The Gazette from Montreal, Quebec, Canada • 9

FARLY ED. C6 THE GAZETTE, MONTREAL, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1997 mm ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR: LUCINDA CHODAN 987-2568 New Shania Twain album in stores today wailing fiddle part that sounds suspiciously like an electric-guitar break, for instance. said. "People seemed to like hearing my perspective from a woman's point of view and they seemed to like a sense Y7 point of view and from a natural growth point of view as an artist, I think it's a better album. And that's what's important to me." It also might be an even bigger album.

Twain achieved superstardom in the country world without touring and without having a manager during the release period of The Woman in Me. She is now being managed by Barbara Carr and partner Jon Landau, who manages Bruce Springsteen. Twain said she's also planning to tour next spring. That tour promises to be a blockbuster, said music-industry veteran Larry LeBlanc, Canadian editor for Billboard magazine. "Because we haven't seen her perform, some people expect her to fall on her face," LeBlanc said.

"It's not going to happen. She's going to explode. Those people (Landau and Carr) aren't just selective they're ul-traselective. They wouldn't have taken her on unless they saw the full "Mutt does tend to write a lot of rock-style guitar riffs," Twain said. "I always thought it would be cool to use fiddles on those licks.

I guess it's just a mixture of our backgrounds and how we influence each other." Last time around, some critics miscast Twain as a bimbo in cropped sweaters and clingy pants. But female country fans flocked to the sassy self-reliance of Twain compositions like Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under? and (If You're Not in It for Love) I'm Outta Here. "The Woman in Me had a few songs that really seemed LUCINDA CHODAN Gazette Entertainment Editor Can Shania Twain do it again? That's the question on the minds of music-industry executives across North America as hundreds of thousands of copies of Twain's new album, Come On Over, hit record-store shelves this morning. Twain's 1995 album The Woman in Me has sold more than 12 million units worldwide, making it the best-selling country album by a female artist in history. And it spawned no fewer than eight hit singles in Canada and the US.

an astonishing figure, especially when you consider that only a few country fans north of Nashville had ever heard of her before it was released. You might think that Twain, 32, would feel pressured by her own success. Not exactly. "I actually started writing some of the material for this album at the height of The Woman in Me, so it has seemed like a gradual process," she said in a recent phone interview. "Obviously, it's the goal of everyone who works with these types of things to outsell yourself.

But quite honestly, my goal is much more to outdo the quality. Besides, I'm not sure how realistic it is to plan on selling a certain number of records. Looking at the history of many successful artists, it just depends on what's going on at the time." Like The Woman in Me, Come On Over features only original material by Twain and husbandproducer Robert John (Mutt) Lange. And like the previous album, it has a distinctive rock-crossover flavour, thanks to Lange, who has produced legendary albums for such rock entities as Def Leppard and Bryan Adams. But Come On Over edges even closer to rock territory, with intense percussion and instrumentation that strays pretty far from the country fold.

Like a Shania Twain plans spring tour. to grab the listeners' attention songs like Any Man of Mine and (If You're Not in It for Love) I'm Outta Here," she RETRACING THE JOURNEY of humour, so it seemed natural to continue on with that." Consequently, more than a handful of the 16 songs on Come On Over deal with such topics as possessive-ness (Don't Be Stupid You Know I Love You), domestic abuse (Black Eyes, Blue Tears) and male-female dynamics (If You Want to Touch Her, "I actually felt a sense of freedom with this album, because I felt, 'Well, they obviously relate to the way I This album, Come On Over, is very, very much the way I really think. "I know a lot of people are saying, 'Is this going to be a bigger Twain said. "But from a songwriting in a dugout canoe. The breathtaking 'X m'-ry 'J rffr- vl s.

I Vt, jiijjiiiiMlillllllBl luv Vw 4 z. retraced Lewis and Clark's journey Top American documentary-maker ewis ark and Ke Acclaimed documentary-maker's latest PBS masterpiece debuts on nal and Adam Arkin) speaking dialogue derived from letters and journal entries, cameras slowly panning oil paintings and maps to offer a visual representation of people, places and events that predated film; a lilting and highly evocative original score, played on acoustic instruments; succinct, vivid excerpts from interviews with historians and authors (including Stephen Ambrose and William Least-Heat Moon). Burns combines these elements to create films that are instantly identifiable as his. They are beautiful to look at, lovely to listen to (the combination of voices, including narrator Hal Hol-brook's, and music is hypnotic) and effective in conveying information. Burns is the master of this type of film making.

I found his approach overblown when applied to Baseball, but the wide-angle scope of Burns's vision is well-suited to topics, such as the West, Ken Burns (front) and his collaborators and CI Lewis (left) and Clark, as painted by Charles Wilson Peale. Burns has said that the star of his latest film is "the land itself and its extraordinary beauty" He describes Lewis and Clark as "our valentine to the country" We should all be so lucky, come Feb. 14. In retracing the 1804 westward voyage led by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, Burns and his film crews captured some gorgeous footage. They did a lot of shooting at sunrise and sunset the times of day that bathe the great plains in pastel hues.

Viewers watching on large-screen home theatre TV sets are going to be bowled over by Top 10 EE the scenery Picture-postcard cinematography is not included just to generate a few ooohs and aaaahs out in TVland. Breathtaking shots give viewers at home a sense of the awe experienced by the first U.S. citizens to set foot in this part of what was to become their country In 1801, when Thomas Jefferson became president, two out of three Americans lived within 50 miles of the Atlantic Ocean. The young country's western border was the Mississippi River. Jefferson was fascinated by the West.

His library at Monticello included books that described a land populated by "blue-eyed Indians who spoke Welsh" Debunking this nonsense was not Jefferson's reason for commissioning an exploratory expedition. The American president believed in the existence of a northwest passage to the Orient The dream of easy access to the riches of the Far East lured a succession of explorers out of the Atlantic coastal enclaves of North America. Lewis and Clark never found the northwest passage. But in 214 years of travelling, their team (which included French-Canadian boatmen) reached the peaks of the Rocky Mountains, crossed the continental divide and became the first Americans to reach the Pacific Ocean by land. If you've seen any of Bur ns's documentaries, you're familiar with the stylistic flourishes that are in ample evidence, again, in Lewis and Clark: actors (including Sam Waterston, Matthew Broderick, Kevin Conway Tantoo Cardi The Heritage Minutes are terrific, but if the CRB Foundation is serious about using television to bring Canadian history to life, it ought to hire Ken Burns.

On the other hand, Charles Bronfman's charitable trust might not be able to afford the services of the American documentary-maker Through 10 years of brilliant film making for the Public Broadcasting Service -a run that has included The Civil War, Baseball, The West and Thomas Jefferson-Burns has spent the largess of MIKE BOONE TV RADIO only one corporate underwriter General Motors. And Chevy outsells VO. How valuable is association with a Ken Burns film? Lewis and Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery was underwritten by GM, several charitable foundations and the state of Montana, where-the underwriter's blurb proclaims "scenes of visionary enchantment can still be discovered." Given its recent reputation as a haven for heavily armed right-wing nutbars, Montana could use some positive publicity The state may not become a vacation mecca overnight, but Montana will be basking in the reflected glory of Lewis and Clark, four hours of great television that begins tonight on Vermont ETV Box office Weekend of Oct. 3 TV TONIGHT Mel Brooks on Mad About You result is a typical Burns success. ETV-33 tonight that merit epic treatment Burns is at work on TV biographies of Frank Lloyd Wright, Mark Twain and pioneering feminists Susan B.

Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. His next multi-episode blockbuster will be a TV history of jazz. A gifted American has done much to advance the art of the documentary, a genre that was developed right here at the National Film Board-by an expatriate Briton, John Grierson. Some of the CBC's best film-makers -working under the direction of Mark Starowicz are preparing a comprehensive television history of Canada. The project undoubtedly will reflect to some degree, the influence of Ken Burns.

He's the best Lewis and Clark The Journey of the Corps of Discovery begins tonight at8on Vermont ETV-33. The Fifth Estate (CBMT-6 at 9): Death in Mexico. Mystery at 9): Silent Witness: Cease Upon the Midnight. W5 (CFCF-12 at 10): Results of the Howard Stern telephone polL Tonight Show (WPTZ-5 at FranDrescher. Tonight's listings.

Page C8 part, had heard nary a word about it Several attending the festival, where the film had its premiere, said they thought the movie had been released in the United States before arriving here. "This is the first time it will be shown anywhere?" asked Yasuo Sato, a middle manager at a bank here. "Are you sure?" Others were worried about the film's length, three hours and three minutes. But when star Leonardo DiCaprio and James Cameron, the director, screenwriter and producer of Titanic! made their appearance, the crowd gave them an eager welcome. Please see TITANIC Page Cl2 Burns Titanic makes a small splash Gazette television columnist Mike Boone picks the best of tonight's programs: Mad About You (CKMI-46 at 8): Mel Brooks guest stars as Uncle Phil.

Point de Vue (Tele-Quebec-17 at 8): Translated Frontline series on child abuse. Masterpiece Theatre (WCFE-57 at 8): The Moonstone. Intimate Interactive (MuchMu- wide debut in Tokyo, at the 10th annual Tokyo International Film Festival. And, yes, everyone was waiting or rather, pushing and shoving to catch a glimpse of Harrison Ford, who was in town to promote Air Force One. "He's so sexy!" gushed Tomoko Kimura, a 21-year-old student who had staked claim to her sliver of sidewalk outside the Tokyo Bunkamura cultural center five hours earlier.

Unlike film audiences in the United States, where Titanic and its budget, bickering financial backers and taskmaster of a director were a focus of speculation over the last three people here had, for the mast The movie that all Hollywood is talking about for all the wrong reasons was barely noticed at its world premiere in Tokyo over the weekend. New York Times TOKYO Yes, Titanic, the $200-mil-lion U.S. love story-disaster film that Hollywood gossips have dined out on for the last three years, was making its world premiere here over the weekend. And, yes, it was the first time in as long as anyone can remember that a block buster American film had had its world F3m Weekend Week Film Weekend Week gross gross millions) thousands) 1. 1 Know What You Did 9.5 3 LBean 296 3 2.

Red Corner 7.6 1 2. Devil's Advocate 146 3 3. Devil's Advocate 7.6 3 3. Seven Years in Tibet 111 4 A. Boogie Nights 4.7 2 4.

1 Know What You Did 82 3 5. Kiss the Girl 3.6 5 5. Red Corner 75 1 6. Seven Years in Tibet 3.4 4 6. Kiss the Girl 56 5 7.

Fairy Tale 2.7 2 7. Boogie Nights 43 2 8. Gattaca 2.7 2 8. The Game 41 8 9. Switchback 2.5 1 9.RienNe VaPlus 32 2 ID.

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