Why should I care? 4 Style / TechnologyIf you mostly listen to your THE NEAT HOME SOLUTION £1,300music on your phone while in Quad Vena + Quad S1transit, using a standard pair Compact Speakers quad-hifi.co.ukof headphones, you probablywon’t tell the difference. Integrated amp with built-in USB Where do I startBut there’s a growing number and streaming via Bluetooth —of audiophiles, disgruntled a tidy solution for hi-res audio. If you’re consideringmusicians and regular The premium sapele mahogany making the jump intoconsumers who have started finish option complements the a high-resolution musicdemanding more. Another compact speakers in rosewood. player (and there’s plenty offactor is one-upmanship: good kit out there now), theit’s a rare point of difference. £700 + £600 (S1 launching in June) catch is you’re going to needThere are different types a great set of headphones,of hi-res “lossless” digital files, £4,500 or you’re wasting your time.the most common being FLAC The better the phones, the(Free Lossless Audio Codec), krellonline.com more detail and resolutionALAC (Apple Lossless Audio you’ll be able to pick up. SoCodec), WAV, AIFF and DSD. invest in the headphonesLast year, companies like LG, first, then work out whichSony and FiiO all launched music player suits you, andhigh-resolution music players, which one you can afford.while sites like Deezer Elite,HDtracks and Tidal offerdownloads in CD or betterquality. If you pay for SpotifyPremium, you get what-they-call HD — better than thestandard but not quite hi-res.Deezer Elite though usesFLACs at the same bitrate asCD quality — and five timesthe bitrate of Spotify Premium.(Yes, it gets geeky, quickly.) 3 THE HIGH-END OPTION Krell Vanguard US-based Krell are arguably the word’s finest makers of high-end amplification. This amp can be specified with an optional digital board, which adds all manner of digital inputs including USB, HDMI and Ethernet. Supports Bluetooth streaming, while the amp delivers 200W per channel. £4,500 (optional digital board is £1,350)Words by Johnny Davis Photographs by Agata Pec 51
Style / Food THE RELUCTANT COOK Picture perfect salad Russell Norman’s caprese requires superior tomatoes (but no flash)Ï You know how it is. You’re in Above: Russell There are now officially more food I think the first question is simple. Norman drizzles bloggers in the UK than there are It is always bad manners to interrupta restaurant, enjoying yourself with olive oil to finish men with beards, and it seems or disturb other diners and if yourfriends, family or loved ones, the his Italian salad compulsory for anyone under 40 to photography is in any way obtrusive,food is great, the wine is flowing, the have an Instagram or Twitter account then you have failed. The secondjoint is jumping, and the conversation peppered with photographs of food. question is much more interesting.is scintillating. Then someone But what is the etiquette for Why do we do it? Often people areat the next table gets a camera out photographing food in restaurants? so thrilled by the look of a dish,(invariably an enormous hi-tech Why do so many people do it? Is it or so chuffed to be dining in a hotSLR with a long lens and a flash) and ever acceptable to use a flash? And new restaurant, that they wantbefore you know it, there’s a full-blown should we be sharing our lunch with to say, “Hey, look at me! Here’s whatphoto session going on as each new the rest of the world on social media? I’m about to eat and this is wheredish is placed on the table.52
I’m about to eat it.” Often it really is for 2 Style / Food that ubiquitous food blog (everyone’s a blogger these days). Sometimes (and 1 this is when I occasionally, discreetly and subtly take photographs myself in 3 restaurants), it is for personal reference and cataloguing. The restaurant nerd Insalata caprese in me likes to be reminded of the dishes I’ve eaten and what they looked like. Serves 4 I’m not exaggerating when I say I could It is never, ever acceptable to use eat this dish every other day throughout a flash, by the way. the summer. In fact, I often do. Please make sure the ingredients are at Should we be posting snaps of room temperature before you start; our tea on Twitter? Probably not. the fridge inhibits flavour. Don’t forget Generally speaking, no one else is to photograph your finished efforts really interested in seeing photographs and post on Twitter. If you hashtag of your food. (Be honest: are you ever #TheReluctantCook, I’ll be watching... that interested in looking at pictures 4 of theirs?) And the real problem is that • 20 ripe tomatoes, San Marzano unless it is beautifully stage-managed, expertly lit and cleverly shot, and other expensive varieties amateur food photography is rubbish. • Flaky sea salt A dish has to be a real looker to stand • 4 x 125g balls buffalo mozzarella out. Brown food always looks terrible, • 20 basil leaves • Extra virgin olive oil“It is never ever • Focaccia to serveacceptable to use a Method 1 Cut the tomatoes into halves or bite-flash when taking sized chunks and place into a mixing bowl. Crunch a few generous pinches of sea saltfood photographs onto the cut sides of the tomatoes and leave to stand for five minutes.in restaurants” 2 Cut or tear the mozzarella balls into sixths and add them to the bowl. meat just looks dead, and anything 3 Tear the basil leaves roughly and covered in sauce looks disgusting. scatter over the tomatoes and cheese. 4 Add a few glugs of olive oil and, But there are some exceptions, using your hands, carefully turn all the and if you really must photograph ingredients over a few times until fully food, choose the simplest dishes coated. Distribute equally into four large with the brightest colours and bowls and serve with a chilled white wine loveliest shapes. The recipe that (Soave or Gavi di Gavi will do nicely) and follows is as pretty as a picture and a few thick slices of focaccia. The bread really is incredibly easy to prepare. is essential for mopping up the juices It is a beautiful summer salad from from the bowl when you have finished. the Italian island of Capri and requires excellent ripe tomatoes. 53 Do not skimp on cheap ones. They are simply not the same. Additionally, resist the temptation to slice the ingredients and layer them neatly. This is a common arrangement in mediocre Italian restaurants and it looks awful. You need this salad to be fully incorporated and to appear as though it has been lovingly thrown together in a rural kitchen by a southern Italian grandmother with sun-baked skin, twinkly eyes — and a moustache. Russell Norman runs a number of restaurants in London. Visit russellnorman.co; @RussellNorman_ Photographs by Scott Grummett
Style / Fashion Clothes they Taron Egerton can’t live without Actor Eight of Britain’s most stylish men “I can always rely on my trusty blue reveal their wardrobe favourites denim jacket. It’s not the smartest piece I own, but whenever I wear Oliver Cheshire it, I feel like me. You can dress it up or down, and having had it for Model a few years, I can safely say that “With life being so fast-paced, there is one it has never gone out of style.” wardrobe staple I always rely on: a versatile – pair of white trainers. You can wear them on Indigo denim jacket, £595, and off duty — with jeans, chinos or a well-fitted by Burberry Prorsum suit. A clean pair of Stan Smiths works best.” – White leather Stan Smith trainers, £65, by Adidas Andrew Scott Actor “I have a vintage black leather jacket that I bought in Barcelona about ten years ago. I love old leather. It’s going a bit green and the pockets are completely torn but it means I can fit sandwiches in there. Big heavy sandwiches that I don’t have to carry anymore.” – Black leather jacket, £1,100, by John Varvatos54
Style / Fashion Dougl ooth Jason Basmajian Actor Creative director, Gieves & Hawkes “Black, slim-fit jeans form the basis of pretty much 80 per cent of my “The iconic navy blazer is a standby favourite outfits. I wear them all year round, and one of the most versatile pieces in and they can be casual or formal. a man’s wardrobe. You can take it everywhere Sometimes I forego suit trousers — cashmere for winter, lightweight wool or for black jeans with smart shoes linen for summer — and I love to wear mine in the evening. I find them more with a crew neck sweater and dark jeans.” elegant than blue jeans.” – Navy wool-linen blazer, £595, by Gieves & Hawkes –Hearst Studios I See Stockists page for details Black denim slim-cut jeans, £390, by Dior Homme T eo Hutchcraft Singer “If you find a good white shirt, treasure it! No matter how knackere I am, the second I put one on I feel like a prince. It can make a poor man feel rich and a shy man feel untouchable. It’s carried me through more hangovers than aspirin.” – White cotton-poplin shirt, £60, by Ben Sherman. Silver cufflinks, £140, by Alice Made This Massimo avid Gandy Nicosia Model Head of design, “I know what works for me in terms of fit, Pringle of Scotland colour and style. I don’t follow trends, in many ways I try to be different and individual. “I tr vel a lot, and a fine gauge The most important accessory is shoes, weater is something you can wear and Chelsea boots are my favourite. They’re the most versatile thing in my wardrobe.” when going from a cold climate to a hot one, London to Hong Kong, – for example. Then a white T-shirt Black suede Chelsea boots, £475, by David Preston and a blazer — nothing too formal. I always like things that are easy to 55 pack and can be dry-cleaned easy.” – Green merino wool-blend jumper, £650, by Pringle of Scotland Illustrations by Mark Oliver
Style / Fitness e 30 seconds of bed jumps Plank for (off the floor onto the bed, 30 seconds Resort If y e travelling and landing with soft knees) sports to uild up a sweat 30 seconds Mixed martial of press-ups, Esquire’s own PT, Harry he comfort of your arts pillow feet on a chair Jameson, reveals how to hotel room, I suggest the punches stay in shape on holiday following five-exercise (kneel with two bodyweight warrior circuit. stacked pillows Ï Finally. That week off you’ve Warm up by jogging on at either side the spot and throwing and rain down been looking forward to since punches for 30 seconds punches for 2 January is so close you can almost two times, and try to do 30 seconds) taste the poolside cocktails, can’t each exercise five times. you? Careful though, those boozy afternoons will take their toll, and you’ll come back carrying more timber than when you left. The answer? Avoid a post-holiday gym binge with a little light exercise while you’re there. For more fitness tips, tweet Harry @harryjamesonpt 30 seconds of tricep dips, hands on a chair Swim gloves Sandbells On the beach Running on sand is much more intensive in terms of energy required (and therefore calories burnt) than road running (300–400 per 30 minutes of activity), meaning it’s great for saving time. Be careful though: it can cause shin splints in those that aren’t used to it, so if you start to feel discomfort, stop. You don’t want to ruin your trip. TRX rip trainer kit56 Illustration by Alex Walker
Style / News Watch this (new) space Jaeger-LeCoultre launches a fresh emporium, Lacoste boots up for winter, and Māzŭ Swimwear floats into view 01 Navy and pale blue “junk” Jaeger-LeCoultre print swim shorts, £120 each, by Māzŭ Swimwear New London boutique opensArtist’s impression ofJaeger-LeCoultre’s /new London premises One of the most revered names in fine02 watchmaking, Jaeger-LeCoultre hasLacoste produced many milestone designsNext season’s footwear range since its founding in 1833, including the Reverso, the Duomètre and the/ Master. Now, the Swiss brand hasLacoste’s Autumn/Winter ’15 unveiled its latest creation, a flagshipfootwear collection plays on maison on London’s Old Bond Street.founder René Lacoste’sillustrious career so, naturally, The pre-existing store on the samesimple tennis shoes abound. street will remain, but the new, largerUnsurprisingly, the plain whiteleather take on the style is a key space allows the company to fullyelement of the collection, but display its extensive inventory of fineat the other end of the spectrumare hardwearing work-style timepieces, as well as the mostboots, such as the Montbard exquisite complications and a carefully(bottom right). It might be summerbut it’s always worth keeping next curated selection of iconic historicalseason’s essentials in mind. designs. The new boutique compriseslacoste.com; asos.com a series of art deco-styled salons,58 and houses an atelier for Jaeger- LeCoultre’s master watchmaker to offer clients, connoisseurs and enthusiasts a special insight into its established horological prowess. — Jaeger-LeCoultre boutique, 13 Old Bond Street, London; jaeger-lecoultre.com White leather 03 tennis shoes, £95; Mãzuˇ Swimwear tan/navy leather East meets wet boots, £140, both / by Lacoste Setting itself apart from other premium beachwear brands, Hearst Studios Mazu Swimwear designs are inspired by Hong Kong’s maritime heritage. Its collection is full of simple block colours, with boldly printed “junk” (above) and “bamboo” motifs invoking high summer in the Far East — an interesting departure from palm trees or fish. Each pair of shorts, cut from woven polyamide fabric, features strong double-needle stitching throughout, and the signature red drawstrings are finished with gold-dipped aglets. mazuswimwear.com
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Style / Grooming 02 Fresh ways SPF 15 Facial to freshen up Moisturizer, by Recipe for Men Dry Hair Shampoo, y by Sachajuan r ti i k i - n s it – £27, s 02 01 08 10 Salt Scrub, Sponge Wax, 09 Night Skin Cream, by by L:A Bruket by Hanz de Fuko Dr Jackson’s a rie c i i . l s n mi 8,60 Photograph by Sam Hofman Set design by Zena May Hendrick
YLF Body Wash, Luna for Men, Style / Groomingby Triumph by Foreo& Disaster V76 Clean ” Shave, by i Vaughn n - - i s y t r Cologne . Absolute VSOP, by Tom Daxon– Cog . san unise suita – £105, t 05 04 03 06 Deep Purifying Facial Masque, 07 by Grown Alchemist 61
Style / Travel Holiday like an Italian Grand Duke62
1 01 Style / Travel The restaurant, 2 La Villa, is run by superchef 3 Alain Ducasse 02 The nearby town of Castiglione della Pescaia has stunning views of nearby islands Giglio, Elba and Montecristo 03 The resort features heated indoor and out- door pools, a spa, tennis courts and fitness centreÏ What do you want from your What he didn’t have, at the turn of L’Andana 04 the 19th century, was any of the Rome Sited in thesummer holiday? Sunshine, obvs. aforementioned amenities (spa, picturesqueSybaritic surroundings. Superlative pool, kids club, etc). Neither, for Castiglione Maremmafood. Service that is second to none. that matter, did he have a restaurant della Pescaia landscape, theA swimming pool for the kids, owned and run by the French hotel was builtluxurious spa for the significant superchef Alain Ducasse, winner as a Medici villaother, somewhere to swing a golf club of a remarkable 33 Michelin stars.if the sunbathing gets too taxing. 05 Nearby is the chic seaside village The interior mixes Our favourite upscale Italian Castiglione della Pescaia, built rural style with ahideaway offers all this and more. around a medieval fortress but, more ornamentalL’Andana is a spectacular Tuscan to be honest, you’ll visit it once, max, French designestate, once the summer home of the because once you arrive at L’Andana,Grand Duke of Tuscany, Leopold II there’s really no good reason to leave. 5of Lorraine. Clearly, Leo Two andana.itwas a man of wealth and taste. 4 63
Style / Accessories Flight club Even if you don’t turn left when boarding, these in-transit essentials guarantee a first class journey01 | The blanket 02 | The neck pillow 03 | The headphones 04 | The condiments 05 | The socksIvory wool, £425, by Blue cotton inflatable, BeoPlay H6 Black, £330, Chilli sauce travel Blue cashmere, £40,Loewe; loewe.com £235, by Gucci; gucci.com by Bang & Olufsen; pack, £6, by Tabasco; by Johnstons of Elgin; bang-olufsen.com tabasco.com johnstonscashmere.com06 | The travel walletTan leather portfolio, 07 | The moisturizer 08 | The pyjamas 09 | The eye mask£750, by Loewe; Replenishing cream, Navy cotton, £190, Black nylon, £190,loewe.com £70, by Dr Sebagh; by Derek Rose; by Gucci; gucci.com drsebagh.com derek-rose.comPhotograph by Dan McAlister 65
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Edited by MIRANDA COLLINGE Culture FILM / MUSIC / BOOKS / TELEVISION / ART Vague ambitionsA NEW EXHIBITION SALUTES THE PHOTOGRAPHER WHO CHRONICLED THE FRENCH NEW WAVEShip shape: DorothéeBlanck in Lola (1961),photographed byRaymond Cauchetier 71
Culture In focus: filming Jean-Luc Godard’s A Bout de Souffle, 1960 (below right); Jacques Rozier’s Adieu Philippine, 1962 (bottom); and director François Truffaut, 1962, (bottom left)Ï Raymond Cauchetier was a strugglingphotojournalist in France when hehad a chance encounter with Jean-LucGodard, at the time a film critic. Godardwas making his debut film, À Bout deSouffle (1960), with Jean-Paul Belmondoand Jean Seberg, so he hired Cauchetierto be the on-set photographer. Talkabout catching a break — though itdidn’t seem it to Cauchetier at the time. “Nobody thought the film wouldbe a success,” the now 95-year-old tellsEsquire. That wasn’t quite how thingsplayed out, and À Bout de Souffle becamethe touchstone movie of the “NouvelleVague” of French cinema, withCauchetier documenting the movementand its proponents, including Godardand François Truffaut. An exhibition of Cauchetier’simages opens in June, including someunearthed in production archives.“My photos remained unpublished formore than 30 years, lost in dusty boxes,”Cauchetier says. “It was only in 1992they were resurrected and I beganto ‘exist’.” It is existence in all itsrebellious, ground-breaking, free-spirited glory that his pictures reflect.—Raymond Cauchetier’s New Wave runsfrom 17 June to 14 August at JamesHyman Gallery, London, jameshymangallery.com. A new book, RaymondCauchetier’s New Wave (Acc Editions),will be published alongside the exhibition 72
Culture Whizz kid: South London’s finest Jamie xx hits the decks at the Coachella festival in California, 2015Vague ambitions photographs copyright of Raymond Cauchetier, courtesy of James Hyman Gallery | The xx factor words by Johnny Davis | Getty The xx factor JAMIE XX’S NEW ALBUM DELIVERS ON HIS PLENTIFUL PROMISE There’s a playlist on Spotify called “jamie xx when he saw his uncle spinning discs in two tracks respectively, the latter adding made this music cool”. It’s full of artists like a New York bar, he’s lately become something suitably disconnected yearning to “Seesaw” Nicolas Jaar, Caribou and Fantastic Mr Fox, of a spokesperson for club culture: bemoaning (“I’m like a seesaw/Up and down with you”) who produce slow-burning, deeply thought- the demise of London institution Plastic and dance-till-dawn euphoria to “Loud out electronica that’s too slow to really People, and decrying how overdevelopment Places”. At its best — the propulsive, melodic dance to, but has too much going on to be is killing the capital’s nightlife. “Obvs” and trippy, dubby “Hold Tight” chill-out. An unkind person might quibble — this is instrumental music at its most with the playlist’s title in a couple of cases: It all informs his debut solo album, transportive, invoking driving through Jamie xx was eight when the Come To Daddy which follows his acclaimed remix album deserted cities late at night. EP came out, and last time we checked, with Gil Scott Heron, We’re New Here, in Aphex Twin didn’t need much help with his 2011. In Colour is indisputably a Jamie xx Electronic albums can outstay their credibility. But it serves as a neat illustration work — clear from the opening chattering welcomes, as though the supposedly that right now there’s no bigger poster boy drum loop of “Gosh” — with new breadth futuristic form of the music is a license to for leftfield electronica than Jamie xx. and depth from instruments including go wibbling off into infinity. But, The xx pop steel drums, glockenspiel and gospel sensibility intact, In Colour’s author gets his Known to the Mercury Music Prize panel vocals (perhaps that’s the title’s meaning). 11 tracks to come in under 45 minutes. When as one-third of indie pop’s The xx, Jamie xx It’s full of nuanced beauty. they’re finished you want to go straight back has a successful parallel career as a producer to the start. and remixer for Drake and Radiohead, while As with The xx, it’s about the space — Jay Z and Beyoncé have attended his gigs. around the sounds, as much as the sounds Apparently fascinated by DJing since a boy themselves. Bandmates Oliver Sim and In Colour by Jamie xx is out on 1 June Romy Madley-Croft add vocals to one and (Young Turks) 73
Bonza burgers (clockwise, Culture from top left): Australia’s deluxe Huxtaburger; 74 grilled ham and pineapple; pulled pork and pickles; bacon and egg The master builder MEET THE AUSSIE CHEF WHO’S GOING TO BEEF UP YOUR BURGERDaniel Wilson likes his hamburgers high.Not add-a-bacon-rasher-and-a-slice-of-square-cheese high, but vertiginous,gravity-defying, and near impossibleto eat. In fact, the New Zealand-bornchef and co-owner of the Huxtaburgerrestaurant chain in Melbourne,Australia, has thoughts on all kindsof burger-related matters, from the beef(Wagyu) to the chips (crinkle-cut) to thebutter to brush on the bun (clarified), whichhe expounds in scientifically precise detailin his cookbook The Huxtaburger Book,published this month. “A burger must be the sum of all of theparts and not just a rissole in a loaf ofbread,” Wilson tells Esquire. “Think of itlike a movie, it cannot survive on one actoralone.” (We’re guessing he hasn’t seenSam Rockwell’s excellent turn in 2009’sMoon, but we’ll let it slide.) The burgersin Wilson’s recipe collection, which havea Cosby Show theme — perhaps a little morenewsworthy than intended — include theTheo (double cheeseburger with bacon),the Vanessa (bacon and egg) and the Clair(fried chicken thighs). For us, though, it’s got to be the Cliff,named for the paterfamilias, stackedwith 440g of Wagyu beef, cheddar, streakybacon, beetroot, salad, pickles and anegg. And has Wilson got any tips on how toeat the Cliff with a modicum of elegance?“Turning the burger upside down is a moreergonomic way of doing it,” he advises. Butif all else fails? “Hold tight and open wide.”—The Huxtaburger Book by Daniel Wilson is outon 18 June (Hardie Grant)
Culture Pop idol: Jane Preston’s documentary shows that cult hero Gascoigne is down, but not out Alreet, still A NEW GAZZA DOCUMENTARY BASKS MOSTLY IN HIS GLORY DAYS, FOR ONCE Since he last kicked a football in the Premier ostrich to take to training, or being told off — joy on the football pitch, more than any League back in 2002 (for Everton), the life of by Glen Hoddle, there is a vulnerability that player from these shores before or since. Paul John Gascoigne has become a national is difficult to watch. A childhood tragedy Despite awful injuries, he lit up stadiums soap opera. Fuelled by a tabloid press who in which he saw a friend die in a car accident wherever he played and gave us, as Rooney use the former England star’s battle with and, more recently, the effects of being points out, the most iconic England goal alcoholism to sell copies, we’ve watched his targeted in the phone-hacking scandal, are of all time when he double-volleyed past relapses, run-ins with the police and health mixed in with the hagiography, offering Scotland at Euro ’96. As ever with Gazza, problems through closed fingers, hoping the some insight into a mind we casually file you’re just left hoping the memories make next rehab stint and recovery will last. under “troubled genius”. him as happy as they do the rest of us. — New documentary Gascoigne is, in What emerges most strongly, though, is part, an attempt to focus on the good times a portrait of a man who found — and gave Gascoigne is out on 15 June on DVD, Blu-Ray that went before all that. Directed by Jane Preston (best known for 2011’s Graffiti Wars), it centres on an extended interview with the now 48-year-old himself plus fond memories from Gary Lineker, Wayne Rooney and a twinkly-eyed José Mourinho. Told chronologically through archive footage, we watch Gazza’s rise from a tubby kid kicking a tennis ball around the streets of Newcastle to “the most gifted English player of his generation”, the tears flowing at Italia ’90 and, of course, Gazzamania with its pop singles and Gazza-themed duvet covers. There are poignant moments, too. Even when Gazza’s joking about kidnapping an Monster Zink NELL ZINK IS THE LITERARY TITAN YOU’VE NEVER HEARD OFAlreet, still words by Sam Parker | Getty With most first novels, you can forgive she has an odd pen-friendship involving but the marriage founders and she leaves florid prose or over-indulgent metaphors bird-watching — suspect at first she’s an with their daughter, disguising herself as if you think there’s a kernel of talent. established author using a pseudonym). a black single mother (she’s white) and US writer Nell Zink, whose official debut, taking up a sideline in drug procurement. Mislaid, is published in the UK this month, Mislaid, which is published alongside needs none of your benevolence. Here another novel, The Wallcreeper, that A fiercely original book, effortlessly is a writer seemingly hatched in a state came out in the US last year through readable and clever; the author dandles of readiness, like Athena popping out of a micropress project (after Franzen, acting her characters with the fond detachment Zeus’s skull, whose words are so unfussily as her agent, failed to drum up interest of an Olympic god. Zink is a rare talent. wise, so wryly confident, you can’t believe with a major publisher), is a decidedly Thank goodness we’ve finally noticed. she hasn’t written 50 books before (or like post-nuclear family saga. A gay poetry — novelist Jonathan Franzen — with whom professor at a Virginia college marries Mislaid and The Wallcreeper are out a lesbian student; they have two children, on 18 June (Fourth Estate) 75
CultureCrime pays: True Detectivelast month beat Houseof Cards to win bestinternational show at theBaftas. This new seriesstars Vince Vaughn (left)and Colin Farrell (right) False Detective FIVE THINGS SERIES TWO OF NIC PIZZOLATTO’S SIMMERING DRAMA IS NOT1. A TALE OF A TURBULENT BROMANCE since 2004 chick weepy The Notebook. restrained, emotionally-charged set-ups.In the first series of Emmy-winning HBO Playing a straight-talking Ventura County But he’s not coming back for this onecrime drama True Detective, the tension Sheriff’s detective with gambling and drink — reportedly because the schedule isbetween the two main cops — Matthew problems on the side should help. too gruelling and he’s got movies to make.McConaughey’s repressive drunk Rust The new run will feature multiple directors,Cohle and Woody Harrelson’s seething 3. A SOUTHERN FRIED EPIC but it’ll be interesting to see if Fukunaga’sfamily man Marty Hart — was as much of The new series won’t afford as many blueprint has stuck.a plot-driver as wanting to find out which opportunities for actors to speak theircrazy redneck was putting twig-dollies in lines in an unintelligible drawl (howdy 5. FUNNY BECAUSE VINCE VAUGHN STARStrees. This season has a different dynamic Matt!) or while pretending to work an Aside from McAdams, the stellar castbecause there are now three officers in the imaginary lump of “bacca” round their includes Colin Farrell and Taylor Kitschframe. Oh, and one of them is a girl. gums (hidy Woody!) as the location has as a haggard detective and hotheaded been shifted from Louisiana to Los Angeles. motorcycle cop respectively, alongside2. PEGGY FROM MAD MEN’S NEW SHOW But there might, like, totally be some Vince Vaughn as a criminal andThe casting of said girl, Sheriff Ani other vernacular tics in the mix. entrepreneur with plenty to lose. And theBezzerides, was the topic of speculation for reason they get pulled together? A freakyquite some time, with the choice allegedly 4. DIRECTED BY THE SAME GUY murder, of course. Let the agonisinglycoming down to Rachel McAdams (Sherlock Director Cary Fukunaga might be credited slow-burning second series commence!Holmes) or Elizabeth Moss (Mad Men). In the with much of the atmosphere of the first —end McAdams won out, as she tries to shift series of True Detective, with his penchant True Detective: Series 2 starts on 22 Junethe squeaky clean rep she’s been stuck with for exploring strange landscapes and on Sky Atlantic HD 76
Culture Sight for sore eyes: Optician Adi meets those implicated in the death of his brother, such as Inong (top), and Amir Siahaan (below), a death squad leader and commander respectively Guilt free IN A STARTLING NEW DOCUMENTARY, A BEREAVED BROTHER MEETS THE MASS KILLERS WITH NO REGRETS Joshua Oppenheimer’s 2012 documentary The Act of Killing, about the government- initiated slaughter of one million so-called “communists” in Indonesia in 1965, won a Bafta for its audacious stylistic treatment. The murders were re-enacted by the perpetrators at their own request in the form of a Western, a gangster film and a musical. It was shocking and strange. The second part of the story, The Look of Silence, takes a more conventional, though no less affecting, approach. Oppenheimer follows Adi, an optician, as he meets the men who were, at various levels of responsibility, to blame for the violent murder of his older brother, Ramli. Adi’s quietly confrontational style is all the more admirable and brave in the face of the blunt lack of repentance, even giddy pride, shown by the guilty, many of whom are still in positions of authority. But it’s the neatly symbolic scenes where he tries out different optic lenses on the wizened old murderers, helping them see clearly again, that have the most poignant power. — The Look of Silence is out on 12 June Teenage kicks THE SECRET DIARY OF ROCKIN’ RONNIE WOOD, AGED 17¾Getty Ronald David Wood’s rediscovered like this”). He was also discovering the often, an entry appears that reminds 1965 diary reveals a 17-year-old much blues, the art of keeping women happy you that maybe young Ronnie wasn’t like any other — a teenager living with (19 March: “Kris mad at me! I was only that different from us after all. Such his parents yet dreaming of becoming three hours late”) and life’s perks (11 April: as Thursday, 1 April: “After watching a pop star. Only for Wood, there was “I got sloshed — and spewed muchly”). a very good Top of the Pops (Stones, some serious plotting going on. Yardbirds, Who etc) we played blind But what makes this unique is the man’s buff — it was great fun.” At the time, he was playing guitar cast of people who drift through, such — with r’n’b-rockers The Birds at a series as Pete Townshend, Keith Moon and How Can It Be? A Rock & Roll Diary by of unglamorous locations, but young Eric Clapton, while Wood was keeping Ronnie Wood (Genesis) is available now Ronnie still kept a meticulous record of his beady eye trained on the band he in a deluxe limited edition; a trade gigs (7 May: “Bath Regency. Went as well really wanted to be in: rebel heroes version will be published in September as could be expected for a cruddy hole The Rolling Stones. But then, every so 77
Culture Park life: new director Colin Trevorrow (below, on left) talks to Chris Pratt (researcher Owen Grady) and Bryce Dallas Howard (park manager Claire Dearing); Pratt tries raptor-wrestling (bottom)A walk inthe Park?COLIN TREVORROW, DIRECTOR OF JURASSIC WORLD, HASSOME BIG FOOTPRINTS TO FILLESQUIRE: This is the fourth Jurassic Park something new. But no, you won’t see any ESQ: Is there anything from Michaelfilm. How did you feel taking on — excuse human-dinosaur creations in our film. Crichton’s original book that we haven’tthe dino-pun — such a monster? ESQ: Chris Pratt’s the leading man. Were yet seen that you wanted to explore?COLIN TREVORROW: I didn’t even have time you wary of making him a Sam Neil 2.0? CT: There’s a brief conversation between Drto process any of it. When you’ve got to jump CT: We were very conscious of it. Chris Wu and Jurassic Park CEO John Hammondout of the alien drop-ship and you’re falling, Pratt’s character is a hybrid of [Sam Neil’s] about the idea that these animals can beyou don’t ask why you’re there. That was Dr Alan Grant and [Jeff Goldblum’s] Dr Ian used for more than just a theme park; thingskinda my situation. I was thrown into Malcolm, but he also has his own tone that like medicine, agriculture and potentiallya movie with a release date of the following I think people will become attached to. for war. Those concepts of taking dinosaurssummer and no script three months before ESQ: A lot has been made of Chris Pratt’s and using them as we do other animals thatshooting. Luckily, we had Steven Spielberg relationship with the velociraptors. we share the planet with was fascinating.[as executive producer] who was able to put CT: Steven [Spielberg] had the idea to have I think there’s a lot to explore there.the brakes on it and say, “You know what? a character that has a connection with the ESQ: So Jurassic Park 5 will featureLet’s take another year. This is going to work raptors much like [South African animal dinosaur soldiers?but let’s make sure it works.” behaviourist] Kevin Richardson’s work CT: Well… we’ll see. What’s important to meESQ: What’s new this time round? with lions. The raptors recognise Chris is that we set the table for this franchise to goCT: I had to ask, “Why does Jurassic Park 4 as a pseudo-ally and there’s a very tenuous to new and unexpected places, and not forexist?” and the thing I came up with was that balance between them acknowledging it to feel like a retread. That’s not what anyonewe’ve become desensitised to the scientific him and biting his head off. The raptors’ wants. That’s not what will keep it alive.miracles around us and that we will always alliances are torn between those who need —repeat our mistakes if there is money to be and want them for their own desires.made. This movie wasn’t so much about Jurassic World is out on 12 Juneplaying God as existing in a world wherepeople have already played God and we’reliving with the results.ESQ: There’s a new genetically engineereddinosaur involved, the Indominus Rex.How did she come about?CT: There’s a scene in the first movie whereDr Henry Wu [BD Wong] makes it veryclear that nothing in Jurassic [Park] worldis natural. It’s all designer genetics becauseeverything came from frog and dinosaurDNA. We found some pretty coolbehavioural and physical attributes ofanimals to instill into this dinosaur.ESQ: Early concept art showed dinosaur-human hybrids. We’re guessing they didn’tmake the final draft?CT: That was before I showed up. The scriptevolved over many drafts, full of differentideas from writers who really wanted to do 78
Culture Swipe that grin off your face: comedian Aziz Ansari investigates how modern love works — or doesn’t Love me Tinder COMEDIAN AZIZ ANSARI WRITES A (SEMI) SERIOUS BOOK ABOUT ROMANCE IN THE 21ST-CENTURY You’d like to hope any author researching far as their son can tell). But single people Choice: “How many people do you need to a book of social and anthropological interest now have both the pressure of finding their see before you know you’ve found the best? would go pretty deep with his research. one true soul mate (rather than someone The answer is every damn person there is.” In comedian Aziz Ansari’s case, he went height-compatible), and also the paralysing deeper than anyone could rightfully luxury of overwhelming options. He quotes Ansari and Klinenberg ran focus groups demand: jerking off into a silicone egg Barry Schwartz, author of The Paradox of in the United States and a forum on Reddit as part of a chapter about the love lives of to get people to talk openly about dating Tokyoites. What did he learn? “It felt like today, as well as travelling to Tokyo, Buenos I was masturbating with a thick, cold Aires and, naturally, Paris. Their book condom on. I didn’t understand the appeal.” presents all kinds of fun trivia about how the business of romance is conducted Thanks Aziz, you’ve saved us a lot of (American men who look away from the heartache. But the book, Modern Romance, camera in their profile pictures have a better which he wrote with the assistance of Eric strike rate; in Japan, dating profile portraits Klinenberg, a sociology professor at NYU are seen as gauche — better to upload (which Ansari attended), is actually a more a picture of your pet, or your rice cooker), as serious study of the mechanisms of well as raising some interesting questions contemporary courtship than the about how 21st-century humans form aforementioned experiment might suggest. meaningful connections. If indeed they do. In an age where, according to a survey cited in the book, 80 per cent of millennials will Ansari has pulled it off: a thinky book Google a potential partner before a first that’s funny, too. But could we get through date, and teens send each other photos all of it without hearing the voice of Ansari’s of their own genitals as readily as pictures of misguided lothario in NBC’s Parks and kittens puking into teacups, there’s clearly Recreation, Tom Haverford? Not when he’s some re-evaluating to be done. writing sentences like “I put myself to the test with a thought experiment. Let’s say my Ansari’s own parents had an arranged girlfriend was in Miami for a bachelorette marriage: his father agreed to wed his party, and she ran into r’n’b superstar/actor mother after two previous candidates were Tyrese Gibson...” we couldn’t. deemed too tall and too short respectively. — The future Mrs Ansari, it seemed, was just right (they’re still married, and happily, as Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari with Eric Klinenberg is out on 16 June (Allen Lane)Colin Trevorrow interview by Tom Ward I Getty The theory of Everything Everything CAN AN INDIE-POP RECORD FIX THE STATE WE’RE IN? It was hard not to feel an extra surge a record of indie-pop songs in response. of surreal, oblique references to violence of despair at some of the events the The band’s third album, Get to and disenfranchisement delivered by Higgs world was faced with in 2014: from the in vocals that swoop from falsetto airiness Ebola crisis and mass murders by Boko Heaven, produced by Stuart Price, is as to staccato pop-rap, and Get to Heaven Haram to the US campus killing spree of experimental as we’ve come to expect, will no doubt confuse as many as it deranged virgin Elliot Rodger, there was borrowing from Afropunk, Motown and delights. But at least it’s engagement plenty to be horrified by. And while the even rave (though the track which does so of a sort, with enough good tunes to Western world faces such atrocities with builds to singer Jonathan Higgs delivering have us dancing into all that darkness. a collective weary shrug, British four-piece not the hackneyed “take me to heaven” — Everything Everything has decided to make line, but the decidedly more curious “take Get to Heaven is out on 15 June (RCA) me to the distant past”). The songs are full 79
Culture Film set: Melissa McCarthy plays slicker-than-she-looks spy Susan CooperShape up CAN WE ALL STOP CALLINGMELISSA MCCARTHY A “MASTER OF SLAPSTICK” NOW?In Spy, the new comedy from Bridesmaids McCarthy is praised for her “physicaldirector Paul Feig, the American comic comedy skills” but the funniest bits don’tactress Melissa McCarthy finally gets a role come from her body — but her mouthin which she’s front and centre, in a filmabout a woman who is anything but. She lauded for her “mastery of slapstick” and slender actress Rose Byrne even though sheplays Susan Cooper, a frumpy desk analyst her “physical comedy skills”. spends a good deal of the film staggering,for the CIA whose job is to feed surveillance to humorous effect, under the weight ofinfo to the glamorous agents out in the field, Certainly Spy has action gags, such as Rayna’s ridiculously voluminous hair.)including the spook of her dreams, Bradley a knockabout chase sequence on a scooter,Fine, played with a wink by Jude Law. for example, but the funniest bits don’t come McCarthy’s Susan Cooper is meek andWhen Fine is taken out by an equally from Susan’s body, but from Susan’s mouth: downtrodden, angry and resentful, softglamorous villain, Rayna Boyanov, played her crushing disappointment when a surprise and romantic, violent and sweary. She isby Rose Byrne — who’s after a nuclear bomb present from Fine turns out to be a novelty much more, and much funnier, than justthat’s lurking around somewhere — Susan cupcake brooch; the foul-mouthed tirade a tubby lady on a moped. Yes we’ve wokenfeels duty-bound to go out into the big bad she unleashes on Byrne’s Rayna later in up to half the joke of this subtly subversiveworld and finish what Fine started. the movie while posing as her bodyguard. movie, but clearly there’s more work to do. (Incidentally, no one’s praising the physical — Much has been made of Feig’s clever-yet- comedy prowess of the more conventionallysomehow-unpreachy agenda with this Spy is out on 5 Junemovie. Susan, a woman of a certain age andof certain proportions, does not fit with theAgency’s idea of what a super-spy shouldlook like (a point hammered home — mostenjoyably — by the casting of Jason Stathamas a hotheaded and stupendously ineptagent who resents Cooper’s recentpromotion). Each time she gets givena new identity by her taciturn boss (AllisonJanney), it’s some version of “Midwesterncat lady with a fanny-pack”. Problem is,Susan’s really quite good at the wholeespionage thing, and the film soon zipsalong as Susan gets deeper into the nestof vipers and closer to Rayna. What gives Feig’s movie a nicely spikyedge, of course, is the fact that SaturdayNight Live alumna McCarthy,an actress also of a certain age andcertain proportions, has herself not beenHollywood’s idea of what a leading ladyshould look like, yet here she is comfortablyholding one of the funniest films of the year.The problem — and yes, we appreciate theirony of this point being made by a men’smagazine, but whatchagonnado? — is thatMcCarthy’s performance is still being 80
Breakfast club: The Jam in Culture Frank’s Café on London’s Beak Street, shortly after A toast to shooting their “News of the The Jam World” single cover, 1978 A NEW EXHIBITION IS AMartyn Goddard CORNUCOPIA FOR FANS OF PAUL WELLER’S FIRST BAND Given the eclectic items on display, it makes sense that The Jam: About the Young Idea, a new exhibition of photographs and memorabilia that opens at London’s Somerset House this month, was partly curated by the former head of The Jam’s fan club, Nicky Weller. But yes, the surname is a bit of a giveaway, as she’s also sister of the band’s main man, Paul, and it’s insiders like her — and the contents of their attics — who give this homage a distinctly personal feel. The Weller family’s vinyl collection, the trio’s original outfits, instruments and dusted-off archive photographs are among items that will be on display in the show, which is dedicating a room to each of the six albums The Jam recorded before Weller unexpectedly pulled the plug in 1982. But time’s worked its healing wonders, and all three members of the band — and alumni of Sheerwater Secondary Modern in Woking — Weller, drummer Rick Buckler and bassist Bruce Foxton, have given the exhibition their blessing. It’s also an affectionate record of the band’s very London-centric sense of style, from Carnaby Street skinny suits and Union Jack blazers of the Sixties and Seventies, to Weller’s ever-changing roster of (depending on your mod affiliations) fantastic/ridiculous haircuts. Still, their tailoring wasn’t the only reason The Jam became iconic, and a special CD containing previously unavailable recordings that is available with entry tickets should remind you of more than a couple of the others. — The Jam: About the Young Idea, 26 June to 31 August, Somerset House, London, somersethouse.org.uk 81
Jake Gyllenhaal photographed for Esquire,Malibu, California, April 2015
Interview “I WOKE UP ONE DAY AND I WASN’T IN THE RIGHT ROOM” Five years ago, Jake Gyllenhaal, indie darling turned mainstreamheartthrob, took stock of his life and career and decided he’d taken a wrong turn. Today, he’s once again the acclaimed star of some of the most interesting films in American cinema. And in his new movie, Southpaw, he delivers his most hard-hitting performance yet Interview by SANJIV BHATTACHARYA Photographs by ERIC RAY DAVIDSON Styling by SIMON ROBINS Sand cotton-linen suit, £2,240; white cotton shirt, £480, both by Hermès 83
InterviewJake Gyllenhaal and I are sitting across So, here we are, two men drinking bot- to his second film, Prisoners (2013), a bleakfrom each other at the Hotel Casa del Mar inSanta Monica, California. The waiter ush- tled water in a deserted corner of a hotel res- and gripping story of torture, child mur-ered us away from the brunch crowd to anisolated table in the corner, flush against the taurant. We’re effectively alone. All the other der and obsession. Then, late last year, hewindows, looking out onto sand and sea. It’sa postcard out there — happy surfers, skaters tables are empty, and there’s no waiter hov- produced and starred in Nightcrawler, a bril-and bladers — with the sun dancing on thewaves. Not here, though. Not so much. ering with news of today’s specials. Neither liant indictment of American society via the Jake looks dishevelled, possibly tired, of us even looks at a menu. It’s as stark as character of Louis Bloom, a sociopath andand at this point, maybe even a little disap-pointed. He came to talk. He likes to talk. a Beckett play. And that’s how he likes it. feral capitalist who rises from the grime ofBut then I asked him a question about hisupbringing, and now, he seems sceptical LA to set up his own late-night TV news ser-of what we’re attempting here, this whole“interview” business. There’s plenty to talk about. Now 34, vice that aims to capture first-hand footage of “One thing I learned a long time ago,” he Jake is five years into a remarkable run of crime scenes. How he dodged an Oscar nom-says, “is if someone has a story they want towrite, they’re going to write it, and there’s movies, the equal of any actor of his genera- ination for that role is a mystery.nothing I can do. Maybe I can get in four orfive words in a row that are mine but…” tion. Not that he wasn’t a force before — with The run continues this year. He’s an actor “Do you think that’s happening here?” credits like Donnie Darko (2001), Brokeback on a roll. Starting in reverse order, there’sI ask. “That I came with an agenda andthere’s nothing you can do to change it?” Mountain (2005), Jarhead (2005) and Source Demolition this winter, a study in grief, along- “Well, is it true?” Code (2011) — but there were blips, like side Chris Cooper and Naomi Watts (Gyl- “No!” “It could be like that. It has been.” The Day After Tomorrow (2004) and Prince lenhaal plays a Wall Streeter who responds “Well, let’s at least try not to do that.” “I would love that. Believe me.” of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010). He was in unusually to his wife’s death). Before that, in People who work with Gyllenhaal talkmore than anything about his discipline, his his twenties. “I took things because they were October, Everest tells the epic true story of thecommitment and his need to push the lim-its and try something new. This is what I’ve jobs,” he shrugs. “I mean people are paying 1996 climbing tragedy on which Jon Krakau-heard from four directors, two actors anda playwright. They use words like “serious”, you money, you’re 26, are you kidding?” er’s Into Thin Air was based (he plays Scott“prepared” and “intense”. They remark onhow “he really goes for it”. Apparently on set, Then something tectonic took place. Fischer, the deceased lead guide).Jake’s the one asking to do one more takeand suggesting script changes to the direc- His priorities shifted and his perspective But first, this July, is Southpaw, a tradi-tor, even sometimes whole new scenes. Ashis friend and two-time director Denis Vil- changed. “I woke up one day and I wasn’t in tional boxing movie. He plays the fictionalleneuve says, “It’s a challenge to work withJake. But it’s a great challenge. He likes to the right room,” he says. “It was like a David fighter Billy Hope, who is on top, loses it allpush the material.” Today, that material is this interview. Byrne song: ‘That’s not my beautiful house. before fighting his way back, having beenSome people might approach an interviewwith a stranger behind a mask of politeness, That’s not my beautiful wife.’” through an Eminem-soundtracked train-making a conspicuous effort to be pleas-ant above all else. But Gyllenhaal’s not a fan So, he changed his life, the way men ing montage. The coach (Forest Whitaker)of just being “nice” for “nice’s” sake. He’snever rude, but there’s a restlessness about sometimes do around 30. He moved from his is a wise old boozer. It ticks the boxes buthim, you can see his brain ticking. He wantsto talk, but not about nonsense and fluff. native Los Angeles to New York and pursued underneath it is a story of shame, rage andThere was half a plan to just hang out andchill, maybe take a drive or walk along the theatre. He chose smaller budget independ- redemption. Billy Hope’s anger earns himbeach. But he wasn’t into it. Driving aroundwouldn’t help me get to know him, and that’s ent movies, with darker, more challenging a fortune in the ring, until one day, outsidewhy I was there, surely? No, he’d soonerjust talk, somewhere we won’t be bothered, themes. He calls it “a growing-up thing”. of it, it costs him everything he cares about.if that’s all right. And now a new Gyllenhaal has emerged; “He’s a guy that couldn’t deal with his still with the boyish features, the searching own shame,” Gyllenhaal says. “The director eyes and a wide smile, but he’s older now, more determined. His frown furrows have deep- “I get that my job isened. The blips are history: every film he makes now is wor- absurd. I’m hyper-aware thy of your attention. There are no blockbusters, action-adven- of how ridiculous it is. tures or cute love stories, not anymore. He makes films for But at the same time, grown-ups. At a time when tel- evision is increasingly steal- I take it extraordinarily ing the mantle from cinema in seriously!” terms of sophisticated storytell- ing for adults, the Gyllenhaal brand is the antidote. The change first began with End of Watch (2012), a heart- breaking story about two cops in southeast Ed Zwick [Love & Other Drugs (2010)] told me LA, an experience he says “redefined for me this wonderful thing: ‘Everything you learn how I wanted to make movies.” Next came is through shame.’ It’s so true. There’s those Enemy (2013), a haunting doppelgänger moments where you face humiliation, they’re thriller about split identity and madness so freeing if you can get through them.” directed by Denis Villeneuve. Gyllenhaal “What have you learned through shame?” so liked working with “De-nee”, as he pro- I ask him. nounces his Christian name, that before He smiles. “I’ve learned a lot. But specific Enemy was even in the can, he’d committed examples? I don’t want to reveal all that.” >Grey cotton trousers, £330, by Ermenegildo Zegna. Pink cotton T-shirt, £50, by ATM 84
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Interview Gyllenhaal’s is a standout performance. transformation is that it takes discipline, per- you put it on screen, and people go, ‘I feelAs expected, he goes all out, on every front.His physique tells the story as he’s arguably haps his favourite word. “Freedom is on the something that I don’t normally feel.’”the most chisel-ripped screen fighter in his-tory. And he’s never less than convincing. other side of discipline,” he says. “That’s my What this amounts to on shoot day is anWhich is all the more impressive, given thatJake wasn’t even a fan of the sport before. mantra. Nothing comes easy if you’re going actor who is almost zealous in his commit-“I didn’t do a boxing movie to do a boxingmovie, if you know what I mean,” he says. to do it well.” And that doesn’t just go for the ment. He puts everything into every scene. “Let me tell you about his commitment,” physical aspect, but the whole process of pre- On Nightcrawler, the script didn’t requiresays Southpaw director Antoine Fuqua, whoactually does train as a boxer. “When he first paring for a role. He hurls himself into it. “It’s him to smash a mirror in a rage, but he didcame to me, I said, ‘Have you boxed?’ Andhe said, ‘Not really, just a bit of MMA [mixed what I love most about my job.” it anyway, and cut his hand open. On Pris-martial arts] stuff for End of Watch.’ So, I senthim to see Terry Claybon, who trained Den- He discovered this on End of Watch, oners, he grabbed on to the back of Hughzel [Washington] for The Hurricane. Andwhen Jake threw a punch, Terry said, ‘Hell when he and co-star Michael Peña spent Jackman’s truck as it pulled away and wasno! He can’t box!’ Now look at him. He canactually fight. That man trained like a beast.” six months with LA cops and sheriffs, for dragged for a distance. That wasn’t written It was a punishing regime of two three- a 22-day shoot. He’d never gone to such in, either. It wasn’t even in frame. In Enemy,hour sessions a day, seven days a week forfour months. Along the way, Fuqua would lengths before. They tagged along to crime there’s a scene where Gyllenhaal’s charactertake him to gyms, to meet managers andpromoters. “We saw the Pacquiao [v Brad- scenes, they heard bullets shoot past their is phoning his doppelgänger, someone wholey] fight, we trained at Mayweather’s gym inVegas,” he says. “Jake gave up whatever life ears, they saw dead people. “There were looks just like him, and he’s not sure whetherhe had to live the life of a fighter. That’s a sac-rifice. He even broke up with his girlfriend times, when I was taking cover, wearing it’s real or he’s losing his mind.because he was at the ring every day!” a Kevlar vest and thinking, ‘Come on, we’re “We must have shot it 45 times,” Denis The shoot was no cakewalk, either. Jakewas thrown into the ring on day one, where making a movie!’ You know?” he says. But Villeneuve says. “I just kept the camera roll-pros would pound him in the ribs and punchhim on the jaw for the fight sequences, while at the same time, he loved it ing and he was pacing arounda crowd of extras screamed at him from theringside. “I could tell he was hurting,” Fuqua so much, it changed his life. the room, doing it again andsays. “But we never used his stunt double.Jake did what a fighter would do, he went to “I have never felt so good about Clockwise from top again like a mantra. He wasthe ropes and covered up. He was improvis- being in Los Angeles as when left: Gyllenhaal’s trying to find something cha-ing fight sequences.” I was in East LA working with breaththrough role as otic, to lose control. And after- police officers. Just being in disturbed teen Donnie wards, there was something The truth is, he loves this stuff. The gym, that culture, especially the His- Darko. The film was so vulnerable in his eyes. Hisespecially. Jake’s a cerebral type who loves to not huge in 2001, butventure into abstraction and ideas, althoughtoday it’s partly a way to avoid talking about panic culture. It was amaz- became a cult hit on hands were shaking, he hadhis personal life (he’s fiercely private). But he ing.” To this day, one of his best DVD; as Jack Twist in gone so far away. For me, Jake isalso describes himself as “very physical”. He friends is a former LA sheriff. Brokeback Mountain like a scuba diver: he goes deep,loves to transform his body for a role, what- (2005), for which he deep into the unconscious.”ever that requires. Playing Billy Hope, he Ever since then, he has was nominated for apacked on the muscle, but for Nightcrawler, approached every movie in Best Supporting Actor This is partly Chris Coop-he dropped 30lbs. His character in the latteris a ghoulish, emaciated figure of the night, the same spirit of total immer- Oscar; in Jarhead er’s doing. When Gyllenhaalso he starved himself and ran 15 miles to the sion. “It connects you to what’s (2005), a film that co-starred with him in Octo-set every day. It left him paradoxically both really happening,” he says. “As revealed the boredom ber Sky in 1999, the young actorirritable and delighted. an actor, it’s easy to become and adrenalin of the asked the veteran for advice. disconnected from reality, but first Gulf War; “I told him, have no regrets “Physicality is a way into the mental Nightcrawler (2014)state of a character,” Gyllenhaal says. “I getoff on knowing that my energy has shifted. I can also spend five months in tells the story of Louis when you leave a scene,” CooperMy technical side is going, ‘Yeah, you’re a bit an environment that most peo- Bloom, who trawls LA says. “Don’t leave anything onof a maniac, but you know how to keep it in ple would never get access to. at night filming gory the table. This is a very compet-check’. But it’s not like this huge deal. It’s So, it’s actually a great way of crimes to sell to TV itive business, and for most peo-that Louis CK thing, [about] when people say engaging with the world. I’m news; Jake spent six ple it’s short-lived.”they’re ‘starving’. Maybe you should rethink months with the policethat word? You had a meal four hours ago!” not saying what I go through preparing for End of Gyllenhaal took it to heart. One of the things he enjoys about physical compares to what actual cops Watch (2012); and He swears by it. A case in or boxers experience every day. transformed himself to point: the shoot for Everest last There’s a hierarchy of impor- play Billy Hope in new year. The director Baltasar tance, and actors are way down. film Southpaw (2015); Kormákur, a Herzogian figure, as lead guide Scott I get that my job is absurd. I’m Fischer in disaster film decided they would shoot in hyper-aware of how ridiculous it Everest (2015) actually treacherous conditions is. But at the same time, I take it 4,000m up the Dolomite moun- extraordinarily seriously! Because as absurd tain range in Italy, where it was –30˚C. It was as it is, it can also breed empathy.” a scene in which Gyllenhaal’s character dies This is why he prepares so intensely, of hypothermia, so he lay encased in the because for Gyllenhaal, empathy has snow, essentially packed in ice. “He almost a molecular, even mystical quality. “I believe lost his hearing,” Kormákur says. “His inner deeply in the unconscious,” he says. “That ear was frozen. His nostril hairs were frozen. you literally accumulate the molecules of And he wasn’t even getting that well-paid!” the space that you’re in. We’re like 90 per The director describes Gyllenhaal as cent water, so naturally we are going to be “a bit of an oddball”. He’d hired him to put affected by the moon when it’s full: if the sea a different energy in his cast, and Gyllenhaal is, why wouldn’t we be? That seems scientific brought that in spades. “He’ll probably hate to me. So, if you spend enough time in what- me for saying this, but he reminded me of ever environment your character would exist Edward Norton’s character in Birdman. Bril- in — the way I spent six months with police liant when he’s acting, but weird in between, officers — then the molecules of that envi- you know? He has a great sense of humour, ronment must transfer somehow. And then but it’s not politically correct, necessarily. > 87
Interview
InterviewLike he makes fun of people’s accents, and he “I had a wonderful upbringing, don’t get “mimic a tone or timbre of where I am”. Andcan go off in that direction, it’s actually quitebrave. He gets away with it because it’s always me wrong,” he says, firmly. “But I don’t look he has at least a couple of people to thank forin a loving way.” at the world through rose-coloured glasses. getting him back on track — his parents and There were times, however, when Gyl-lenhaal would push his fellow actors, and it I wasn’t raised to be separate from reality.” Bruce Springsteen.didn’t always go over so well at first. “Therewere some hairy moments,” Kormákur says. For example, they lived not in Beverly It was his parents’ divorce in 2009 that“I thought, oh my God, how’s this going togo? Because if Jake feels an actor’s not giv- Hills but on the eastern flank of the city, finally convinced him to move to New York.ing him what he needs, if he feels they’re notreally there, he’ll say so. And sometimes, he where Koreatown meets Hancock Park, His dad remarried, and his mum moved toeven says afterwards, ‘Sorry, I was an ass-hole.’ He’s aware of it, but would you rather a sketchy part of town in the Eighties. He Manhattan, where sister Maggie had longbe with a guy who’s always smiling andlaughing, and never talks about anything lived with the actor Peter Sars-serious? Or your friend is a bit challenging,who isn’t afraid to argue with you? I prefer gaard and their two daughters.people with more width, and this is part ofhis process. Acting is such a weird job, what- “I’m an Anglophile. So Jake moved east to join theever you need to get there is fine with me. clan. And right away, it was eas-Jake needs to mess things up. Shake it up,dirty it up. It’s like he needs to get into trou- Pretty much all of my ier to think straight. It felt goodble before he can figure it out for himself.” to escape his old life, the claus-The question I asked that rubbed him the friends are Brits… trophobia of show business inwrong way wasn’t the one I thought might LA where “sometimes friend-bother him: the one about going down onNaomi Watts in Demolition. Jean-Marc British audiences were ship and work gets intertwinedVallée, the director, a French-Canadian like in a confusing way”.Villeneuve, laughed and told me, “Ask himabout that, it will be funny.” It wasn’t. Gyl- the first group who Chris Cooper suspects helenhaal just calmly parried it in a profes- was escaping celebrity culture.sional manner. “I understand the curiositybut honestly, these questions, I find them so really understood me” “I think Jake was being peckedboring. Because whatever I say is not going to death by it,” he says.to be respectful to the situation. And I don’twant to take the magic out of the thing you’re But Jake doesn’t see Newgoing to watch.” York as much better than LA The question that actually made himflinch was this: “Your childhood sounds on that front. “It’s easy to say,magical, like it’s the Oscars in your kitchenevery morning: was it?” Evidently, he has may have attended the city’s most elite high ‘Oh, LA is that way and NY is that way,’ butheard this characterisation of his upbring-ing so often now that it grates. It makes him school, Harvard-Westlake, but the Gyllen- let’s be honest. Especially today with all thesound like Hollywood’s silver-spoon son, tothe manor born in show business terms. And haals weren’t loaded, not by LA standards. cellphones. It’s more about just being awayon paper, that’s how it looks. Both his par-ents were in the industry: his mother Naomi, His dad would buy a house and fix it up him- from Hollywood,” Gyllenhaal says. “Chris isan Oscar-nominated screenwriter and pro-ducer, and his father Stephen, a director. As self. Work wasn’t always easy to come by. someone I admire, and he lives in Massachu-a result, the Gyllenhaal siblings, Jake andMaggie (three years older) grew up around “I remember my parents made two or three setts. His life is separate from his work, andthis extraordinary Hollywood cast. JamieLee Curtis as a godmother, Paul Newman things consecutively, but from then on out, that’s something I want to cultivate, too.”a family friend, who took him car racing atthe age of 12. He met Sidney Lumet, Mar- it was just trying to get something made and His parents’ divorce also promptedtha Plimpton and River Phoenix. And in theroom above the garage lived a young Steven most of the time not succeeding.” the thought: “They’re following what theySoderbergh, and after him, Ethan Hawke. He was a wild teenager, “a mess” he says, want to do, even though it’s difficult. So what but he was also a working actor, so his par- do I want?” It wasn’t dissimilar to a question tying quickly gave way to the rigours of Bruce Springsteen asked himself when mak- auditions and film sets. He made his first ing the 1978 album Darkness on the Edge of film aged 10, starring opposite Billy Crys- Town, according to the documentary The tal in City Slickers (1991), and by the time he Promise: the Making of… (2010), which Jake reached New York’s Columbia University, watched at the recommendation of his pub- where he studied Tibetan Buddhism and licist. It made a profound impact. eastern mysticism, he was so in demand he “There was Steven van Zandt saying he had to drop out after two years. could write 25 incredible pop songs, and they Today, he looks back on those years with could have had five huge hit albums,” he says. fondness. Because at university, aged 20, he “But Springsteen was like, ‘What do I want? was in his groove in life, doing theatre, which I want to express something that comes from he loves, and making films that chimed with me, that feels like me.’ So, I asked myself the the life he knew at the time. He was a con- same thing. Beyond money or fame or what- fused teenager when he made Donnie Darko, ever, what do I like? And also, who might the story of a confused teenager who halluci- want to work with me?” nates a figure in a bunny suit called Frank. But as the offers flooded in, he increasingly Here’s a picture of Gyllenhaal in made films that had less and less to do with New York. He’s dancing in the streets of who he was or what he cared about: “I was downtown Manhattan, really going for it, listening to other people, instead of myself,” with his earphones in. And he’s getting some he says. And that’s how he ended up in the funny looks. Who’s that guy? What’s going “wrong room” five years ago. Now, he has on? Not everyone realises it’s a scene in Dem- returned to the groove of his Donnie Darko olition, and director Jean-Marc Vallée is years, seeking out scripts that, as he says, shooting him from a distance. > Grey cotton-blend shirt, £250, by Burberry London 89
Interview But it’s a fitting image for Jake; he’s hap- His English co-star in the play, Ruth Wil-pier out east. He lives up the street with his son, can’t say enough good things aboutGerman shepherd. He pops in on his sister Gyllenhaal. She got to know him very welland mum on a regular basis. And he’s doing over their run. Every night, they were thetheatre again, a big component of his new only two on stage, performing 65 scenes inlife. So far, he’s done two plays, both by the 70 minutes, covering every possible permu-English playwright Nick Payne. The most tation of a relationship between two people.recent, Constellations, finished a four-month After the show, they’d go out to dinner withrun on Broadway in March. friends. Gyllenhaal invited her to his family’s Christmas Eve celebrations. “Sometimes actors do Broadway for cyn-ical reasons,” Payne says. “There’s a percep- “He’s really generous,” she says. “Hetion in Hollywood that doing a play proves cares. Not just about the work, but about peo-you’re a serious actor. But my impression ple. If I was ill, he’d provide me with pills andis Jake genuinely loves it and he’ll do a play recommend a doctor. And he really bringsevery couple of years.” you into his world. He was born into acting and show business, he knows everyone and It’s true. There’s virtually nothing everything about it. But he includes you.he doesn’t like about theatre. It involves And I want to say, he’s a really great singer.rehearsal, which is preparation, his favourite We’d warm up every day, singing on stagething. Like a regular Joe, he gets to walk to and he knows all the lyrics to Drake songs.and from work every day, a clear separation And Motown and Springsteen. He knowsbetween life and work. And lately, theatre the words to show tunes, too. We went to din-has allowed him to work with Brits, who are ner with my uncle, who puts on musicals atarguably his preferred nationality, even over his Norfolk community centre, and he andAmericans. “I’m an Anglophile,” he says. Jake were singing show tunes to each other“Pretty much all of my friends are Brits.” in the middle of Balthazar. He really should do a musical.” (And he is, as it happens. This It goes back to his twenties again, the summer, he’s in The Little Shop of HorrorsDonnie Darko era. He was doing a play at at the Lincoln Center, New York. Those ova-the Garrick Theatre in London’s West End tions are going to keep coming.)— This is Our Youth in 2002 — and he foundthe English to be particularly encouraging. It wasn’t easy, though, working with Gyl-“People told me, ‘You’re good at this, you lenhaal. Easy isn’t his style. He pushed Wil-should keep doing it.’ There was a sense of son night after night. “Despite four weekspotential there,” he says. “You didn’t have of previews, he kept demanding we find theto be the absolute best, but they could smell truth, and change stuff that felt old,” she says.talent and they appreciated it, as long as you “And we argued. We’d argue every week.committed yourself.” We’d fight and then make up and do the show and it was all fine. It was intense and inti- After that run, Donnie Darko came out, mate. We became like brother and sister.”and while it hadn’t been a flop in Americaexactly, it was far from a hit. But in England, Jake acknowledges all this. He’s comfort-a different story. “Street artists were doing able with confrontation, when it’s to do withart about it, it had this cult following. There the work. And it usually is. But today, he’swas such a different response. British audi- wondering about our interview. That’s theences were the first group who really under- work at hand.stood me as an artist.” The brunch crowd has left. They’ve had It’s ironic, I tell him. Typically, English their bottomless mimosas and egg-whiteactors move their lives to the States for that scrambles. All that’s left is us two in the cor-sense of potential, replacing English pes- ner, hungry and exhausted. But Gyllenhaal’ssimism for American optimism. And he not done. He’s looking out the window, flip-laughs. “I don’t know. Maybe the English can ping his phone over idly on the table.sense my pessimism!” “The thing is, you’re never going to get to Another English characteristic he has, is know me in two hours,” he says. “If you wantthat he says, “Flaunting things is embarrass- to do this properly, we need to spend twoing to me.” One of the things he noticed doing months. But we can keep talking. Is thereConstellations was that on Broadway, they’d something we’ve talked about that excitesget a standing ovation every night. And it you, that you can write about? Maybe I canmade him uneasy. “They never do that in the give you some more information…”UK,” he says. “And that feels right to me. The Southpaw is out on 24 Julystanding O is like flaunting your applause!”Navy wool mohair suit, £1,300; white cotton shirt, £300, both by Burberry Prorsum Photographer’s assistants: JB Fitts, Eric Hobbs, Brad Liber I Styling assistant: Ahmad Francois | Grooming: Jillian Dempsey using Baxter of California at starworksartists.com 90
Memoir 92
Memoir The Battle of Waterloo: The BritishSquares Receiving the Charge of the French Cuirassiers by Henri Félix Emmanuel Philippoteaux, painted in 1874 93
MemoirWhat was your childhood obsession? The contents of said bag, now lost for- a pivotal role, and has risen to become (irony >Was it Lego? Liverpool FC? Stamp collect- ever? Flares, fourth-hand and more patch of ironies) Emperor of France. He is unde-ing? Action Man? Well mine, since you ask, than original trouser, one pair; orange and niably a military commander and admin-was the Battle of Waterloo. Little bit geeky, brown (God bless 1981!) Jockey Y-fronts, istrator of genius but by 1814, hubris andgranted, but in hindsight I’m not sure even fortunately not fourth-hand, three pairs; his assorted enemies have caught up withthe word “obsession” quite cuts it. Pretty assorted shorts, socks and Guernsey jump- him. Rather than create a martyr, the Alliesmuch every day of every holidays, I would ers — and my Airfix Battle of Waterloo — somewhat naively, in hindsight — exilebeg my mum to take me across Albert Bridge Assault Set. Cue instant and all-consuming Bonaparte to the tiny Mediterranean islandto the National Army Museum in Chelsea, grief. I was too young to register my parents’ of Elba where he is installed as sovereign.where I would gaze for hours at the vast divorce, and this was an era before dead pets Given that his previous train set includedmodel of the battlefield completed by one and grandparents. My shocking conclusion? most of continental Europe, Elba soon losesCaptain William Siborne some 23 years after Life — and people — can be mean. its appeal and Napoleon, accompanied byNapoleon’s final defeat in June 1815, pre- a handful of soldiers, “invades” France.cisely 200 years ago this month. I’ve coped OK in the intervening years: I’m married, have kids, haven’t — as far The aim? Typically audacious: defeat the When not standing on tiptoes peer- as I can recall — gone postal and murdered four vast armies now dispatched to destroying intently through Perspex at Siborne’s swathes of people, but with the Waterloo him by the Allies’ Seventh Coalition (a clue,drama in miniature unfolding across the 200th anniversary cropping up in the news perhaps, to how well the previous coalitionsrolling fields of what is now Belgium, I was lately, the trauma of my loss has resurfaced. had fared) and lead France back to glory.to be found at home watching and rewatch- After a swift self-diagnosis, I proposed two The plan? First, strike at the Anglo-Dutching the 1970 film Waterloo, with Rod Steiger courses of action: I had to meet my Waterloo and Prussian armies mobilising to meetas Napoleon and Christopher Plummer as in, well, Waterloo; and I had to take to eBay near Brussels and then turn to face the Aus-Wellington (tricorn hats off to whoever cast to find a vintage Airfix set. trians and Russians rumbling westwardthose two), until the VHS tape wore thin and across Europe towards the French border.eventually snapped. I’m not normally one to heap praise on His hope is that by knocking Britain out American multinationals, nor someone to of the war, Napoleon can turn off the money Most prized possession status, though, tap funding the coalition and the otherswas reserved for my 1980 Airfix Battle of Someone had pinched might just slink off home.Waterloo Assault Set, complete with tiny the bag containingBritish, French and Prussian infantry, cav- my beloved Battle of The critical campaign itself begins twoalry and artillery and a (not very accurate) days before the battle, on 16 June, 1815. Thereproduction of La Haye Sainte farmhouse, Waterloo Airfix set from Duke of Wellington, hero of the earlier cam-scene of some of the most brutal fighting. our car rack. My shocking paign to chase Napoleon out of the Ibe-I could, and did, lose days arranging and rian Peninsula and now commander of therearranging the tiny protagonists and the conclusion? Life — and Anglo-Dutch army, has, by his own admis-little plastic La Haye Sainte farmer — appar- people — can be mean sion, been “humbugged” by Napoleon whoently sitting on a box of beer bottles while has crossed the border into the United King-driving his cart and frantically flogging his overstate things, but eBay’s Saved Searches dom of the Netherlands (which includeshorses to pull him to safety. function might just be the greatest invention modern-day Belgium) before Wellington since the wheel. After a few weeks inputting was expecting. To cut a long story a little Some days he made it, sometimes a can- “Airfix Waterloo”, I’d unearthed a few vin- shorter, and to adopt football parlance, Wel-nonball dispatched him, beer bottles and all. tage boxes of French cavalry and Prussian lington meets part of the French army underOccasionally, the battlefield became even infantry, some even with the figures still Marshal Michel Ney at Quatre Bras, a grittymore hazardous in a way that neither Wel- attached to the sprues (technical modelling little battle ensues ending in a score drawlington nor Napoleon, masterful tacticians term for the plastic frames the figures come (with more shots on target from the French),that they were, could have predicted. The attached to) and also plenty of the 2008 Air- while Napoleon leads the rest of the Frencharrival of Mischa the Burmese cat would fix Battle of Waterloo sets. Don’t get me force to victory over Field Marshal Geb-often see a platoon of Prussians obliterated wrong, the ’08 is a decent effort, but I was hard von Blücher’s Prussians at Ligny,with just a casual swat of a paw. after the original and I finally tracked one forcing the latter to retreat away from Wel- down to, of all places, the States. lington. Napoleon orders Marshal Emma- I have total recall of the fateful day: the nuel Grouchy to pursue the Prussians butPeugeot 505 Familiale with its three rows of Airfix set ordered, I’m now standing in Grouchy is too far behind to realise Blücherseats taking the family on holiday to Scot- a corner of a foreign field, looking out across has reached Wavre, from where he can headland. My father driving, step-mum riding the location of one of the most decisive bat- west to reconvene with Wellington rathershotgun and behind them in the back two tles in history. At this point, it’s probably than retreating to Prussia.rows a distinct lack of seat belts and a gen- worth a whistle-stop historical backstory. Byerally fluid seating arrangement with my June 1815, and after 20-odd years of trauma, Napoleon’s audacity pays off, at leastthree elder stepbrothers administering Chi- triumph and territorial gain, Napoleon temporarily, and by scaring off the Prus-nese burns until I agreed to support Arse- Bonaparte has avoided being devoured by sians, he buys himself time to turn his undi-nal (Richard, Charlie, Paddy, FYI — never!); the French Revolution, in which he played vided attention to Wellington and histhe grim service station stop for lunch some- Anglo-Dutch army standing between himwhere in the North; arriving in Scotland and and Brussels, near the hitherto insignificantremoving the tarpaulin and octopus straps hamlet of Waterloo. Then, another twist: oncovering the luggage on the roof rack; the the night before the battle, Blücher, a ven-dawning realisation that somehow, some- erable veteran of 72, gets a message to Wel-where, someone had pinched one of our bags lington to say he is dispatching 40,000 menfrom beneath the covering, and that the bag at daybreak to support the Anglo-Dutch.in question was mine. 94
NAPOLEON BONAPARTE Emperor of France Napoleon at Fontainebleu, 31 March, 1814, painted by Paul Delaroche in 1840. Napoleon is depicted on the eve of his first abdication, just over a year prior to the decisive loss of his military powers at the Battle of WaterlooGetty
ARTHUR WELLESLEY First Duke of WellingtonThis portrait is by Thomas Philips RA. Dublin-born Wellesley quit Parliament in 1807 to resume hismilitary career and after Waterloo served as British prime minister and again as interim leader
Memoir Something other than audacity plays deadlines for Project Hougoumont, a char- Count D’Erlon’s 1 Corps at around one a part in warfare — luck. Like many an Eng- itable enterprise that has raised more than o’clock. This formidable French force can lish cricket team since, Wellington is saved £3.5m to restore a place that was drifting only see a small number of Anglo-Dutch, by the rain, thanks to a downpour of biblical into dereliction. We wander past the small Wellington adopting his favoured tactic proportions and duration on the afternoon whitewashed chapel, following a jagged wall of deploying the majority of his forces on of 17 June that sees his infantry soaked to that stops abruptly in a large open space. the reverse slope of a ridge so the enemy the bone, his artillery struggling to keep its never knows its exact number or position. powder dry and his cavalry reduced to sleep- “This is where the chateau burnt down It means the brutal barrage from the grande ing in the saddle to avoid the mud. But cru- during the siege,” White says. “The chapel batterie of cannons — a classic Napoleonic cially, it also slows the French pursuit. Come survived. A few years back, someone broke softening-up technique — is based on mere the following morning (18), Napoleon has to in and stole the crucifix that had been here guesswork, with many of the cannonballs make a decision: attack at once across a shal- since before the battle, but it was spotted up landing harmlessly in the mud. Even so, low valley filled with wet and head-high for auction and requisitioned. It will be back D’Erlon’s troops reach the brow of the ridge rye which, when trampled, proves treach- in place come the bicentenary.” in what is now a valley filled with smoke. erously slippery; or delay the attack while Bonaparte can only tell what is happening everything dries out, meaning more chance The defenders of Hougoumont that by observing the column of smoke steadily of the arrival of the Prussians. day 200 years ago are German troops sup- advancing up the hill away from him. With ported by the Coldstream Guards and other the Allied centre creaking precariously, So, here they are, Wellington and Napo- British infantry. The French advance from a staff officer glancing at Napoleon recalled leon, able to see each other across the valley, the south through a wood of which noth- an expression of satisfaction that implied knowing their fates were about to be settled. ing remains except three huge sweet chest- “he thought his battle was won”. As I stand by the crossroads where Welling- nut trees. Two are now dead but all are old ton spent much of the day, I can’t help think- enough to have stood witness to the drama But D’Erlon is in for a further surprise. ing about these two men, in 1815 both aged that ensued. Throughout the day, the French The art of the cavalry counter-attack is 46, just a few short years older than me. launch wave after wave of attacks while timing and the 2,600 British Heavy Cav- Inevitably, I play the “compare your achieve- the Allies use loopholes knocked through alry under Lord Uxbridge who thunder up ments…” game. By the age of 42, Napoleon from the rear time their run to perfection, had conquered most of Europe and a sig- The first many of the streaming through the broken Allied ranks nificant chunk of North Africa. Me? Not and smashing into the French. The first so much conquering, although getting four French know of their many of the French know of their impend- young kids into bed sometimes feels like ing destruction is the sight of huge horses, a truly heroic achievement. At 42, Welling- impending destruction eyes bulging, galloping out of the smoke ton was a rising star, an undefeated general before a swift hack of the sword and eternal and famed seducer of nubile young Jane is huge horses galloping darkness. D’Erlon’s infantry are stopped Austen-alikes, but he was still Arthur Welles- in their tracks, buckle and run, with rid- ley, his dukedom coming in 1813. No resting out of the smoke before ers — many of them huntsmen — in pursuit on his laurels, though. Wellington wasn’t of the French foxes. The British cavalry pur- satisfied with winning the most important a swift hack of the sword sue the infantry back across the valley find- battle of the 19th century, and went on to ing themselves among the cannons of the become British Prime Minister in 1828, and and eternal darkness grande batterie, where they hack away at later again acted as interim leader. I think defenceless French gunners. In The Battle, we’ll leave the comparison game there. the garden walls to fire their muskets. Even- the definitive account of Waterloo by Ales- tually, the Coldstreamers outside the walls sandro Barbero, he quotes Lord Uxbridge: Today, the battlefield is a strange com- are forced to take cover inside the north “Surely such havoc was rarely made in so bination. Elements remain the same as 200 gate and the French, sensing blood and led few minutes.” The havoc is about to con- years ago: the wide-open farmland and the by a vast axe-wielding second lieutenant tinue, however, because now the British cav- gentle depression across which the armies called Legros, manage to force the gates alry, far from their own lines, become sitting faced each other; the road leading north– before they can be closed. About 30 French ducks for French lancers. In the space of south from France to Brussels with La Haye make it inside before the Coldstreamers can a few minutes, the tables have turned three Sainte farmhouse near the crossroads that heave the gates shut. Vicious hand-to-hand times and the carnage is escalating. would be at the crucible of the slaughter. fighting ensues within the walls with all the The west, towards Wellington’s right flank, French killed except for a young drummer The armies pause and wonder: where are is now outflanked by a busy motorway. boy spared to work in the makeshift field the Prussians? In an era long before radio, hospital in a barn. The battle-within-a-battle information is hard to come by and unreli- Down a scruffy track running a few at Hougoumont lasts all day, with the 2,500 able, but Napoleon gets word the Prussians yards parallel to the motorway and through defenders tying down an estimated 12,500 are close, and Blücher, nearly trampled to a small and scruffier-still copse is Château men, a quarter of Napoleon’s entire force. death by French cavalry at Ligny and since d’Hougoumont. The chateau, farm and One-third of all the deaths at Waterloo were then fortified by brandy, has ridden hard to its extensive formal gardens and orchards here, with Wellington later asserting “the arrive at the vanguard of his army. marked the extreme Allied right flank, and success of the battle turned upon the closingGetty it was here Napoleon chose to unleash his of the gates at Hougoumont.” The next set-piece takes place where the > first — diversionary — offensive. I’m here on builders are putting the finishing touches to a bright, breezy March day with academic With Hougoumont besieged, Napoleon the new Waterloo visitors’ centre. It’s a large and Waterloo guide Alasdair White. Belgian switches his attention to the centre of the nondescript piece of land with the centre builders are frantically trying to meet June Allies’ line, ordering forward the 30,000 cleverly built underground, so there’s no clue men of General Jean-Baptiste Drouet the 97
Memoirto the struggle that played out here 200 years to charge at so much steel. The second the me Blücher,” he is heard to mutter, and now,before, but this was where a large part of Wel- cavalry retreated, however, a stationary after a full 12 hours on the move, the Prus-lington’s infantry were waiting. Red-headed square of men became targets for batteries sians do arrive behind Napoleon’s rightMarshall Ney, who would lose four horses at of cannons that could decimate them with flank, forcing the Emperor to redeploy cru-Waterloo, leads 8,900 cavalry including bri- canister shells full of grapeshot. cial troops from the central assault.gades of cuirassiers, mostly veterans andresplendent in their gleaming breastplates, This dance of death continues for two It’s last-roll-of-the-dice time for Napo-up the slopes in the hope of a decisive break- hours with the French cavalry attacking as leon. There could be one decisive break-through. He has, mistakenly, believed he’s many as 60 Allied squares on the reverse through, and in reserve he has the Imperialseen Allied troops retreating when in fact it slope, knowing that one breach in one bris- Guard, then the world’s elite fighting force.is the wounded making their way back to the tling square and they would be in among They have been kicking their heels in thefield hospital in the rear. the infantry. Time and again, they wheel rear all day thanks to Napoleon’s confi- away unsuccessfully to leave the squares dence, but now they advance to their drum- At this point, says writer Bernard Corn- to sit tight under another artillery barrage, mers’ beat across the valley and up thewell (of Sharpe fame) in his book Water- with the officers screaming “close ranks”, slopes, bearskin hats making these alreadyloo, the battle becomes a deadly game of the injured dragged into the middle and the tall troops seem like giant supermen, all therock, paper, scissors. Infantry caught in dead thrown out as extra defensive bar- while roaring “Vive L’Empereur!” To quashthe open, as had happened earlier to D’Er- ricades on top of dead cavalrymen and the rumours spreading through Frenchlon’s unfortunates, would be cut to pieces the horrifically maimed horses thrashing ranks of the Prussians’ arrival, the Emperorby cavalry. But well-trained troops formed around in front of every square. rides at their head for a time, shouting thatinto squares of hundreds of men in three French reinforcements have been spotted.rows with fixed bayonets — first row kneel- Not a single Allied square breaks, with It’s a desperate lie. So, onwards the Imperialing, second row crouching and third row Wellington, the master of defensive strat- Guard go, supported by the remains of D’Er-firing — could keep cavalry at bay because egy, himself caught in a square at one point. lon’s 1 Corps on the other side of La Hayehorsemen could never persuade their steeds His rope-a-dope tactics are buying time but Sainte farm. It’s do or die. Or both. losses are mounting. “Give me night or give 98
Memoir Scotland For Ever, painted by Lady is that the Imperial Guard, nicknamed “the “The fields and lanes are dotted with Elizabeth Butler in 1881, depicts the Immortals”, waver and do something they memorials and steles commemorating indi- have never done — withdraw. In admirably viduals or military units,” Alasdair White charge of the Royal North British orderly fashion, mind, retreating in squares, says, “but none marking mass graves.” Dragoons (The Scots Greys) as seen but the momentum is lost, and Wellington, Waterloo Uncovered, a new archeological by French infantry on 18 June, 1815 sensing his moment, stands up in his stir- project created by a couple of Coldstream rups, takes off his hat and orders an advance. Guards officers, Major Charles Foinette La Haye Sainte farm now stands in the (serving) and former Captain Mark Evans, shadow of the vast conical Lion’s Mound, Napoleon’s Armée du Nord disinte- aims to unearth the answers. “A battle like built in 1826 on the site of the centre of the grates, pursued by vengeful Prussians, not Waterloo leaves a physical record,” Foinette Allied line to commemorate the sacrifice of yet sated even after a day of marching and explains. “So far, everything we know about Anglo-Dutch dead at Waterloo. The Dutch fighting. Wellington and Blücher meet on it comes from notoriously unreliable eyewit- used soil from the defensive ridge, prompt- the battlefield and embrace each other while ness accounts, so the only indisputable facts ing Wellington to remark later that “they Napoleon turns tail for Paris. A month later, will be the physical evidence.” ruined my battlefield”. Climb the 226 steps after abdicating, he hands himself in to the to the summit and you can see the entire bat- British after trying to sail to America. The team will conduct forensic tests tlefield, with the Lion’s Mound itself on the when they inevitably find the mass graves, spot where the Imperial Guard reached There were 42,000 casualties at Water- and aim to scan the areas around Hougou- the Allied lines, advancing in immaculate loo, with an estimated 10,000 dead. Given mont and La Haye Sainte to assess where square formation to repel cavalry attacks. the relentless Great War centenaries, we’ve the largest predominance of cannonballs become inured to these casualty figures, and musket balls are found, all of which will It’s at this point that historians disagree. but WWI battles such as at the Somme were refine the narrative. It will be the first official There are plenty of first-person accounts fought along fronts sometimes stretching for dig on the battlefield, and a fitting way to cel- of the battle but everyone’s experience is in tens of miles. The killing fields at Waterloo ebrate the 200th anniversary. The bicenten- isolation. In the case of Waterloo, it’s an iso- amount to just two square miles of concen- nial itself is important for another reason. lation of thick smoke, the reek of death, the trated butchery. Given this scale, it remains The centenary in 1915 passed almost with- deafening noise of near continual artil- a mystery as to where the bodies are buried. out notice as the great-grandsons of those lery fire and exposure to exhausting car- who fought at Waterloo were dying in droves nage for an afternoon. Perhaps they got Waterloo ended 475 along the Western Front in places like Ypres, word of the Prussians’ arrival, or were dis- years of conflict between some 100 miles up the road. This time, heartened by their journey, or were sur- Europe can remember in peace. prised by unforeseen attacks; what is certain England and France, with the victors going on As ever, there’s a school of thought that to exert hegemony as the downplays the importance of Waterloo: world’s only superpower Napoleon was a busted flush, they say; nor- mal service would soon have been resumed, for the next 100 years they expostulate. Maybe, maybe not, but what is true is that the battle drew a line The author surveys the scene in Belgium (above); under 475 years of near-constant conflict his replacement Airfix model 40604-4, the Battle between England (later Britain) and France, of Waterloo Assault Set, finally arrives (below) with Britain — for better or for worse — going on to exert hegemony as the world’sGetty only superpower for the next 100 years. After taking the Eurostar home from Brussels, I unlock the front door to find a large parcel. I open it and tears follow sur- prisingly quickly. It’s Airfix model 40604- 4, the Battle of Waterloo Assault Set, scale HO:OO, and I’m eight years old again. The farmer’s wagon is there; so, too, the Impe- rial Guard, drummer and all, and the kilted Highland infantry. Even the crin- kling, green moulded plastic box. I remem- ber these things with visceral intensity. That said, it’s funny how memory warps over the years. The box itself feels far smaller than I remember, not much bigger than the size of a Monopoly set. I’d remem- bered it filling up most of my suitcase. (Maybe it had, maybe my suitcase was more of a lunchbox.) The floodgates open when later I find my five-year-old boy George playing with the sol- diers. To date, he’s been a Lego chap but he’s transfixed and, as I watch surreptitiously, it feels like a ghost has left the room. 99
AdvicePhew! Men of Esquire: high summer is speeding towards us with the unstoppable force of a tsunami. Are you up for it? Is your body “beach-ready”? Is your blazer the correct shade of blue? Can your BBQ take the heat? Are you packing the right books/ shades/sunscreen? Have you seen the state of your feet? Here we present the 25 “essential” summer skills every stylish man “must” master, or face seasonal “humiliation” Note from the editors: this list is good for the next three weeks or so — if we’re lucky.Then normal service resumes. (You know: socks, shirts, eating indoors, not having to pretend to like tennis...) Edited by Miranda Collinge Illustrations by Adam Nickel 100
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