Scissor sisters

Movie presentations of pop groups' live shows are occasionally cinematic delights per se, and not just when Martin Scorsese directs them. If a group is confident enough, it will let a talented director frame and edit their performances, on and off stage, to create the movie equivalent of a parade of visually exciting floats conveying their music to fresh heights of thrills or meanings. Were the arch-gay NY-formed UK-resident Scissor Sisters glam-rock and honky-tonk fivesome that self-confident?

In 2004, their live concert at the Brighton Dome was recorded for their first DVD, We Are Scissor Sisters ... And So Are You. It also included a bio-documentary, Return to Oz. Both were directed by Julien Temple. Three years later in London, an O2 live show was captured in A Year of Ta-Dah, a debut direction for an unknown Benjamin Hoffman (the same family name as one of the group's founding members, NY-born Scot Hoffman aka Babydaddy).

He's the somewhat Teddy Bear-ish bearded guitarist whose stage persona is Nervousness. His be-suited lead guitar counterpoint, "Del Marquis", personifies Aloofness. There's a non-gay drummer in between them (originally "Paddy Boom"), personifying nothing special, while the group's primary foci are slim ultra-exhibitionist Jake Shears and plumpish butchy Ana "Matronic". Her to-camera remarks provide the thread for Temple's neatly-edited 26-minute documentary, showing how the group formed, starting with Hoffman and Shears sharing a bed.