The Ottawa Citizen from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada • 63

I '11 ARTS Page D9 Editor: Hadani Ditaars, 596-3729 ArtsthecitizeiLsoutham.ca THE OTTAWA CITIZEN, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1999 eyre takin he country out or iiania Why tfa ymm WAIN New Twain CD takes the twang out of the tunes i uppose you've heard the romantic ballad From This Moment On by Shania Twain i "on your favourite non-country radio sta-tion. It's the perfect song to mark a special moment in your life, so you rush out and buy the CD, making sure it includes the song. mm' Lynn Saxberg You get home, put it on and skip ahead to the track. Wait a second. The song is familiar but there's some guy singing on it.

You check the liner notes: Who the heck is Bryan White and why is he Music i -0 ruining the song with his nasal twang? In fact, the song was intended to be a duet with White. That's how it appears on the mega-selling album Come on Over. Twain even scooped a vocal collaboration of the year award for it at this year's Canadian Country Music awards. But the original version of the song is completely different from the version that's played on pop radio stations. The pop version contains no inkling of White's existence.

I don't blame anyone if they feel tricked. Until now, the only version of the disc in North American record stores has been the one with the "country" version of the song, the one with White. But as of today, you can rush out and buy a brand-new copy of Come On Over, billed as the "international" version. It's a revamped edition of the two-year-old album that contains the "pop" versions of From This Moment On White), You've Got A Way, That's Don't Impress Me Much and You're Still The One. There's new artwork, the song order has been shuffled and, for no apparent reason, the running time is 19 seconds longer.

Now Shania certainly isn't the first artist to redo songs for different purposes. Dance remix-es have been around as long as disco. And one of In Shania's case, her camp first remixed Come On Over songs for the European market, which has never been hot for country music. But you can't be a global superstar without conquering Europe, so somebody sat down and started twiddling knobs to take out Twain's country flavour (hence the "International" designation). Any sign of pedal steel, the plaintive-sounding signature instrument of American country music, was zapped.

In its place are some lush keyboards. White's heartfelt contribution to From This Moment On is outta there (oops, he's still thanked for his contribution in the liner notes). Punchy snare drums and crisp electric guitars are history, too. In their place are dancey drum loops, atmospheric synthesizers or orchestral-sounding keyboards. The bass is beefed up and the rhythm sharpened.

But Twain's vocals are untouched. Unfortunately. If ever a singer needed to electronically enhance her voice, it's Twain. Hearing her on the original country disc, I made excuses for her she's a country singer, she has a character voice. But hearing her against the synths and drum loops, she comes off as just plain bad.

Anyway, as a result of this extra effort, her songs got played on thousands more radio stations a zillion more times, inspiring throngs more people to rush out and buy the disc. The numbers are 20 million copies of Come On Over sold worldwide, which includes nearly two million in Canada (and some 52,000 in the Ottawa area we've given her a gold album). Financially, the remix idea was a stroke of marketing brilliance, despite the frustration it caused fans who felt they were duped into buying the disc. So you have to give Twain (and her record company) credit for finally making the revised songs available as part of die whole package just in time for Christmas and just in time to be plugged on her television special on Thursday. And though it raises the question of her commitment to country music, well, we've been there.

It's no secret that Twain has her eye on the entire world and to do that, she has to be a pop superstar, not a country singer with sex appeal. This disc is just the latest step in the crossover. It's also getting a third Christmas out of an album that's already been stretched tighter than the slinky black velour number she's wearing on the new inside cover. But you have to rush out and buy it to see that the first to polish her music for pop radio was Jewel, whose song Foolish Games was a hit only after the album version was remixed. In theory, remixing songs for pop radio smooths out the edges, making a rock song more lush, an urban song less rhythmic or a country song less whiny.

Everyone's doing it these days, from Lenny Kravitz to Whitney Houston to Foo Fighters to the Tea Party. Kravitz's remake of American Woman, for example, had an electric-guitar version for rock 'radio, and a keyboard version for pop stations. Rumour has it Kravitz didn't want to know about pop remix, leading many to suspect that artists have nothing to do with remixes. It seems 'somebody in marketing decides it's necessary and the producers do the work. MOE DOIRON, THE CANADIAN PRESS Shania Twain's 'international' edition of Come On Over, top left, is a revamped edition of the two-year-old album that contains the 'pop' versions of From This Moment On You've Got A Way, That Don't Impress Me Much and You're Still The One.

Savoer a European stew of films ,1, 1 Festival showcases wide variety of filmmaking styles. Wes Smiderle looks at the diverse lineup. Ftom a tense, low-budget road movie following a desperate woman's flight from deportation to a sprawling 18th century drama depicting the relationship between a young pastor and a fiery, passionate young woman, the 14th annual European Union Film Festival showcases the breadth of style and content within Europe's movie industry. Anyone paying close attention might even spot a cameo appearance by a certain Swedish right-winger with the Ottawa Senators. "You can't just show all edgy, low-budget films because that's not reflective of what's going on in Europe," says Tom McSorley, director of the Canadian Film Institute and festival organizer.

"You have to balance that kind of work with the more traditional kinds of popular cinema that's being made and made welL" As a result, the festival contains a wide variety of styles. From tomorrow until Dec. 8, a different film will be shown each night in the newly renovated auditorium of the National Archives on Wellington Street. "Themes emerge sort of accidentally," says McSorley. "Interestingly, in the second half of the festival in particular, there's a sense of Europe as a place of displacement and resurgence.

It's a kind of feeling that existing traditions have been shaken by events of the late 20th century." Love is an overriding preoccupation, as it is every year, and there are two war films, which McSorley says is unusual for the festival. "Even in Europe, the films are all about World War Two." The films are selected by the Film Institute in collaboration with embassies from all 15 member states. McSorley sees hundreds of movies a year at festivals in virtually every corner of Europe. "I see a lot of, work I want to bring to Ottawa because I know it will be perceived as too idio-syncratically Portugese, or too idiosyncratically one around her. (All those rabid Euro-film Ottawa Senators fans out there may want to take note that Sens right-winger Andreas Dackell makes a brief appearance in the movie.) FRIDAY Based on Thomas Hardy's novel of the same name, The Woodlanders, from the UK, is set in a late 19th century rural corner of England.

Grace, the daughter of a timber merchant, returns from finishing school and abandons her childhood sweetheart for a young doctor, who isn't all she had hoped for. SATURDAY Directed by Jean-Phillippe Toussaint, Belgium's The Skating Rink is a comedy about love and how to shoot a movie on an ice rink. SUNDAY Denmark's grand historical epic, Barbara, concerns the relationship between a vicar and Barbara, whose sinful charm brings the young man some hard lessons on the subjects of love and misery. MONDAY Germany's offering, Rossini (or the Fatal Question of Who Slept with Whom), is a wicked comedy presenting several short stories set almost entirely in a fictitious restaurant called Rossini, where all the players go to see and be seen. TUESDAY, NOV.

30 From Greece, All of Us, Effendi is set on the island of Ikaria in the '40s, where a small group of mountain guerrillas have their own opinions on their party's role in the abrupt ending of Greece's civil war. WEDNESDAY, DEC. 1 Spain's The Master Swordsman is set in the political turmoil of Madrid in 1868, where an aging swordsman is pursued by a mysterious woman who begs him to teach her the art of wielding the blade. See FILMS on page D10 Germany's offering, Rossini is a wicked comedy presenting several short stories set almost entirely in a fictitious restaurant called Rossini. German, or whatever, for distributors over here to buy," he says.

"The festival's role becomes a way of showing films that wouldn't otherwise make it here, even on video. "All the films have appeal for anybody who wants to know what's going on in European cinema." Festival schedule TOMORROW From Finland, Ambush is an exploration of how war hardens and destroys the human soul. Set in the summer of 1941 as the Finnish army mobilizes against the mighty Russian war machine, a platoon led by Lieut. Perkola trudges through the wilderness seeking out Russian defensive positions. A rest-stop in a conquered village leads them to an encounter with the Women's Auxiliary Corps and Perkola's fiancee.

THURSDAY Sweden's Such is Life tells the story of Tin-Tin, a travelling piano player whose impending 30th birthday triggers a panicky determination to get married, while also disrupting the lives of every 4a..