such an impressive run over the four years between Ratatouille and Toy Story 3, now slink into mediocre middle age with a slew of insipid sequels? Or can they surprise us again with searing successors to imaginative fare like Up and Wall-E?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;A few clues were offered last weekend at the D23 event in Anaheim, California &ndash; a sort-of mini-Comic Con for Disney fans. The big news was the announcement of two new Disney/Pixar films.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Untitled Pixar Movie About Dinosaurs, as it&#039;s currently known, will reportedly be released for Christmas 2013. It seems the film will imagine a world in which human beings and dinosaurs co-exist, as concept art showed a small boy sitting on the head of a brachiosaurus. Bob Peterson, the co-director of Up, is in charge for that one.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Project number two is Untitled Pixar Movie That Lets You See Inside The Human Brain, which has Up&#039;s main man Pete Docter in the hot seat. The film-maker said it would examine &quot;how we forget, why certain songs get stuck in our heads &hellip; It&#039;s a place that we&#039;ve all been to but have never seen&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;A further synopsis reads: &quot;Pixar takes audiences on incredible journeys into extraordinary worlds: from the darkest depths of the ocean to the top of the Tepui mountains in South America; from the fictional metropolis of Monstropolis to a futuristic fantasy of outer space. The inventive new film will take you to a place that everyone knows, but no one has ever seen: the world inside the human mind.&quot; The movie will be arriving in May 2014, so there&#039;s plenty of time for Docter and his team to work out how to get inside our heads.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Before then, Pixar has celtic fairytale Brave and Monsters Inc sequel Monsters University on its slate. Rumours of a fourth Toy Story film remain unconfirmed, but the studio announced that a new Toy Story short, Small Fry, in which Buzz Lightyear finds himself left behind in a fast-food restaurant, will debut ahead of the new Muppets movie (released in the US in November). UK filmgoers will have to wait until February, when The Muppets arrives here.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Elsewhere, fans were treated to new footage from The Avengers &ndash; Disney-owned Marvel studios&#039; forthcoming superhero epic, which unites Iron Man, Thor, The Hulk and Captain America on the big screen for the first time. The quartet are up against Thor villain Loki (played by Tom Hiddleston). The new scenes showed Hiddleston squaring off against Samuel L Jackson&#039;s Nick Fury, and another in which the former tells Robert Downey Jr&#039;s Iron Man that he has an army ready to fight. The response? &quot;I have a Hulk!&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Avengers is due out in the UK next May.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;related&quot; style=&quot;float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/pixar&quot;&gt;Pixar&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/animation&quot;&gt;Animation&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;author&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/benchild&quot;&gt;Ben Child&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;terms&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk&quot;&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our &lt;a href=&quot;http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html&quot;&gt;Terms &amp; Conditions&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds&quot;&gt;More Feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;', '2011-10-15T22:46:24+02:00', 'Film', 'pixars new films dinosaurs human mind ');
INSERT INTO `items1` VALUES (1913, 'Cars 2 &ndash; review', 'http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/jul/24/cars2-review', '&lt;div class=&quot;track&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.22.2/61154?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=Cars+2+*+review%3AArticle%3A1610225&amp;ch=Film&amp;c3=Obs&amp;c4=Pixar%2CAnimation+%28Film+genre%29%2COwen+Wilson+%28Film%29%2CMichael+Caine%2CFilm%2CCulture&amp;c5=Not+commercially+useful%2CFilm+Reviews&amp;c6=Philip+French&amp;c7=11-Jul-25&amp;c8=1610225&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=Review&amp;c11=Film&amp;c13=&amp;c25=&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FFilm%2FPixar&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;This 3D animated movie does not show the formidable Pixar team at its best. It opens with the eight-minute Hawaiian Holiday, an enjoyable, commonplace curtain-raiser in which Andy, Buzz Lightyear and the &lt;em&gt;Toy Story &lt;/em&gt;gang stage an exotic Pacific vacation in the nursery for Ken and Barbie, who had expected to accompany their owner on a family outing to Honolulu. &lt;em&gt;Cars 2&lt;/em&gt;, the main event, is a tired espionage spoof, a fast-moving, overlong sequel to the anthropomorphic 2006 feature about the human cars of Radiator Springs. This time, local racing car Lightning McQueen (voiced by Owen Wilson) enters a World Grand Prix staged in Japan, France, Italy and Great Britain. However, his dimwitted sidekick, the tow truck Mater, is mistaken for a key CIA man by Bond-style British spy Finn McMissile (Michael Caine), who&#039;s pursuing an international master criminal. Though technically up to snuff, it&#039;s flat-footed stuff. Mater ends up imprisoned in Westminster inside a clock rather than another car (Big Bentley) and knighted by the Queen, who is, inevitably, a Rolls-Royce.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;related&quot; style=&quot;float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/pixar&quot;&gt;Pixar&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/animation&quot;&gt;Animation&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/owenwilson&quot;&gt;Owen Wilson&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/michael-caine&quot;&gt;Michael Caine&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;author&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/philipfrench&quot;&gt;Philip French&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;terms&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk&quot;&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our &lt;a href=&quot;http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html&quot;&gt;Terms &amp; Conditions&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds&quot;&gt;More Feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;', '2011-10-15T22:46:24+02:00', 'Pixar', 'cars 2 – review this 3d animated movie does formidable pixar team best opens minute hawaiian holiday enjoyable commonplace curtain raiser andy buzz lightyear toy story gang stage exotic pacific vacation nursery ken barbie expected accompany owner family outing honolulu cars 2 main event tired espionage spoof moving overlong sequel anthropomorphic 2006 feature human cars radiator springs time local racing lightning mcqueen voiced owen wilson enters world grand prix staged japan france italy great britain dimwitted sidekick tow truck mater mistaken key cia bond style british spy finn mcmissile michael caine whos pursuing international master criminal technically snuff flat footed stuff mater ends imprisoned westminster inside clock big bentley knighted queen inevitably rolls roycemichael class=author>');
INSERT INTO `items1` VALUES (1914, 'Cars 2: The Video Game  &ndash; review', 'http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/jul/24/cars-2-the-video-game-review', '&lt;div class=&quot;track&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.22.2/42907?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=Cars+2%3A+The+Video+Game++*+review%3AArticle%3A1609575&amp;ch=Technology&amp;c3=Obs&amp;c4=Racing+games+%28games+genre%29%2CGames+%28Technology%29%2CTechnology%2CCulture%2CPixar&amp;c5=Not+commercially+useful%2CCorporate+IT%2CGames%2CFilm+Reviews&amp;c6=%3Cstrong%3EBulent+Yusuf+%3C%2Fstrong%3E&amp;c7=11-Jul-24&amp;c8=1609575&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=Review&amp;c11=Technology&amp;c13=&amp;c25=&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FTechnology%2FRacing+games&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;standfirst&quot;&gt;PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, DS, Disney, cert 7, out now&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The vocal talents of veteran actor Martin Jarvis, whose velvet purr can be heard narrating &lt;em&gt;Just William&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;Jeeves in Manhattan&lt;/em&gt; on BBC Radio 4, pops up here on Disney/Pixar&#039;s &lt;em&gt;Cars 2&lt;/em&gt; doing an impersonation of Michael Caine (playing an animated Aston Martin). Is this the moment where licensed video games become a proper art form or was the pay good?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The target audience won&#039;t give a flying flugelhorn as they are nine-years-old, probably male and definitely hyperactive. All they care about is revving engines and squealing tyres, which this game delivers in large doses. More akin to &lt;em&gt;Mario Kart&lt;/em&gt; than &lt;em&gt;Gran Turismo&lt;/em&gt;, stage after stage is packed with cartooney, crash-bang-wallop and the fun is accessible for multiple players whether online or in the same room.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Years of bitter experience have taught us to give licensed games a wide berth, but this is an exception to the rule, with both slavish fidelity to the film&#039;s plot and gameplay that has more polish than a Porsche&#039;s bonnet.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Martin Jarvis can rest easy &ndash; his involvement with &lt;em&gt;Cars 2&lt;/em&gt; will leave his credibility intact.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;related&quot; style=&quot;float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/racing-games&quot;&gt;Racing games&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/games&quot;&gt;Games&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/pixar&quot;&gt;Pixar&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;terms&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk&quot;&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our &lt;a href=&quot;http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html&quot;&gt;Terms &amp; Conditions&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds&quot;&gt;More Feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;', '2011-10-15T22:46:25+02:00', 'Racing games', 'cars 2 video game – review ');
INSERT INTO `items1` VALUES (1915, 'Pixar&#039;s John Lasseter: &#039;Cars 2 is a spy movie&#039;', 'http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/jul/22/pixar-cars-2-john-lasseter', '&lt;div class=&quot;track&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.22.2/57178?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=Pixar%27s+John+Lasseter%3A+%27Cars+2+is+a+spy+movie%27%3AArticle%3A1610687&amp;ch=Film&amp;c3=GU.co.uk&amp;c4=Pixar%2CAnimation+%28Film+genre%29%2CFilm%2CCulture&amp;c5=Not+commercially+useful%2CFilm+Reviews&amp;c6=Ben+Child&amp;c7=11-Jul-22&amp;c8=1610687&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=Feature&amp;c11=Film&amp;c13=&amp;c25=&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FFilm%2FPixar&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;standfirst&quot;&gt;Ahead of the release of Cars 2, its director explains how he found inspiration in The Man from Uncle and Jason Bourne&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;If one were to imagine the office of a top Hollywood creative, the head of two animation studios that last year were responsible for more than $1.5bn at the global box office, it would probably not look like the one belonging to Pixar&#039;s John Lasseter. You&#039;d expect glass walls and minimal furniture. A room to suggest power, wealth and industry. An LA room.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Lasseter&#039;s workplace is more San Francisco. It has fluffy toys spilling from every nook and cranny, and a custom-made action figure (a gift from Mattel, apparently) of its owner sitting proudly on a desk. It looks like a compact version of the Sunnyside Day Care playroom from Toy Story 3. If ever Pixar decides to mimic Disney (the company it currently forms part of) by opening its own theme park, there ought to be a spot based on this room. No doubt the ebullient Lasseter, who began his Disney career as a &quot;skipper&quot; on the Jungle Cruise ride at Disneyland in Anaheim, California, would want to show people around.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;For now, the closest thing to Pixarworld is the company&#039;s Emeryville base outside San Francisco, within which Lasseter&#039;s office takes pride of place. It&#039;s a building full of quiet positivity. Imagine Ikea but with intriguing drawings, ideas and models adorning the walls, and a central hub where everyone working at the studio can meet (and eat) together. It&#039;s a supremely relaxed and informal environment, designed by Apple&#039;s Steve Jobs, an early Pixar backer, and it&#039;s where I&#039;ve come with other bloggers and film writers to hear about what makes Pixar tick ahead of the release of Cars 2, the latest film from the studio behind Wall-E, Up and the Toy Story films.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Strange, some might say, there is even a Cars 2 given the failure of the first film to get critics&#039; engines revving. Not so for Lasseter, a car nut who directed the first movie and for whom the sequel marks his first film in charge of the cameras for five years. He&#039;s keen to tell me about his inspiration in bringing Lightning McQueen and Mater the Towtruck back to the big screen.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Cars 2 is a spy movie,&quot; he says. &quot;I don&#039;t know if in the UK you ever saw the Man from Uncle? I was born in 1957 and it came out in 1964. I loved that show &ndash; I had all the toy guns from The Man from Uncle and I played it so much. It inserted in my DNA a love of spy movies. I have five sons and we are really into the three Bourne movies because they elevated the genre. I think a combination of those two influences was the inspiration for this.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&quot;We also felt it would be fun to do a spy movie because in the Cars world there are no humans, so the gadgets and the spy are one and the same. But I never wanted to make a parody of a spy movie and talk down to the genre. The action is approached from the position that this is a true spy movie, but it&#039;s in this world where cars are alive.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The atmosphere at Pixar is markedly different to the high-profile Los Angeles premiere of Cars 2 I attended a few days&#039; previously &ndash; a storm of screaming fans, Z-list celebrities and the odd bona fide star in the shape of the film&#039;s Owen Wilson and Emily Mortimer. Cars 2 producer and Pixar veteran Denise Ream says it&#039;s exactly this sort of hustle and bustle the studio wants to avoid.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&quot;LA is too much of an industry town,&quot; she says. &quot;There are definitely way more opportunities down there when you&#039;re first starting out. But after a while you get so sick of it because everywhere you go, that&#039;s all people talk about. I love my job but up here I feel there&#039;s more of a balance. [The premiere] was amazing and as someone who produced the movie it was great to see, but it was not my cup of tea and was a little overwhelming.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Mortimer, who voices the British car-spy Holley Shiftwell in Cars 2, has made the journey to Emeryville to meet the assembled press. Sitting on a couch in the central Pixar courtyard, our conversation is in stark contrast to the brief snippet I managed to grab from her on the red carpet in LA. &quot;The vibe here is so mellow,&quot; she says. &quot;You feel like you could pitch a tent and never go home.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&quot;I&#039;m completely messianic about this place, like some kind of cult. John Lasseter should be running the world,&quot; Mortimer laughs. &quot;My little boy got to go into his office and opened this cupboard and an obscene amount of toy cars came out &ndash; he came home with a huge binliner full, and it&#039;s taken him about three weeks to calm down.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&quot;The whole process is really different to a standard shoot. I&#039;m not a theatre veteran but I have done a few plays and it may be similar to that, technically, because it&#039;s &#039;big acting&#039;. It wasn&#039;t until I got the courage to really project and start gesticulating wildly that I began to get it.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&quot;You&#039;re completely putting yourself in their hands. I get an almost masochistic pleasure out of the powerlessness of it &hellip; holding my nose and closing my eyes and jumping in to see what happens. It could be disastrous, or it could be fantastic. But you couldn&#039;t be in more reliable hands with Pixar and John, so it&#039;s quite a safe environment in which to not have any control.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Cars 2 isn&#039;t the greatest Pixar movie of all time, but I&#039;ve seen more than enough of how this place works to suggest the studio will be back on form sooner rather than later. Brave, the company&#039;s first fairytale, arrives next year, and Monster&#039;s University, a sequel to Monster&#039;s Inc, is set for release a year later. In the meantime, Lasseter will return to his day job as chief creative officer of both Disney and Pixar, a role that has slowly begun to help restore the former to its glory days. There has been no &quot;Pixarification&quot; of Disney, he insists. Rather, it&#039;s been a case of bringing back values that should never have been dispensed with in the first place.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&quot;The leadership at the time, they didn&#039;t grow up wanting to work for Disney, and wanting to be an animator,&quot; says Lasseter. &quot;This was just their job. Cool cars and cool clothes and reservations at the hot restaurant. We came in, just &ndash; boom &ndash; scraped that layer off and inspired these artists and said this is what we want to do.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&quot;One of my jobs coming back in was to say, &#039;No. I believe the audience in the world has not outgrown this, has not gotten so savvy that they no longer find this entertaining&#039;, which was the prevailing feeling. Because everybody lived down in cynical LA and we don&#039;t. That&#039;s one of the reasons I cherish being here.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;If Pixar has benefited from being away from the Hollywood hub, there may be hope for Disney. Let&#039;s hope Lasseter&#039;s LA office looks much like the one in Emeryville.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;related&quot; style=&quot;float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/pixar&quot;&gt;Pixar&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/animation&quot;&gt;Animation&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;author&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/benchild&quot;&gt;Ben Child&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;terms&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk&quot;&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our &lt;a href=&quot;http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html&quot;&gt;Terms &amp; Conditions&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds&quot;&gt;More Feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;', '2011-10-15T22:46:25+02:00', 'Pixar', 'pixars john lasseter cars 2 spy movie ');
INSERT INTO `items1` VALUES (1916, 'Cars 2: &#039;The loud, brash juvenile of the Pixar showroom&#039; - video', 'http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/video/2011/jul/22/cars-2-pixar', '&lt;p&gt;It&#039;s fun, fast and frenetic but there&#039;s not much underneath the snazzy chassis of this sequel, says Xan Brooks&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;author&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/henrybarnes&quot;&gt;Henry Barnes&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;author&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/xanbrooks&quot;&gt;Xan Brooks&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;', '2011-10-15T22:46:26+02:00', 'Animation', 'cars 2 loud brash juvenile pixar showroom video its fun frenetic theres underneath snazzy chassis sequel says xan brooks');
INSERT INTO `items1` VALUES (1917, 'Readers&#039; reviews: Studio Ghibli, the Great British Album and The Inbetweeners movie', 'http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2011/jul/21/readers-reviews-studio-ghibli', '&lt;div class=&quot;track&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.22.2/76074?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=Readers%27+reviews%3A+Studio+Ghibli%2C+the+Great+British+Album+and+The+Inbetwe%3AArticle%3A1609954&amp;ch=Culture&amp;c3=Guardian&amp;c4=Culture%2CFilm%2CMusic%2CPixar%2CAnimation+%28Film+genre%29%2CThe+Inbetweeners%2CTelevision+%28Culture%29%2CComedy+%28TV+genre%29%2CComedy+%28culture%29&amp;c5=Not+commercially+useful%2CComedy%2CTelevision+Media%2CFilm+Reviews%2CTV&amp;c6=Michael+Hann&amp;c7=11-Jul-21&amp;c8=1609954&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=Feature&amp;c11=Culture&amp;c13=Readers+reviews+%28F+and+M+series%29&amp;c25=&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FCulture%2FPixar&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;standfirst&quot;&gt;The best of your comments on the latest film and music&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;How come the big US animators don&#039;t see the need for heroines to lead their films, when Japan&#039;s &lt;strong&gt;Studio Ghibli&lt;/strong&gt; has shown you don&#039;t need a male protagonist to make a film that&#039;s both commercially and artistically successful? That was the question posed last week by &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/jul/14/studio-ghibli-arrietty-heroines&quot; title=&quot;Steve Rose&quot;&gt;Steve Rose&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;That Hollywood is aware of the issue was a point made by &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/discussion/comment-permalink/11579145&quot; title=&quot;andyos&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;andyos&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;: &quot;I&amp;nbsp;interviewed Pete Docter (director of Monsters Inc and Up) for a magazine article, and brought up the gender issue. Docter had no hesitation in agreeing it was an issue: &#039;We&#039;ve tried at times to write more female characters, but it&#039;s very difficult. We&#039;re not as familiar with them, and you feel as though they&#039;re under intense scrutiny (from the audience). It&#039;s very easy for us to make male characters have foibles, but with females, it&#039;s sometimes more delicate. Hopefully that will change.&#039;&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;It&#039;s worth looking at the people who make the films for Disney/Pixar and the other big animators for an explanation, suggested &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/discussion/comment-permalink/11579407&quot; title=&quot;greenwichlee&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;greenwichlee&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;: &quot;People who make animations are mostly 30-50something men. So rather than making films about pubescent girls or boys, Pixar makes films that are emotionally honest, dealing with characters and situations which clearly draw upon the writer&#039;s own lives and feelings. Finding Nemo was inspired by the director&#039;s anxiety about letting his kid out of his sight, for example. I&amp;nbsp;do like Ghibli&#039;s work, but Pixar at their best catch at something deeper and truer. They are allegories rather than &ndash;&amp;nbsp;admittedly glorious &ndash; fantasies.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Lending even more support to the US cause was &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/discussion/comment-permalink/11579966&quot; title=&quot;happytourist&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;happytourist&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;, one of several posters to the article thread to point out the number of strong female characters in Hollywood animation: &quot;I love Studio Ghibli &hellip; but can&#039;t get on board with the Disney-bashing. Gender issues aside, the output of Disney in the 90s and Pixar in the last decade has been pretty superlative &ndash; and as for strong heroines, what about Mulan, Lilo, Belle, Esmerelda, Megara, Elastigirl, Tiana &hellip; Disney has plenty of great female characters who could hold their own with Chihiro, Mononoke, Kiki et al.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Elsewhere, Tom Ewing pondered the nature of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2011/jul/14/british-rock-album-the-horrors&quot; title=&quot;Great British Album&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Great British Album&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; in the wake of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/horrors&quot; title=&quot;Horrors&quot;&gt;Horrors&#039;&lt;/a&gt; new release. He was pinpointing albums whose greatness is predicated not on quality so much as ubiquity &ndash; those epic, windswept ones that have provided breakthroughs for indie bands over the last couple of decades. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/discussion/comment-permalink/11583635&quot; title=&quot;MarcBurrows&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;MarcBurrows&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; provided a useful practical example: &quot;In&amp;nbsp;the 90s I remember watching an episode of Grange Hill, where a character put on &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everything_Must_Go_(Manic_Street_Preachers_album)&quot; title=&quot;Everything Must Go&quot;&gt;Everything Must Go&lt;/a&gt; at &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54L_ZU2QIpc&quot; title=&quot;track one&quot;&gt;track one&lt;/a&gt;, and was shown five minutes later listening to the final track &ndash; the audience all understood that an hour had passed because pretty much everyone watching had the album and knew the tracklist. That&#039;s a &#039;Great British Rock Record&#039;. Completely universal, solid and utterly&amp;nbsp;everyman.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&quot;The progression towards the &#039;arena sound&#039; is pretty much defined for me by Simple Minds,&quot; said &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/discussion/comment-permalink/11586414&quot; title=&quot;TokenGesture&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;TokenGesture&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;, &quot;who I got into at a tender age with &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljIQo1OHkTI&quot; title=&quot;Alive and Kicking&quot;&gt;Alive and Kicking&lt;/a&gt;, only much later to discover their earlier, more experimental side. For it to work I think it requires a band to genuinely wish to communicate with a mass audience &ndash; the breadth of the sound follows that desire. I can&#039;t see the Horrors matching this on current form &ndash; they seem too insulated.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Jim Shelley&#039;s piece about &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/jul/14/inbetweeners-movie-crete-final-instalment&quot; title=&quot;The Inbetweeners movie&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Inbetweeners movie&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; provoked fierce arguments about whether the original TV show was a) truthful and hilarious or b) puerile rubbish. So we&#039;ll content ourselves with a gag from the show, posted by &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/discussion/comment-permalink/11580805&quot; title=&quot;CousinBebop&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;CousinBebop&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Simon: &quot;No one brings a bag of shit to a pub.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Jay: &quot;Your dad does.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Simon: &quot;Does he?&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Jay: &quot;Yeah, your mum.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Puerile? That?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;related&quot; style=&quot;float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/pixar&quot;&gt;Pixar&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/animation&quot;&gt;Animation&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/the-inbetweeners&quot;&gt;The Inbetweeners&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/television&quot;&gt;Television&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/comedy&quot;&gt;Comedy&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/comedy&quot;&gt;Comedy&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;author&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/michaelhann&quot;&gt;Michael Hann&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;terms&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk&quot;&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our &lt;a href=&quot;http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html&quot;&gt;Terms &amp; Conditions&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds&quot;&gt;More Feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;', '2011-10-15T22:46:27+02:00', 'Culture', 'readers reviews studio ghibli great british album inbetweeners movie ');
INSERT INTO `items1` VALUES (1918, 'Michael Caine hopes Sky doesn&#039;t fall in | Media Monkey', 'http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/mediamonkeyblog/2011/jul/18/michael-caine-sky', '&lt;div class=&quot;track&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.22.2/3534?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=Michael+Caine+hopes+Sky+doesn%27t+fall+in+%7C+Media+Monkey%3AArticle%3A1608345&amp;ch=Media&amp;c3=GU.co.uk&amp;c4=Michael+Caine%2CFilm%2CPixar%2CAnimation+%28Film+genre%29%2CMedia%2CPhone+hacking+scandal+%28Media%29%2CPress+and+publishing%2CNational+newspapers+UK+%28media%29%2CNewspapers%2Ci+%28UK+newspaper%29&amp;c5=Press+Media%2CUnclassified%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CMedia+Weekly%2CFilm+Reviews&amp;c6=Monkey&amp;c7=11-Jul-18&amp;c8=1608345&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=Blogpost&amp;c11=Media&amp;c13=&amp;c25=Media+Monkey+blog&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FMedia%2Fblog%2FMedia+Monkey&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sir Michael Caine&lt;/strong&gt; had a few thoughts on the phone-hacking scandal at the premiere of Pixar&#039;s big-screen sequel, Cars 2, reports i. &quot;Are we going to lose Sky television? I love Sky Sports,&quot; said Caine, who voices one of the cars in the new film. &quot;A small section of all the parties, the police, the press and the government, are to blame, a very small section, and they&#039;ve got to get rid of them,&quot; he tells i. Just not Sky Sports.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;related&quot; style=&quot;float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/michael-caine&quot;&gt;Michael Caine&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/pixar&quot;&gt;Pixar&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/animation&quot;&gt;Animation&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/phone-hacking&quot;&gt;Phone hacking&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/pressandpublishing&quot;&gt;Newspapers &amp; magazines&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/national-newspapers&quot;&gt;National newspapers&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/newspapers&quot;&gt;Newspapers&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/i&quot;&gt;i&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;author&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/monkey&quot;&gt;Monkey&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;terms&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk&quot;&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our &lt;a href=&quot;http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html&quot;&gt;Terms &amp; Conditions&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds&quot;&gt;More Feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;', '2011-10-15T22:46:27+02:00', 'Michael Caine', 'michael caine hopes sky doesnt | media monkey phone & newspapers>national class=author>');
INSERT INTO `items1` VALUES (1919, 'Studio Ghibli: Leave the boys behind', 'http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/jul/14/studio-ghibli-arrietty-heroines', '&lt;div class=&quot;track&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.22.2/94002?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=Studio+Ghibli%3A+Leave+the+boys+behind%3AArticle%3A1606805&amp;ch=Film&amp;c3=Guardian&amp;c4=Animation+%28Film+genre%29%2CPixar%2CFilm%2CCulture&amp;c5=Not+commercially+useful%2CFilm+Reviews&amp;c6=Steve+Rose&amp;c7=11-Aug-02&amp;c8=1606805&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=Feature&amp;c11=Film&amp;c13=&amp;c25=&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FFilm%2FAnimation&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;standfirst&quot;&gt;You have to go a long way to see animations in which a girl takes the lead &ndash; to Japan, in fact. Steve Rose looks at Studio Ghibli&#039;s alternative to Hollywood&#039;s love of heroes&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Think of the last Hollywood family animation you saw that had a female character in the lead role. Now try to think of one that wasn&#039;t about a Disney princess. See the problem? We&#039;re supposed to have just lived through a new golden age of animation, but clearly it has been one where boys are better than girls. You can&#039;t chuck a pair of 3D glasses across a multiplex without hitting a male hero: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/movie/88023/shrek&quot; title=&quot;Shrek&quot;&gt;Shrek&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2008/jul/04/filmandmusic1.filmandmusic2&quot; title=&quot;Kung Fu Panda&quot;&gt;Kung Fu Panda&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/movie/140393/rango&quot; title=&quot;Rango&quot;&gt;Rango&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/movie/91394/ice.age&quot; title=&quot;Ice Age&quot;&gt;Ice Age&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/movie/138288/despicable-me&quot; title=&quot;Despicable Me&quot;&gt;Despicable Me&lt;/a&gt;, the list goes on. Even with &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/pixar&quot; title=&quot;Pixar&quot;&gt;Pixar&lt;/a&gt;, the undisputed kings of computer animation, it&#039;s pretty much a guy&#039;s world: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/jul/15/toy-story-3-review&quot; title=&quot;Toy Story&quot;&gt;Toy Story&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/movie/90412/monsters.inc.&quot; title=&quot;Monsters Inc&quot;&gt;Monsters Inc&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/movie/95989/finding.nemo&quot; title=&quot;Finding Nemo&quot;&gt;Finding Nemo&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120623/&quot; title=&quot;A Bugs Life&quot;&gt;A Bug&#039;s Life&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/movie/129187/up&quot; title=&quot;Up&quot;&gt;Up&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/movie/119669/ratatouille&quot; title=&quot;Ratatouille&quot;&gt;Ratatouille&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/movie/125194/wall-e&quot; title=&quot;Wall-E&quot;&gt;Wall-E&lt;/a&gt; &ndash; if anything, Pixar&#039;s product is even more male-dominated than its competitors. At best, Pixar&#039;s females are second billing (Finding Nemo&#039;s Dory, Mrs Incredible, Toy Story&#039;s Jessie); at worst they&#039;re token love-interests, stay-at-home mums and other stereotypes bent on spoiling the boys&#039; party. Which brings us to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/movie/142460/cars-2&quot; title=&quot;Cars 2&quot;&gt;Cars 2&lt;/a&gt;, its latest release and most brazenly boytastic movie. This merchandise-shifting adventure will also go down as the worst-received movie Pixar has ever made, and there&#039;s barely a female speaking part in it.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Since the very first feature animation, &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_White_and_the_Seven_Dwarfs_(1937_film)&quot; title=&quot;Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs&quot;&gt;Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs&lt;/a&gt;, Disney has somehow cornered the girls&#039; market virtually unchallenged, but &ndash; with few exceptions &ndash; its heroines have fitted the corporate mould like a dainty foot in a glass slipper. This year&#039;s &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/movie/140039/tangled&quot; title=&quot;Tangled&quot;&gt;Tangled&lt;/a&gt; brought in &quot;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.disney.co.uk/princess/index.jsp&quot; title=&quot;Disney Princess&quot;&gt;Disney Princess&lt;/a&gt;&quot; No 10, Rapunzel, but despite a bit of pop-culture attitude, her ultimate fate is to be ladylike, marry a prince and live happily ever after in her newfound patriarchal milieu, just like her predecessors. Girls with aspirations beyond being the next Kate Middleton or the next Jordan (whose daughter&#039;s name is Princess, by the way), will have to look far beyond the pink palace of Disney to find a decent role-model. In fact, they&#039;ll have to look all the way to Japan.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;As well as Cars 2, July 29 also sees the release of&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1568921/&quot; title=&quot; Arrietty&quot;&gt; Arrietty&lt;/a&gt;, the latest product of &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studio_Ghibli&quot; title=&quot;Studio Ghibli&quot;&gt;Studio Ghibli&lt;/a&gt;, Japan&#039;s leading animation studio. Best known for 2001&#039;s Oscar-winning &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/movie/96263/spirited.away&quot; title=&quot;Spirited Away&quot;&gt;Spirited Away&lt;/a&gt;, Ghibli is often lazily dubbed Japan&#039;s answer to Disney, but the comparison only holds true in terms of box-office sales (Spirited Away is still Japan&#039;s all-time top-grossing film &ndash; three other Ghibli films are in the top 10) and sales of cuddly toys. In terms of content, Studio Ghibli is a world apart. Since 1984, under the auspices of its founder and chief auteur, Hayao Miyazaki, the studio has rolled out a succession of dense, ambitious fantasy adventures, almost all of them led by strong, intelligent, independent-minded girls. Miyazaki&#039;s movies are exciting and fantastical, often involving flying machines, ecological disasters, clashing civilisations and precarious spiritual values &ndash; all rendered in clean, colourful, hand-drawn animation. His heroines also tend towards a certain type. They are adventurous and active, but also compassionate, communicative, pacifist and virtuous. Their &quot;female&quot; qualities and childish innocence are often what resolve the crisis at hand and bridge conflicting worlds. Miyazaki does princesses, too, but the first time we see his eponymous Princess Mononoke, she&#039;s sucking the gunshot wound of a giant wolf and spitting blood into a river.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;As Miyazaki once explained: &quot;If it&#039;s a story like, &#039;Everything will be fine once we defeat him,&#039; it&#039;s better to have a male as a lead. But, if we try to make an adventure story with a male lead, we have no choice other than doing Indiana Jones. With a Nazi, or someone else who is a villain in anyone&#039;s eyes.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&quot;He thought heroism was much more complicated than that black hat/white hat stuff,&quot; explains &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_McCarthy&quot; title=&quot;Helen McCarthy&quot;&gt;Helen McCarthy&lt;/a&gt;, a British author who has written extensively on Miyazaki and Japanese animation. &quot;By making the hero a girl, he took all that macho stuff out of the equation and that gave him the freedom to examine heroism. His career has been a very beautiful building of an idea that the feminine doesn&#039;t preclude the heroic.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Arrietty fits right into this mould. It was adapted by Miyazaki from Mary Norton&#039;s &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sfsite.com/09b/bor41.htm&quot; title=&quot;Borrowers&quot;&gt;Borrowers&lt;/a&gt; stories and directed by his protege, Hiromasa Yonebayashi. Arrietty herself is a miniature 14-year‑old girl, who lives with her parents in secrecy under the floorboards of a rural Japanese home, &quot;borrowing&quot; their possessions &ndash; a pin becomes her sword, for example. Like any little girl growing up, she&#039;s independent-minded and eager to explore the outside world. Just as Spirited Away&#039;s heroine bridged the world between the spirits and the living, so Arrietty bridges that between her little people and the full-sized humans, but she is also driven by her curiosity about boys.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Against a vibrant springtime backdrop and hints about &quot;the nesting season&quot;, Arrietty&#039;s relationship with a sickly human boy unfolds like a courtship. In one particularly charged scene, when she finally allows the boy to see her for the first time, Arrietty&#039;s tiny figure is framed against feverishly blooming giant poppies in the garden. There are similarly subtle erotic and sexual subtexts throughout Ghibli&#039;s films. &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiki&#039;s_Delivery_Service&quot; title=&quot;Kikis Delivery Service&quot;&gt;Kiki&#039;s Delivery Service&lt;/a&gt;, for example, centres on a 13-year-old witch who, like Arrietty, is just approaching adolescence. In her travels, Kiki encounters all ages of womanhood, each of whose sexualities is hinted at through metaphors involving fire and flames.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Children and sexuality are well off‑limits in western culture as a whole, but in these films, it&#039;s a fact of life, with no associated perversity. &quot;It is really difficult for any of us in a western tradition to acknowledge how powerful the sexual feelings of children are,&quot; McCarthy says. &quot;One of the wonderful things Studio Ghibli do is they recognise and accept that children are adults in miniature. That children have all these feelings encapsulated in themselves; it&#039;s just a case of them learning to organise and articulate them.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Death and violence, too, are never far away in Miyazaki&#039;s films. Even in his most innocent work, &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Neighbor_Totoro&quot; title=&quot;My Neighbour Totoro&quot;&gt;My Neighbour Totoro&lt;/a&gt;, a film in which there are no evil characters and no apparent conflict, the threat of a sick mother&#039;s death hangs over the bucolic idyll of its two young sisters. In Ghibli films, limbs get hacked off, mortal peril is never far away. It makes Bambi&#039;s mother dying look like a walk in the park.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;With its open acknowledgment of sex and violence, you could say Studio Ghibli&#039;s work is closer to the fairy tales of European literature, which can be seen as similarly coded children&#039;s primers for the adult world that awaits them. Victorian society defanged fairy tales, then Disney finished the job, but in their original versions, they&#039;re full of horror. In early versions of Snow White, for example, the queen eats what she presumes to be her stepdaughter&#039;s heart, lungs and liver, tries to asphyxiate Snow White with corset laces, and is punished by being forced to wear red-hot iron shoes. In Disney&#039;s hands, it became a story about a nice girl who likes singing and housework.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;None of this is to say that Studio Ghibli&#039;s films are entirely exemplary. Even Arrietty, despite her courage and self- determination, ends up with a partner much more appropriate to her standing &ndash; literally and metaphorically &ndash; than a boy 100 times her size. Beyond their &quot;perfect&quot; heroines, Ghibli&#039;s work has recurring female archetypes, possibly stereotypes: the wise old grandmother, the idealised home-making mother in her apron. &quot;I do think there are some very strong reactionary elements to Miyazaki&#039;s work,&quot; McCarthy says. &quot;Not anti-feminist but not in line with feminist thinking. In a lot of his work, he&#039;s saying that men and women have established functions in the social order. While you&#039;re a child, anything is possible but when grown-up women step outside their roles, they tend to have a tough time in his movies.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Nevertheless, it all makes Cars 2 look like very primitive fare. Hollywood has rarely matched Studio Ghibli&#039;s output in storytelling sophistication, but it is making progress on gender issues, at least. Last year&#039;s How to Train Your Dragon, for example, bravely centred on a wimpy geek &ndash; a feminised hero who relied on brain rather than brawn, thus winning the affections of a physically superior female. And for all its flaws, Rio centred on a neurotic male parrot who couldn&#039;t fly, shackled to a more competent female. Even Pixar is finally seeing the light. The studio&#039;s next big animation project, Brave, due for release in a year&#039;s time, has a mythological Scottish highland setting and the company&#039;s first female lead character, voiced by Kelly Macdonald. The bad news is, she&#039;s a princess.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;related&quot; style=&quot;float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/animation&quot;&gt;Animation&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/pixar&quot;&gt;Pixar&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;author&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/steverose&quot;&gt;Steve Rose&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;terms&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk&quot;&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our &lt;a href=&quot;http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html&quot;&gt;Terms &amp; Conditions&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds&quot;&gt;More Feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;', '2011-10-15T22:46:28+02:00', 'Animation', 'studio ghibli leave boys ');
INSERT INTO `items1` VALUES (1920, 'John Carter: Inside Disney&#039;s Mars adventure &ndash; in pictures', 'http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/gallery/2011/jul/11/john-carter-disney-mars', '&lt;p&gt;Ben Child checks out early footage from John Carter, a live action film about a civil war veteran transported to a turbulent new life on Mars&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;author&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/benchild&quot;&gt;Ben Child&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;', '2011-10-15T22:46:29+02:00', 'Action and adventure', 'john carter inside disneys mars adventure – pictures ben child checks early footage john carter live action film civil veteran transported turbulent new life mars');
INSERT INTO `items1` VALUES (1921, 'A Brave move for Pixar, but will there be a Toy Story 4?', 'http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2011/jun/28/brave-pixar-toy-story-4', '&lt;div class=&quot;track&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.22.2/78093?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=A+Brave+move+for+Pixar%2C+but+will+there+be+a+Toy+Story+4%3F%3AArticle%3A1599602&amp;ch=Film&amp;c3=GU.co.uk&amp;c4=Pixar%2CAnimation+%28Film+genre%29%2CScience+fiction+and+fantasy+%28Film+genre%29%2CFilm%2CCulture&amp;c5=Not+commercially+useful%2CFilm+Reviews&amp;c6=Ben+Child&amp;c7=11-Jun-28&amp;c8=1599602&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=Blogpost&amp;c11=Film&amp;c13=&amp;c25=Film+blog&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FFilm%2Fblog%2FFilm+blog&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;standfirst&quot;&gt;The trailer for animators&#039; first fairytale feature arrives amid heavy hints of another outing for Woody and Buzz&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Pixar&#039;s name seems to have been engraved on the best animated film Oscar for the last few years, but if lukewarm early reviews are anything to go by, 2012 may just be the year in which &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/cars_2/&quot; title=&quot;Cars 2 drops the baton&quot;&gt;Cars 2 drops the baton&lt;/a&gt;. Fortunately, the California company behind Up, Wall-E and the Toy Story films appears to have plenty up its sleeves to avoid disappointment.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The first official trailer for Brave, due for release next summer, is currently debuting at screenings of Cars 2 in the US. It&#039;s Pixar&#039;s first fairytale and has been described as having a darker, Brothers Grimm edge.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Set in the Scottish highlands, the film concerns flame-haired archer princess Merida (voiced by Kelly Macdonald), who according to the official synopsis &quot;confronts tradition, destiny and the fiercest of beasts ... to carve her own path in life&quot;. From the look of the promo, Brave has a distinct muted colour palette characterised by soft, organic tones, a million miles away from the glossy look of Toy Story or Cars.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Pixar spends at least four years working on each of its films, so this one would have been in development long before rival DreamWorks released How to Train Your Dragon last year &ndash; yet some critics are bound to point out the resemblance between the two movies. The latter film also featured a largely Scottish cast, though weirdly its characters were supposed to be of Viking heritage.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Also playing in front of Cars 2, which arrives in the UK on 22 July, is new Toy Story short Hawaiian Vacation, in which Barbie and Ken are treated to a five-star indoor holiday experience courtesy of Woody and Buzz et al after their plan to stow away in Bonnie&#039;s backpack for a trip to Hawaii goes awry. Last year&#039;s Toy Story 3 seemed to round out the story arc nicely for the series, but might the new short hint at the prospect of Toy Story 4? After all, Pixar seems to be increasingly happy to return to past glories: a sequel to Monsters Inc titled Monsters University is to be released in 2013.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Speaking on BBC Breakfast News on Monday, Tom Hanks, who voices Woody, appeared to let slip that Pixar  is working on a new Toy Story film. Asked if there might ever be a Toy Story 4, he replied: &quot;I think there will be. They&#039;re working on it now.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;related&quot; style=&quot;float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/pixar&quot;&gt;Pixar&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/animation&quot;&gt;Animation&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/sciencefictionandfantasy&quot;&gt;Science fiction and fantasy&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;author&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/benchild&quot;&gt;Ben Child&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;terms&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk&quot;&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our &lt;a href=&quot;http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html&quot;&gt;Terms &amp; Conditions&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds&quot;&gt;More Feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;', '2011-10-15T22:46:29+02:00', 'Pixar', 'brave pixar toy story 4 ');
INSERT INTO `items1` VALUES (1922, 'Cars 2 zooms to No 1 despite slow reviews', 'http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2011/jun/27/cars-2-no-1-disney-pixar', '&lt;div class=&quot;track&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.22.2/13813?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=Cars+2+zooms+to+No+1+despite+slow+reviews%3AArticle%3A1599236&amp;ch=Film&amp;c3=GU.co.uk&amp;c4=Pixar%2CAnimation+%28Film+genre%29%2CAction+and+adventure+%28Film+genre%29%2CWoody+Allen+%28Film%29%2CDrama+%28Film+genre%29%2CFilm%2CCulture%2CFilm+industry+%28business%29&amp;c5=Not+commercially+useful%2CFilm+Reviews&amp;c6=Jeremy+Kay&amp;c7=11-Jun-27&amp;c8=1599236&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=Blogpost&amp;c11=Film&amp;c13=Hollywood+report+%28series%29&amp;c25=Film+blog&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FFilm%2FPixar&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;standfirst&quot;&gt;Disney-Pixar&#039;s latest animation caper looks critic-proof as box office sales overtake those of its rivals&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;That&#039;s a clean bill of 12 No 1 launches for Pixar, the animation hit factory whose &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/movie/142460/cars-2&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Cars 2&lt;/a&gt; was way too strong for the US competition over the weekend. The estimated $68m debut was above Disney&#039;s projections, which themselves may have been influenced by the lukewarm reviews. Yes that&#039;s right: a Pixar movie actually elicited a less-than-rapturous response from the critics. Mainstream audiences could not care less what critics think, however, and I reckon Cars 2, which was also the top film in the international arena, should prove itself to be critic-proof.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;That $68m opening weekend compares favourably with the 2006 launch of Cars, which, adjusted for inflation, opened on around $67m. We&#039;ll be hearing a lot about the movie in the coming weeks, especially outside the US, where Disney will unload it in several waves. This is because the studio knows word of mouth on Cars 2 will be strong and will sustain audience interest. There&#039;s no need to orchestrate a day-and-date worldwide blitz, and this way Disney can customise the release pattern to take advantage of different school holiday slots.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The $31m second-place debut for Sony&#039;s &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/jun/16/bad-teacher-film-review&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Bad Teacher&lt;/a&gt; was a great result for the R-rated comedy featuring a deliciously crass Cameron Diaz. It&#039;s a shame the rest of the movie isn&#039;t as appealing as its lead, but the studio won&#039;t mind and reported several encouraging debuts outside the US. Box office for Warner Bros&#039; DC Comics adaptation &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/jun/16/green-lantern-review&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Green Lantern&lt;/a&gt; dropped 66% in the second weekend and should cross $100m before long. At this rather slow rate the movie, which cost around $200m to make, needs to do the business overseas to look in good health. The international running total so far is around $29m.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I mentioned last week that Woody Allen is enjoying a purple patch at the box office and at $28.6m &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/may/11/cannes-film-festival-woody-allen-review&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Midnight in Paris&lt;/a&gt; has become his biggest hit in 25 years since Hannah and Her Sisters. Not bad for a 75-year-old veteran who clearly feels rejuvenated by his ongoing European sojourn and last week announced the cast of his next movie, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/jun/21/woody-allen-returns-bop-decameron&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;The Bop Decameron&lt;/a&gt;, which starts shooting in Rome next month.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The willingness of European financiers and buyers to invest in Allen is key to all this, and for the first time the film-maker has hooked up with Italian powerhouse Medusa. If and when he tires of Europe, one wonders if Allen might scour Asia next; can you imagine what he&#039;d accomplish working alongside someone like &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0586281/&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Takashi Miike&lt;/a&gt;? More power to him: Allen has been smart to seek money from Europe, where he continues to be revered. The relationship between non-US studios and English-language film-makers and talent is nothing new. France&#039;s EuropaCorp is a prime example of a willing collaborator, albeit in a higher budget bracket, bankrolling thrillers such as the Transporter series, Taken and next year&#039;s Guy Pearce sci-fi thriller Lockout.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;North American top 10, 24-26 June 2011&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1&lt;/strong&gt; Cars 2, $68m&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2&lt;/strong&gt; Bad Teacher, $31m&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;3&lt;/strong&gt; Green Lantern, $18.4m. Total: $89.3m&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;4&lt;/strong&gt; Super 8, $12.1m. Total: $95.2m&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;5&lt;/strong&gt; Mr Popper&#039;s Penguins, $10.3m. Total: $39.4m&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;6&lt;/strong&gt; X-Men: First Class, $6.6m. Total: $132.8m&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;7&lt;/strong&gt; The Hangover Part II, $5.9m. Total: $243.9m&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;8&lt;/strong&gt; Bridesmaids, $5.4m. Total: $146.7m&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;9&lt;/strong&gt; Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, $4.7m. Total: $229.1m&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;10&lt;/strong&gt; Midnight in Paris, $4.5m. Total: $28.6m&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;related&quot; style=&quot;float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/pixar&quot;&gt;Pixar&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/animation&quot;&gt;Animation&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/actionandadventure&quot;&gt;Action and adventure&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/woodyallen&quot;&gt;Woody Allen&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/drama&quot;&gt;Drama&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/film-industry&quot;&gt;Film industry&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;author&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/jeremykay&quot;&gt;Jeremy Kay&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;terms&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk&quot;&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our &lt;a href=&quot;http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html&quot;&gt;Terms &amp; Conditions&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds&quot;&gt;More Feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;', '2011-10-15T22:46:30+02:00', 'Pixar', 'cars 2 zooms 1 despite slow reviews ');
INSERT INTO `items1` VALUES (1923, 'Pixar&#039;s Cars 2  spy story drives film animation to new heights', 'http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/jun/26/pixar-cars-2-drives-animation-to-new-heights', '&lt;div class=&quot;track&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.22.2/8694?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=Pixar%27s+Cars+2++spy+story+drives+film+animation+to+new+heights%3AArticle%3A1598658&amp;ch=Film&amp;c3=Obs&amp;c4=Animation+%28Film+genre%29%2CPixar%2CJohn+Lasseter+%28Film%29%2CWalt+Disney+Company%2CFilm%2CCulture%2CUS+news%2CUK+news&amp;c5=Not+commercially+useful%2CBusiness+Markets%2CFilm+Reviews&amp;c6=Dalya+Alberge&amp;c7=11-Jul-18&amp;c8=1598658&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=News&amp;c11=Film&amp;c13=&amp;c25=&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FFilm%2FAnimation&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;standfirst&quot;&gt;Director John Lasseter says level of realism is now 10 times greater for cinema audiences&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The pioneering Hollywood studio that revolutionised the industry with the first computer animated feature film is pushing cinematic boundaries still further with its latest production, &lt;em&gt;Cars 2&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Walt Disney&#039;s Pixar studios has devised &quot;mind-blowing&quot; technology that will make the film &ndash; a fast-moving spy story with anthropomorphised cars as characters &ndash; its most challenging and complex yet. Director John Lasseter, who shot to fame in 1995 with &lt;em&gt;Toy Story&lt;/em&gt;, the first feature-length computer animated film, said: &quot;The level of complexity in &lt;em&gt;Cars 2 &lt;/em&gt;is 10 times what we&#039;ve been able to put into any other film.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Everything you see has been created by somebody. That took new technology. It&#039;s close to reaching the level of complexity you see out in the real world.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Such is the sophistication that the cities featured, including London, have been reproduced with a level of detail that was previously unattainable.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;He cited Pixar&#039;s earlier hit, &lt;em&gt;Finding Nemo&lt;/em&gt;, as a film whose ground-breaking underwater effects now looked &quot;somewhat geometric&quot;. With &lt;em&gt;Cars 2&lt;/em&gt;, Lasseter said, the creative team had developed computer programs to convey mathematically the physics of the natural world, using algorithms to create ocean swells and waves with depth, volume and interacting light.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&quot;We&#039;ve had a lot of people say, did you use photography of real water somehow?&quot; he said, describing the latest advances as &quot;mind-blowing&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In the film, which is the sequel to the 2006 hit &lt;em&gt;Cars&lt;/em&gt;, artists have recreated the minutiae of city life, from dirt in gutters and weeds growing in cracks to the patina on weathered buildings. Each frame took an average of 13 hours to complete, double the previous time.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;For one scene involving a chase around London, Pixar created nearly 20 miles of &quot;landscape and environment&quot;. Apurva Shah, supervising technical designer, said: &quot;We started with the actual map and layout of London. Even though our world is very caricatured, we wanted it to be as true as possible.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The caricaturing extends to &quot;car-ifying&quot; cities in a world without people. As the shots zoom in on Big Ben, Buckingham Palace and Westminster Abbey, giant automobile parts can be seen integrated into the architecture, with spark plugs, for example, replacing towers.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Pixar, founded 25 years ago and acquired by Disney in 2006, has received 26 Oscars, and its 11 films have grossed more than $6bn. It has invented some of the industry&#039;s most cutting-edge techniques.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Cars 2&lt;/em&gt; &ndash; featuring the voices of Michael Caine, Owen Wilson and Vanessa Redgrave &ndash; is released in UK cinemas on 22 July after  opening in America.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Variety&lt;/em&gt; has already given it rave reviews and says that Pixar&#039;s &quot;crack team&quot; have given it &quot;the sort of wizardly action sequences most live-action directors would envy&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;related&quot; style=&quot;float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/animation&quot;&gt;Animation&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/pixar&quot;&gt;Pixar&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/johnlasseter&quot;&gt;John Lasseter&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/walt-disney-company&quot;&gt;Walt Disney Company&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/usa&quot;&gt;United States&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;author&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/dalya-alberge&quot;&gt;Dalya Alberge&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;terms&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk&quot;&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our &lt;a href=&quot;http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html&quot;&gt;Terms &amp; Conditions&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds&quot;&gt;More Feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;', '2011-10-15T22:46:30+02:00', 'Animation', 'pixars cars 2 spy story drives film animation new heights dalya class=terms>');
INSERT INTO `items1` VALUES (1924, 'The 10 best Pixar characters', 'http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/gallery/2011/jun/26/pixar-animation', '&lt;p&gt;As Cars 2 races towards us, we look back at the studio&#039;s past hits&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;author&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/jasonsolomons&quot;&gt;Jason Solomons&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;', '2011-10-15T22:46:31+02:00', 'Pixar', '10 best pixar characters as cars 2 races look studios past hits');
INSERT INTO `items1` VALUES (1925, 'Cars 2 premiere - in pictures', 'http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/gallery/2011/jun/20/pixar-walt-disney-company', '&lt;p&gt;This weekend there was gridlock in downtown LA as the premiere of Pixar&#039;s Cars 2 rolled into town. Ben Child waved from the kerb&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;author&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/benchild&quot;&gt;Ben Child&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;', '2011-10-15T22:46:32+02:00', 'Film', 'cars 2 premiere pictures this weekend gridlock downtown premiere pixars cars 2 rolled town ben child waved kerb');
INSERT INTO `items1` VALUES (1926, 'Google doodle celebrates birthday of Gumby creator Arthur &#039;Art&#039; Clokey', 'http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/oct/12/google-doodle-gumby-arthur-clokey', '&lt;div class=&quot;track&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.22.2/50825?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=Google+doodle+celebrates+birthday+of+Gumby+creator+Arthur+%27Art%27+Clokey%3AArticle%3A1646326&amp;ch=Technology&amp;c3=GU.co.uk&amp;c4=Google+doodle%2CInternet%2CSearch+engines%2CGoogle+%28Technology%29%2CTechnology%2CAnimation+%28TV+genre%29%2CTelevision+%28Culture%29%2CAnimation+%28Film+genre%29%2CFilm%2CUS+television+industry%2CUS+television+%28TV+and+radio%29%2CUS+news%2CWorld+news&amp;c5=Digital+Media%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CUS+Elections%2CTechnology+Gadgets%2CCorporate+IT%2CFilm+Reviews%2CTelevision+Media%2CTV&amp;c6=Guardian+staff&amp;c7=11-Oct-12&amp;c8=1646326&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=&amp;c11=Technology&amp;c13=&amp;c25=&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FTechnology%2FGoogle+doodle&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;standfirst&quot;&gt;Stop motion animator came up with clay figure who had a 35-year run on television&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Google has celebrated the 90th birthday of the stop motion animation pioneer Arthur &quot;Art&quot; Clokey in its latest Google doodle.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Detroit-born Clokey, who died in 2010, was best known for Gumby, a clay figure and star of the Gumby Show, which ran for 35 years from November 1955. Interest in the characters was given a boost in the 1980s when Eddie Murphy parodied Gumby in a Saturday Night Live skit.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;One of Clokey&#039;s first clay animation productions was Gumbasia (1955), a short, surreal homage to Walt Disney&#039;s Fantasia that caught the eye of Samuel G Engel, then president of the Motion Pictures Producers Association. Engel was sufficiently impressed to finance the pilot film for what became the Gumby Show.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Film appearances, comic strips, merchandise and reruns in the 1990s on Nickelodeon and the Cartoon Network stand as testimony to Gumby&#039;s enduring popularity.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The doodle features some of Clokey&#039;s characters popping out from balls of clay.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;related&quot; style=&quot;float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/google-doodle&quot;&gt;Google doodle&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/internet&quot;&gt;Internet&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/searchengines&quot;&gt;Search engines&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/google&quot;&gt;Google&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/animation&quot;&gt;Animation&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/television&quot;&gt;Television&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/animation&quot;&gt;Animation&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/ustelevision&quot;&gt;US television industry&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/us-television&quot;&gt;US television&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/usa&quot;&gt;United States&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;terms&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk&quot;&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our &lt;a href=&quot;http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html&quot;&gt;Terms &amp; Conditions&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds&quot;&gt;More Feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;', '2011-10-15T22:46:35+02:00', 'Google doodle', 'google doodle celebrates birthday gumby creator arthur art clokey us class=terms>');
INSERT INTO `items1` VALUES (1927, 'Don Gato &ndash; aka Top Cat &ndash; rides the crest of a Mexican wave', 'http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2011/oct/11/top-cat-don-gato-mexico', '&lt;div class=&quot;track&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.22.2/32676?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=Don+Gato+*+aka+Top+Cat+*+rides+the+crest+of+a+Mexican+wave%3AArticle%3A1646114&amp;ch=Film&amp;c3=GU.co.uk&amp;c4=Animation+%28Film+genre%29%2CFamily+%28Film+genre%29%2CFilm%2CCulture%2CMexico+%28News%29%2CAmericas+%28News%29%2CWorld+news&amp;c5=Unclassified%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CFilm+Reviews&amp;c6=Phil+Hoad&amp;c7=11-Oct-11&amp;c8=1646114&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=Blogpost&amp;c11=Film&amp;c13=After+Hollywood&amp;c25=Film+blog&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FFilm%2FAnimation&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;standfirst&quot;&gt;The unlikely success of this American cartoon import continues unabated with the release of a Mexican-made feature film&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;One pleasure available for the modern culture-flaneur is picking out the curios of globalisation: the unlikely cultural friendships struck up. I never knew &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykRZbOb1c5c&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Top Cat&lt;/a&gt; (or Boss Cat, as British viewers may remember him) was big in Mexico until last week, when I saw that a &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRT5f9Nh5Zs&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;new feature-length animation version&lt;/a&gt; had been squatting on top of their box-office charts like a patronising moggie on a trashcan. How, in the age of the ubiquitous remake, had I not heard about this one?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Because it turns out that TC is even more of a local hero than first intended. Apparently Don Gato, to give him his Spanish name, has been one of the most beloved cartoon imports in Mexico since it was first broadcast there in the 1970s. One former viewer I spoke to said, &quot;You could ask any middle-aged Mexican about the programme and they&#039;ll probably be able to name all of Don Gato&#039;s gang and a few of the incidental characters, as well as a good number of catchphrases and the storylines of quite a few shows.&quot; So Warner Brothers, owner of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanna-Barbera&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Hanna-Barbera&lt;/a&gt; properties, has turned to Latin American animators to produce a film just for that market.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Don Gato y Su Pandilla (Top Cat and His Gang) opened handsomely on 16 September &ndash; 11 days before TC&#039;s 50th anniversary &ndash; with the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.tiempolibre.com.mx/blog/2011/09/don-gato-y-su-pandilla-se-convierte-en-el-estreno-mas-grande-en-la-historia-del-cine-mexicano/&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;highest-grossing opening weekend ever for a Mexican film in Mexico&lt;/a&gt;: 41m pesos ($2.9m). Most effectual &ndash; but not quite the indisputable leader of the gang yet. After a month on release it&#039;s cleared the $7m mark, putting it in with a shout of becoming the most successful ever local film at the Mexican box office &ndash; a title currently held by the 2002 Gael Garc&iacute;a Bernal drama &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/movie/95907/crime.of.padre.amaro&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;El Crimen del Padre Amaro&lt;/a&gt; ($16.3m). It&#039;s also come out in Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay, with a Peru release happening this week &ndash; but no news about the US, or anywhere else, yet.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;That&#039;s curious thinking by Warner, considering Top Cat seems on the surface to be a pedigree American pussycat. Thirty 25-minute episodes, sponsored by Kellogg&#039;s and pharmaceutical company Bristol-Myers, were broadcast from September 1961 to April 1962 on ABC; the show&#039;s knockabout feline squad was &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047763/&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Sergeant Bilko&lt;/a&gt; reborn in Manhattan back-alley form, right down to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0331466/&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Maurice Gosfield&lt;/a&gt; (who had played Private Duane Doberman) voicing &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ht5_7ANrmEw&amp;feature=related&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Benny the Ball&lt;/a&gt;. Just the kind of fallow pop-culture backlot, in other words, that&#039;s been routinely dug up in the last decade for global audiences, in everything from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/movie/107660/bewitched&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Bewitched&lt;/a&gt; to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/movie/134250/a-team&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;The A-Team&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Warner farmed the new version, available in 3D as well, out to Mexico&#039;s &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.animaestudios.com/&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Anima&lt;/a&gt; and Argentina&#039;s &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.illusionstudios.com/&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Illusion&lt;/a&gt; studios. It&#039;s in keeping with the current trend in Hollywood towards productions for local markets, or &ndash; if Warner are planning a US release in this case &ndash; co-productions that outsource the risks of R&amp;D and market-testing to other parties. American writers created the first drafts of the script &ndash; in which both Top Cat and Officer Dibble (Oficial Matute in the Spanish-language version &ndash; Matute is Argentinian slang for policeman) are wrongfooted by the appearance of a tough new police chief. Screenwriter Rub&eacute;n Arvizu then tweaked their work for the Latin American market, as he did for the original cartoon in the 1970s.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In some ways, though, retailoring for local audiences has always happened, and it seems to be responsible for Don Gato&#039;s popularity in the first place. The 60s version was converted for Mexico with unusual care: they built on Top Cat&#039;s succinct visual brio by filling the scripts out with Mexican references, and invested heavily in the vocal dubbing &ndash; essential in a country that, 30 years ago, still had high illiteracy rates. Another thing I never knew was that there was such a thing as a Mexican voice-acting legend, but &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.cinepremiere.com.mx/node/19364&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Jorge Arvizu&lt;/a&gt; (brother of Ruben), the Mexican &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mel_Blanc&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Mel Blanc&lt;/a&gt;, is one. He voiced Benito Bodoque and Cucho (Benny and Choo-Choo) for Don Gato, as well as Bugs Bunny, Fred Flintstone, Popeye, George Harrison, Ringo Starr and Michael Corleone in Mexican redubs. Giving his Cucho (which roughly translates as &quot;wonky&quot;) a Yucat&aacute;n accent was typical of the deft touches in evidence as Top Cat became Don Gato.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The producers have lured Arvizu out of retirement for the new version &ndash; a good PR move. The spruced-up animation is, next to the classic Hanna-Barbera style, a bit too busy for my tastes. Reviewers, though, have cut it some slack. &quot;The kids walked out very happy,&quot; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.filmaffinity.com/es/reviews/1/377232.html&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;said FilmAffinity.com&lt;/a&gt;, while &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.cinepremiere.com.mx/node/19322&amp;Taquilla&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;cinepremiere.com&#039;s Luis Miguel Cruz reckoned it was&lt;/a&gt; &quot;undoubtedly the best Hanna-Barbera adaptation to date, far exceeding the lamentable versions of The Flintstones, Scooby-Doo and Yogi Bear&quot;. Anima Studios seems to be zeroing in on the pop-culture remake &ndash; it already turned out &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1186365/&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Kung Fu Magoo&lt;/a&gt;, with the famous myopic fogey, for US release in 2010 &ndash; and all of a sudden Mexico looks like it&#039;s bidding to curate America&#039;s animation heritage. Whether it succeeds or not, one thing is clear: a former New York wise-cat has emigrated south of the border. Reason? Improved employment prospects.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&bull; What global box-office stories should we be writing about? How does Hollywood hawk its wares in your country? Let us know in the comments below &hellip;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;related&quot; style=&quot;float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/animation&quot;&gt;Animation&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/family&quot;&gt;Family&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/mexico&quot;&gt;Mexico&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/americas&quot;&gt;Americas&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;author&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/philhoad&quot;&gt;Phil Hoad&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;terms&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk&quot;&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our &lt;a href=&quot;http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html&quot;&gt;Terms &amp; Conditions&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds&quot;&gt;More Feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;', '2011-10-15T22:46:36+02:00', 'Animation', 'don gato – aka cat – rides crest mexican wave ');
INSERT INTO `items1` VALUES (1928, 'Families don&#039;t mind the gap as Johnny English and The Lion King are reborn', 'http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2011/oct/11/johnny-english-reborn-lion-king', '&lt;div class=&quot;track&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.22.2/85037?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=Families+don%27t+mind+the+gap+as+Johnny+English+and+The+Lion+King+are+rebo%3AArticle%3A1645894&amp;ch=Film&amp;c3=GU.co.uk&amp;c4=Film%2CCulture%2CComedy+%28Film+genre%29%2CAnimation+%28Film+genre%29%2CFilm+industry+%28business%29&amp;c5=Not+commercially+useful%2CComedy%2CFilm+Reviews&amp;c6=Charles+Gant&amp;c7=11-Oct-11&amp;c8=1645894&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=Blogpost&amp;c11=Film&amp;c13=Box+office+analysis%3A+UK&amp;c25=Film+blog&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FFilm%2FComedy&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;standfirst&quot;&gt;Eight years after the first film, audiences are flocking to see Rowan Atkinson&#039;s spy sequel; and Disney introduces an old friend to a new generation in 3D&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;The winner&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;Conventional wisdom dictates that sequels can suffer at the box office when there is a significantly long gap between releases, but eight years after Johnny English, audiences have embraced the follow-up in huge numbers. Johnny English Reborn opened at the weekend with &pound;4.96m, which compares with a debut of &pound;3.44m for the original Rowan Atkinson spy caper in 2003. Another comparison: Mr Bean&#039;s Holiday began its run in 2007 with &pound;4.50m plus &pound;1.94m in previews. The Johnny English Reborn opening number is the best for any film since The Inbetweeners Movie arrived in mid-August.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;The runner-up&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;With Johnny English clearly a hit with families, you might think there wouldn&#039;t be much room left in the market for a flick with kiddie appeal, but Disney proved otherwise. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/movie/142474/lion-king-3d&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;The Lion King 3D&lt;/a&gt; earned an impressive &pound;2.75m, suggesting a strong appeal to a generation that had seen the stage musical but perhaps not the film, and certainly not in cinemas. The number compares highly favourably with the 3D version of Toy Story, which opened with &pound;1.40m in October 2009, and even more so with Toy Story 2, which began its 3D re-release in January 2010 with a relatively lacklustre &pound;909,000. When you consider that audiences were exhibiting more excitement over the novelty of 3D two years ago, the success of The Lion King is all the more remarkable. And if Disney can achieve similar paydays with 3D conversion of all its cherished old-school animations, that will be a rich revenue stream for many years to come.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;The rock&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Weather played a factor, but nevertheless credit is due to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/movie/142611/tinker-tailor-soldier-spy&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy&lt;/a&gt; for a stonking hold on its fourth weekend of play, up from &pound;1.065m to &pound;1.067m. The third weekend had, of course, been hit by the gloriously sunny skies, dropping 49% from the previous frame, so we are now witnessing a degree of bounce back. Still, to achieve four straight weekends at &pound;1m plus is impressive: it&#039;s a feat not achieved by many of the summer&#039;s big hits, including Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Thor, X-Men: First Class and Captain America.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;The arthouse battle&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;With &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/movie/141834/midnight-in-paris&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Midnight in Paris&lt;/a&gt;, Woody Allen has already achieved his biggest US box-office hit ($55m) as well as his only $100m-plus global success. And the film&#039;s &pound;496,000 UK debut at 153 screens certainly compares well with his last effort, You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger (opening of &pound;112,000 from 101 venues). However, it&#039;s not the biggest ever weekend number for a Woody picture. Vicky Cristina Barcelona debuted in February 2009 on just 34 screens, but expanded to 175 cinemas on its second weekend, grossing &pound;577,000. Vicky went on to cume a total of &pound;2.66m in the UK, a number that looks a highly achievable target for the new film &ndash; as long as audience word is positive.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Midnight in Paris&#039;s main competitors were holdover titles such as &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/movie/142036/drive&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Drive&lt;/a&gt; (down a slim 17%), &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/movie/139003/debt&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;The Debt&lt;/a&gt; (sliding 34%) and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/movie/141827/melancholia&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Melancholia&lt;/a&gt; (off by 36%). Landing in 20th place is Paddy Considine&#039;s critically lauded &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/movie/142849/tyrannosaur&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Tyrannosaur&lt;/a&gt;, with a soft &pound;70,000 from 37 screens, which rises to a healthier &pound;82,000 including previews. Segments of even the most discerning arthouse audience will resist a tough drama featuring domestic abuse. Owen Wilson meeting literary and artistic heroes in a prettily photographed Paris was always going to be an easier sell.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The last weekend before the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/london-film-festival-2011&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;London film festival&lt;/a&gt; is, in principle, a good date for an arthouse picture, since so many titles are holding off until after their festival premiere to release, creating a vacuum effect. Last year, The Social Network didn&#039;t play the festival, and instead opened in cinemas on day three of the event, facing minimal competition for upscale audiences. In 2008, Gomorrah did well, debuting the Friday before the festival, while I&#039;ve Loved You So Long opened late September and then gradually expanded during the festival&#039;s run. In 2007, Control performed nicely in the early October slot.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;The expat phenomenon&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Ignored by, and probably invisible to, most regular media channels, $9m-budget 3D historical actioner Battle of Warsaw 1920 was targeted directly at the Polish community in the UK, grossing a healthy &pound;88,000 from 21 Cineworld screens, for a site average (&pound;4,176) that was bettered only by Johnny English Reborn and The Lion King 3D, which both benefited from some multiple-screen occupancy at plexes. The Jerzy Hoffman-directed title does not appear on the Film Distributors&#039; Association&#039;s website as a 7 October release, was not screened to UK newspaper critics at the weekly national press shows, and was consequently not reviewed.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;The future&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Thanks to the success of the two new big family hits, UK box office is an impressive 99% up on the previous, unseasonally sunny, weekend, and also 62% up on the equivalent frame from 2010, when new releases Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, Life As We Know It and The Death and Life of Charlie St Cloud nabbed the top three spots in the chart. Several new commercial-seeming offerings arrive this week, although it&#039;s far from certain any will deliver a knockout punch. Disney has current US box-office champ &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/movie/143302/real-steel&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Real Steel&lt;/a&gt;, featuring Hugh Jackman, a cute kid and boxing robots. Warners has Dolphin Tale, a US chart-topper in September. Paramount has a remake of Footloose, targeting tweens and teens. And the real unknown quantity is &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/movie/143595/three-musketeers&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;The Three Musketeers&lt;/a&gt;, made to a Hollywood scale but independently financed, from director Paul WS Anderson (Resident Evil). With a strongly British cast and sensibility, the UK should be a solid territory for the swashbuckler.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;Top 10 films&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1. &lt;/strong&gt;Johnny English Reborn, &pound;4,965,000 from 524 sites (New)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2.&lt;/strong&gt; The Lion King 3D, &pound;2,746,763 from 414 sites (New)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;3. &lt;/strong&gt;Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, &pound;1,066,742 from 468 sites. Total: &pound;11,100,553&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;4. &lt;/strong&gt;Abduction, &pound;512,630 from 374 sites. Total: &pound;1,815,910&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;5. &lt;/strong&gt;Don&#039;t Be Afraid of the Dark, &pound;495,734 from 229 sites (New)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;6.&lt;/strong&gt; Midnight in Paris, &pound;495,709 from 153 sites (New)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;7. &lt;/strong&gt;Crazy Stupid Love, &pound;367,723 from 282 sites. Total: &pound;2,785,635&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;8.&lt;/strong&gt; Drive, &pound;304,163 from 159 sites. Total: &pound;2,026,387&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;9.&lt;/strong&gt; The Inbetweeners Movie, &pound;285,264 from 265 sites. Total: &pound;44,590,312&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;10.&lt;/strong&gt; The Debt, &pound;278,060 from 320 sites. Total: &pound;1,106,536&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;Other openers&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Rascals, &pound;108,681 from 48 screens (+ &pound;9,298 previews)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Battle of Warsaw 1920, &pound;87,688 from 21 screens&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Tyrannosaur, &pound;69,739 from 37 screens (+ &pound;12,051 previews)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Perfect Sense, &pound;21,675 from 60 screens&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Yaar Annmulle, &pound;9,126 from 8 screens&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Vedi, &pound;5,401 from 6 screens&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/movie/143470&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Four Days Inside Guant&aacute;namo&lt;/a&gt;, &pound;196 from 1 screen&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;7 Lives, 6 screens, no figures available&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;related&quot; style=&quot;float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/comedy&quot;&gt;Comedy&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/animation&quot;&gt;Animation&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/film-industry&quot;&gt;Film industry&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;author&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/charles-gant&quot;&gt;Charles Gant&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;terms&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk&quot;&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our &lt;a href=&quot;http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html&quot;&gt;Terms &amp; Conditions&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds&quot;&gt;More Feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;', '2011-10-15T22:46:36+02:00', 'Film', 'families mind gap johnny english lion king reborn ');
INSERT INTO `items1` VALUES (1929, 'Islamist protesters attack Tunisian TV station over animated film Persepolis', 'http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/oct/10/islamist-protesters-attack-tunisian-persepolis', '&lt;div class=&quot;track&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.22.2/12785?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=Islamist+protesters+attack+Tunisian+TV+station+over+animated+film+Persep%3AArticle%3A1645521&amp;ch=Film&amp;c3=GU.co.uk&amp;c4=Animation+%28Film+genre%29%2CFilm%2CMarjane+Satrapi+%28author%29%2CCulture%2CTunisia+%28News%29%2CIslam+%28News%29%2CIranian+revolution+%28News%29&amp;c5=Unclassified%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CFilm+Reviews&amp;c6=Ben+Child&amp;c7=11-Oct-14&amp;c8=1645521&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=News&amp;c11=Film&amp;c13=&amp;c25=&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FFilm%2FAnimation&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;standfirst&quot;&gt;Islamists try to set fire to TV station that broadcast Marjane Satrapi&#039;s Oscar-nominated story about a girl growing up during the Iranian revolution&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Islamist protesters in Tunisia have been arrested &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-15233442&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;after trying to set fire to a TV station which screened the award-winning animated film Persepolis&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Based on writer and co-director Marjane Satrapi&#039;s autobiographical graphic novel, the Oscar-nominated animated tale follows a young girl as she comes of age against the backdrop of the Iranian revolution. Protesters said the film denigrated Islam and were particularly outraged by a scene in which God appears before Satrapi to teach her about forgiveness.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Police arrested around 50 Islamists before they could reach the offices of the Nessma private television channel, which broadcast Persepolis on Friday. &quot;Three hundred people attacked our offices and tried to set fire to them,&quot; Nessma chairman Nebil Karoui told AFP.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Conservative Muslims have become increasingly vocal in Tunisia since the fall of long-time president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali following an uprising in January. However, the main Islamic party condemned the demonstration. Ennahda, which is expected to do well in elections for a constitutional assembly in a fortnight&#039;s time, described the incident as &quot;isolated&quot; and said it should not spark concern.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Elsewhere in the capital city of Tunis, hundreds of riot police used tear gas against Islamist protesters demanding the lifting of a ban on women wearing the niqab at university. They gathered outside the city&#039;s main university campus before heading to a neighbourhood named Jebel el-Ahmar, north of the city centre, where clashes broke out. Protesters attacked police with stones, knives and batons.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;related&quot; style=&quot;float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/animation&quot;&gt;Animation&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/marjane-satrapi&quot;&gt;Marjane Satrapi&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/tunisia&quot;&gt;Tunisia&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/islam&quot;&gt;Islam&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/iranian-revolution&quot;&gt;The Iranian revolution&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;author&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/benchild&quot;&gt;Ben Child&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;terms&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk&quot;&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our &lt;a href=&quot;http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html&quot;&gt;Terms &amp; Conditions&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds&quot;&gt;More Feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;', '2011-10-15T22:46:37+02:00', 'Animation', 'islamist protesters attack tunisian tv station animated film persepolis the iranian class=author>');
INSERT INTO `items1` VALUES (1930, 'The Lion King 3D &ndash; review', 'http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/oct/09/the-lion-king-3d-review', '&lt;div class=&quot;track&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.22.2/75604?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=The+Lion+King+3D+*+review%3AArticle%3A1643866&amp;ch=Film&amp;c3=Obs&amp;c4=Walt+Disney+Company%2CAnimation+%28Film+genre%29%2CFamily+%28Film+genre%29%2CJames+Earl+Jones%2CFilm%2CCulture&amp;c5=Unclassified%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CBusiness+Markets%2CFilm+Reviews&amp;c6=Philip+French&amp;c7=11-Oct-09&amp;c8=1643866&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=Review&amp;c11=Film&amp;c13=&amp;c25=&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FFilm%2FWalt+Disney+Company&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;First released in 1994, Disney&#039;s &lt;em&gt;The Lion King&lt;/em&gt; proved as popular on stage as it had been in the cinema and it now returns to the big screen in 3D, which adds little except for making the original graphic work darker and less precise. It&#039;s essentially &lt;em&gt;Bambi&lt;/em&gt; with rock music, shifted from the forests of America to the veldt where a lion rules rather than a stag.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;There are touches of &lt;em&gt;Hamlet&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Macbeth&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;The Golden Bough&lt;/em&gt; in the plot, which concerns a usurping uncle, a prince reluctant to take over a throne and the great circle of life. The setting is an Africa untouched by humans of any race or colour and there are only two characters voiced by British actors. Jeremy Irons is excellent as the suavely villainous lion Scar, who comes over as a representative of old-style European imperialism. Rowan Atkinson is amusing as Zazu, the obsequious secretary bird serving Mufasa (James Earl Jones), the Lion King, then his son, Simba (Matthew Broderick). It&#039;s an attractive film but altogether less interesting and more conventional than the Pixar productions that now dominate Disney&#039;s animated output.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;related&quot; style=&quot;float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/walt-disney-company&quot;&gt;Walt Disney Company&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/animation&quot;&gt;Animation&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/family&quot;&gt;Family&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/james-earl-jones&quot;&gt;James Earl Jones&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;author&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/philipfrench&quot;&gt;Philip French&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;terms&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk&quot;&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our &lt;a href=&quot;http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html&quot;&gt;Terms &amp; Conditions&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds&quot;&gt;More Feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;', '2011-10-15T22:46:38+02:00', 'Walt Disney Company', 'lion king 3d – review first released 1994 disneys the lion king proved popular stage cinema returns big screen 3d adds little making original graphic work darker precise essentially bambi rock music shifted forests america veldt lion rules stagthere touches hamlet macbeth the golden bough plot concerns usurping uncle prince reluctant throne great circle life setting africa untouched humans race colour characters voiced british actors jeremy excellent suavely villainous lion scar comes representative old style european imperialism rowan atkinson amusing zazu obsequious secretary bird serving mufasa james earl jones lion king simba matthew broderick attractive film altogether interesting conventional pixar productions dominate disneys animated outputwalt disney earl jones>james earl class=author>');
INSERT INTO `items1` VALUES (1931, 'The adventures of Tintin &ndash; and CGI', 'http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2011/oct/07/tintin-cgi-spielberg-jackson', '&lt;div class=&quot;track&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.22.2/9021?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=The+adventures+of+Tintin+*+and+CGI%3AArticle%3A1644407&amp;ch=Film&amp;c3=GU.co.uk&amp;c4=Tintin++%28Culture%29%2CSteven+Spielberg+%28Film%29%2CPeter+Jackson+%28Film%29%2CAnimation+%28Film+genre%29%2CScience+fiction+and+fantasy+%28Film+genre%29%2CFilm%2CComics+and+graphic+novels+%28Books+genre%29%2CBooks%2CCulture&amp;c5=Unclassified%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CFilm+Reviews&amp;c6=Ben+Child&amp;c7=11-Oct-07&amp;c8=1644407&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=Blogpost&amp;c11=Film&amp;c13=Week+in+geek+%28Film+series%29&amp;c25=Film+blog&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FFilm%2FTintin&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;standfirst&quot;&gt;If Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson pull it off, this animated marvel could change the face of comic-book movies for good&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I&#039;m desperately hoping that Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson&#039;s great Tintin adventure turns out to be a success. It&#039;s not just because the movie &ndash; for which the latest trailer has just hit the web &ndash; apparently offers an opportunity for the director to make nice with those of us who hated the anodyne &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0367882/&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls&lt;/a&gt;. And it&#039;s not only because I&#039;d love to see the rest of Herg&eacute;&#039;s wonderfully imaginative series of stories on the big screen. It&#039;s because if Jackson and Spielberg can truly bring the comic books to life via the use of innovative Avatar-style motion capture, and if the movie is a hit at the box office, it&#039;s going to completely transform the way fantasy films (and I use the term in the wider sense) are considered by studios from now on.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But first to the new trailer for &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0983193/&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;The Adventures of Tintin: the Secret of the Unicorn&lt;/a&gt;. This time we get our first proper look at the Unicorn itself, as well as an extended glimpse of a north African city where Tintin and Captain Haddock travel in their search for the famous ship. Intriguingly, Spielberg has already &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hollywood.com/news/Adventures_of_Tintin_UK_Trailer_Violence_in_Animated_Movies_Debate/7846799&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;come in for criticism for portraying gun battles&lt;/a&gt; in what some see as a children&#039;s film. Haddock even fires a bazooka &ndash; but we&#039;re hardly talking &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.imdb.com/news/ni3723293/&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;The Expendables levels of violence&lt;/a&gt;. Besides, I can&#039;t imagine not allowing a child to watch an Indiana Jones film (the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.greatestmoviedeaths.com/2007/12/temple-of-doom-movie-scene-that-created.html&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;heart extraction bit in Temple of Doom&lt;/a&gt; aside), and anyway, surely Spielberg includes a protective layer in his film to keep kids from getting too upset, or deciding to join the National Rifle Association.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;So why is Tintin so important?  I&#039;ve written before on this blog about how comic book films&#039; natural form really ought to be CGI-based animation. Ditto (to a lesser extent) science-fiction and swords-and-sorcery fantasy movies. All require the sort of suspension of disbelief which comes naturally for animation. It&#039;s possible to render these genres via live action, but this requires a far greater effort on the part of the film-maker to balance realism and fantasy.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;With comic-book adaptations in particular, dialogue that appears charmingly brazen on the printed page can become hokey on the big screen, especially when mouthed by an actor whose face we probably know more intricately than those of most of our own friends. It&#039;s why Superman is always played by a virtual unknown. If he&#039;d been portrayed by Nicolas Cage, as was once posited, no one would have been able to suspend disbelief. But put Nicolas Cage in a motion capture studio and the world might easily believe him as the Man of Steel in an animated take. Animation may just offer us a half-way house: we get to enjoy great actors without having to ignore the fact that they are real people. It&#039;s a brand new tool, one which dramatically obviates the requirement for us to use our imagination to mentally touch up a given moving image.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;If Tintin works, then we might just see a new sub-genre of film emerge in which great comic-book movies maintain the style of the original artwork while adding cinematic verve. Imagine &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0409459/&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Watchmen&lt;/a&gt;, Judge Dredd or &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109506/&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;The Crow&lt;/a&gt; shot using the same techniques, perhaps with the original comic-book artists on board to ensure their vision translated to film. It&#039;s a tantalising prospect, and one whose future right now seems to depend on the fortunes of a young Belgian reporter and his trusty pooch.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;related&quot; style=&quot;float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/tintin&quot;&gt;Tintin&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/stevenspielberg&quot;&gt;Steven Spielberg&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/peterjackson&quot;&gt;Peter Jackson&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/animation&quot;&gt;Animation&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/sciencefictionandfantasy&quot;&gt;Science fiction and fantasy&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/comics&quot;&gt;Comics and graphic novels&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;author&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/benchild&quot;&gt;Ben Child&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;terms&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk&quot;&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our &lt;a href=&quot;http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html&quot;&gt;Terms &amp; Conditions&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds&quot;&gt;More Feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;', '2011-10-15T22:46:38+02:00', 'Tintin', 'adventures tintin – cgi if steven spielberg peter jackson pull animated marvel change face comic book movies goodim desperately hoping steven spielberg peter jacksons great tintin adventure turns success just movie – latest trailer just hit web – apparently offers opportunity director make nice hated anodyne indiana jones kingdom crystal skulls id love rest herges wonderfully imaginative series stories big screen jackson spielberg truly bring comic books life use innovative avatar style motion capture movie hit box office going completely transform way fantasy films i use term wider sense considered studios onbut new trailer the adventures tintin secret unicorn time proper look unicorn extended glimpse north african city tintin captain haddock travel search famous ship intriguingly spielberg come criticism portraying gun battles childrens film haddock fires bazooka – hardly talking the expendables levels violence i imagine allowing child watch indiana jones film heart extraction bit temple doom aside surely spielberg includes protective layer film kids getting upset deciding join national rifle tintin ive written blog comic book films natural form really ought cgi based animation ditto lesser extent science fiction swords sorcery fantasy movies require sort suspension disbelief comes naturally animation possible render genres live action requires far greater effort film maker balance realism comic book adaptations particular dialogue appears charmingly brazen printed page hokey big screen especially mouthed actor face probably know intricately friends superman played virtual unknown hed portrayed nicolas cage posited able suspend disbelief nicolas cage motion capture studio world easily believe steel animated animation just offer half way house enjoy great actors having ignore fact real people brand new tool dramatically obviates requirement use imagination mentally touch given moving tintin works just new sub genre film emerge great comic book movies maintain style original artwork adding cinematic verve imagine watchmen judge dredd the crow shot using techniques original comic book artists board ensure vision translated film tantalising prospect future right depend fortunes young belgian reporter trusty pooch');
