"Actor: Marc Muller"

• Shania Twain - Live | DVD | (06/11/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  For erstwhile "new country" outsider Shania Twain, the commercial impact of her first live video doubtless carries the sweet smell of revenge. Twain's mid-1990s breakthrough, fuelled by formidable production polish and carefully groomed videos, conspicuously delayed live shows until long after the expatriate Canadian's success crossed into platinum territory--an omission that prompted some sceptics to theorise the would-be megastar's talent was accomplished through studio legerdemain. Shania Twain Live may benefit from plenty of polish and more than a little calculation in its staging, but the singer/songwriter's long apprenticeship in lounge bands and resort revues north of the border is apparent. Whether one loves or loathes her songs, Twain herself comes across as a seasoned performer who knows how to work the audience.Equally apparent, and equally unlikely to resolve the division between fans and foes, is Twain's crossover agenda. Scaled for the arenas that Twain and her handlers targeted early on, the concert is closer in pace and power-chords to a mainstream rock show than most country acts, an orientation that aligns the star with Garth Brooks's swaggering attack rather than most country songstresses. Her band may boast three fiddlers, but their slashing attack emulates the kilowatt buzz of the rock guitarists that share the scrim, who pull off familiar string-bending flourishes. As for the front woman, in her electric-green leopard-print top, hip-hugging pants, and meticulously permed, waist-length hair, she resembles some improbably aerobicised white Rastafarian.The set list is a generous one, reproducing most of Twain's back-to-back platinum albums, and illustrates her skill at mixing melting ballads, flirtatious rockers that enable her to strut her physical beauty, and songs testifying to her self-reliance. Still, for all Twain's assertions that she won't suffer fools gladly, the songs ultimately reveal a traditional romanticism with a moderate, post-feminist spark. One need only check out the power equation behind such songs as "Honey, I'm Home" and "Any Man of Mine" to recognise Twain's themes are ultimately much older than their crossover wrappers. --Sam Sutherland

• Europa | DVD | (29/07/2002) from £17.99   |  Saving you £2.00 (11.12%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The unquiet twin spirits of Fritz Lang and Franz Kafka preside over Europa, Lars von Trier's sardonic, saturnine vision of just-post-WWII Germany. In 1945 Leo Kessler, a young American of German descent, returns to the shattered land of his forebears to help in its reconstruction. Through his uncle, who works for the huge railway network Zentropa, he gets a job as a trainee sleeping-car conductor and also meets the seductive Katharina Hartmann, daughter of Zentropa's owner Max. But acts of sabotage and murder are being planned by unregenerate young Nazis calling themselves Werewolves, and very soon Leo's hapless innocent abroad starts finding out that, in this time and place of shifting loyalties, nothing and no one are what they seem. As if to accentuate this mood of nervous ambiguity, von Trier constantly switches from black and white to colour, and from English to (subtitled) German dialogue, often right in the middle of a scene. The cast boasts several iconic figures of European cinema, including Barbara Sukowa (a Fassbinder favourite) as femme fatale Katharina, and Eddie Constantine (from Godard's Alphaville) as a manipulative American colonel, while a literally hypnotic voice-over is spoken by the great Bergman actor Max von Sydow. There's more than a hint that von Trier intends a mischievous side-glance at today's Europe, and today's European film industry, in resentful thrall to the might of Hollywood. And while Europa is gripping and richly atmospheric, it's never without humour. The long, final episode is a tour de force of tragicomedy, with poor Leo juggling the competing demands of love and loyalty, life and death, while being harassed by his uncle who, horrified that Leo has lost his official peaked cap, forces him to wear a knotted handkerchief on his head, as well as by a pair of punctilious railroad inspectors demanding to know how long it takes him to make up a sleeping-car bunk. Lang and Kafka, sure, but maybe a touch of the Marx Brothers, too. --Philip Kemp

• Boys in Brazil | DVD | (29/06/2015) from £4.93   |  Saving you £11.06 (224.34%)   |  RRP £15.99

  It's time for gay pride in São Paulo- which means sun sex and a good helping of fabulous flamboyance on the side! But when a group of closeted gay men come face to face with homophobic abuse instead of taking it lying down each decide to make a solemn pact- they all have until next year's parade to come out once and for all. A humorous vibrant sexy film with more than a dash of delightful South American melodramatic flare 'Boys in Brazil' is a boldly rendered statement on what we all gain when we demand respect and acceptance. These boys ain't going to take it lying down any more!