Spacey's back! And he's involved in corrupt policing again! A stellar cast and Justin Timberlake play out the gritty drama, and expect many a twist...

The third entry of 1998-99's cinematic TV trilogy kind of got lost in the shuffle following The Truman Show, an art film masquerading as a blockbuster, and Pleasantville, a heartfelt feel-good movie masquerading as a special-effects extravaganza. Edtv is nothing more than it appears: a scruffy comedy about fame and its discontents. Matthew McConaughey stars as Ed, a white-trash rube who gets his own dawn-to-midnight TV series in which every aspect of his life, no matter how sordid or dull or embarrassing, becomes mass entertainment (it inverts Truman by having the protagonist invite the pervasive cameras). Predictably, fame makes him miserable and, unsurprisingly, he finds a way out of his predicament. Albert Brooks covered this same territory in the funnier Real Life, and it's probably not the best idea for a load of comfy celebs to preach to us about how difficult fame is. But the film is cannily cast, including a number of performers who themselves have fallen victim to stupid media tricks (McConaughey, Ellen DeGeneres as the network executive, Elizabeth Hurley as a vamp hitching her star to Ed's and Woody Harrelson as Ed's even dumber brother). Structurally, the movie is a mess. It looks as if the filmmakers had the choice between making a fully realised, two-and-a-half-hour-long movie that no one would sit through or one that clocks in under two hours but has a lot of plot holes; they opted for the latter (Hurley's character disappears, practically without comment). Still, there are enough laughs to keep things moving and as a shaggy dog tale it's decent fun. --David Kronke, Amazon.com --This text refers to another version of this video.

A 70-minute co-production between various European TV companies Edvard Grieg: What Price Immortality? seeks to reveal the man behind the iconic image of Norway's great national composer. Death in Venice (1971) is immediately called to mind as the narrative unfolds through the memories of an elderly Grieg sitting alone on the deck of a boat, particularly in sequences which suggest a more-than-platonic love for fellow composer Rikard Nordraak. The memory structure likewise suggests the Proust adaptation Time Regained, from the same year, while comparison can also be drawn with Ken Russell's TV composer biopics, particularly the elegiac Song of Summer (1968).

Set around performances of two of Grieg's most personal works, the piano Ballade and the String Quartet, director Thomas Olofsson effectively creates a "silent movie" where the storytelling is predominantly visual, eloquently assisted by Derek Jacobi as the voice of the composer. Grieg is played by various actors at different ages, most notably by the distinguished pianist Staffan Scheja, while even without uttering a word Claudia Z makes a charismatic impression as Grieg's wife, Nina. Elegantly composed and lit, this beautiful, resolutely middle-brow film is ultimately far too derivative of previous art films to achieve artistic greatness of its own.

On the DVD: the stereo sound and anamorphically enhanced 1.77:1 image are both very good, with the latter showing just occasional grain. Colours and detail levels are excellent. There are no extras, only Spanish subtitles and a choice of English, French and German voiceovers. Trailers for a further five Arthaus DVDs are included. --Gary S Dalkin