Hacker Cinema
Stop Making Sense
1984 · Film · documentary · 88 min
Directed by Jonathan Demme
A concert film documenting Talking Heads at the height of their popularity, on tour for their 1983 album "Speaking in Tongues." The band takes the stage one by one and is joined by a cadre of guest musicians for a career-spanning and cinematic performance that features creative choreography and visuals.
10 positive3 neutralfrom 13 commenters
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14 comments on Hacker News
The Long Goodbye (R. Altman) Akira (Otomo) Cinema Paradiso (G. Tornatore) In the Mood for Love (Wong Kar Wai) Tron (S. Lisberger) Stop Making Sense (J. Demme)
Additionally, the rerelease is being handled by A24[0], who signed on to the WGA/SAG-AFTRA back in July[1].
[0]: https://a24films.com/films/stop-making-sense
[1]: https://variety.com/2023/film/news/sag-aftra-independent-projects-waivers-1235673546/
> Not mentioning The Last Waltz is pretty unpardonable. But this IS a great movie, and so is that.
It's probably been 20 years since I've seen it, but isn't The Last Waltz a pretty straightforward recording of a concert? Stop Making Sense might seem like just a concert film, but I think the author's point is that it's quite unlike pretty much everything else in the category.
I saw David Byrne present Stop Making Sense at Metrograph here in NYC in 2017 and he gave a lot of insights on the making of it. One major one is that they filmed from a different camera angle on each of the three nights and put the concert together in post. So one night was from stage left, another night stage right, another straight on -- he didn't want you to see camera's in the background at all unless it was intentional (the article mentions it was filmed over three nights, but not this intentional framing).
He mentioned something about wanting the audience to see how the Talking Heads put together the band and a show over time, which is why he chose to build it up from that solo guitar moment up through Bernie Worrell (!) and the rest of the musicians walking on stage. He said he always had anxiety performing and would collapse back stage once it was over at first, but finally got comfortable with that front man role as time went on.
He also felt that Talking Heads were at the height of their powers (his words) and wanted to capture it, but couldn't get funding for a film and had to personally put up the money for it.
As for the "big suit", he said no one in the band knew it was happening and everyone sort of lost it when he walked on stage in it the first night.
Edit: One thing I forgot, Jonathan Demme gets mentioned all the time when talking about the film, but people forget that Jordan Cronenweth did the cinematography and had recently come off of doing Blade Runner.
Not a big fan of Amazon in general, but it's worth noting Prime has a pretty great catalogue of concert performances and music documentaries. Including Stop Making Sense.
If you haven't seen it (or haven't watched it recently) and can't make it to a theater, do yourself a favor and watch it at home. It's such a beautiful celebration of music, "from the bottom to the top."
I like Byrne's summary of the movie. I never thought of a "plot".
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2023-09-20/talking-heads-stop-making-sense-rerelease
From the article: David, you’ve said the film has a narrative. How would you describe it? Byrne: There’s a guy who is not that comfortable socially, very anxious and nervous, and he gradually finds community and a way to let go, through music and dancing. He finds a way to be more comfortable, and he finds joy.
The Strong Songs Podcast had a really excellent dissection of this movie.
https://strongsongspodcast.com/episode/talking-heads-stop-making-sense
>I'm exactly the opposite, I think they jumped the shark after this album .. ;)
I don't know about that, While Stop Making Sense was brilliant, Naked[0] is a pretty darn good album too. And their older stuff is somewhat hit or miss, e.g., More Songs About Buildings and Food[2] and Speaking in Tongues[3] had bright spots, but also some crappy songs too. But Fear of Music[1] is mostly spot on, IMHO.
I'm pretty excited about the re-release, as it's a fabulous album and an excellent movie (right up there with The Last Waltz[4] and other concert movies)
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naked_(Talking_Heads_album)
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear_of_Music
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/More_Songs_About_Buildings_and_Food
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speaking_in_Tongues_(Talking_Heads_album)
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Waltz
> One of the few directors to overcome these obstacles and create a concert movie artistically equal to his fiction features is the late Jonathan Demme—with “Stop Making Sense,” his 1984 film of the band Talking Heads in performance.
Not mentioning The Lsst Waltz is pretty unpardonable. But this IS a great movie, and so is that.
> The oversized boxy suit that Byrne wears for several numbers in the film has become iconic, but it’s also superfluous: he’s already expressing its essence in performance throughout the concert
and what, one wonders, is the "essence" of the big suit?
I've gotten to see Stop Making Sense at the local arthouse theater a couple times in the last five years and it has people out of their seats, dancing in the aisles 6 songs in. It's an incredible, ecstatic film.
The band and director agreed that they wanted to see the band having fun, not the audience, and not the band being virtuosic. So there's no close ups of a guitar solo (the camera cuts away to other musicians reacting to the guitar solo) and there's almost no shots of the crowd.
The effect is infectious gotta-move can't-stop-it fun. Probably the most unique movie theater experience I've ever had and I'd recommend it even if you don't know the band.
My favorite use of The Blue Danube is actually at the end of The Wages of Fear (1953). I've read the Dirk Gently books but it's been a long time and I don't remember that passage. I wonder if that's where the movie Yesterday got its idea from?
BTW, you've seen Talking Heads' Stop Making Sense, yes? I know it's not classical obviously but as far as films set to music, it's hard to top.
> When I saw that somewhat ambiguous title, I was hoping it was about that song. Now I have to watch all those videos!
Same here! I thought, "there's no way Talking Heads is near the top of HN".
> Stop Making Sense is one of the all-time great music movies (and I try to watch 'em all).
I still find it hard to wrap my head around the fact that Jonathan Demme, the director of Stop Making Sense, also directed Silence of the Lambs and Philadelphia.
When I saw that somewhat ambiguous title, I was hoping it was about that song. Now I have to watch all those videos!
Stop Making Sense is one of the all-time great music movies (and I try to watch 'em all).
Once in a Lifetime is a song where you just have to ask "where the hell did that come from?"
US TV ruined it. It's entirely different coverage in at least europe, none of this editorializing, profiles, etc etc. Just coverage.
I liken it to something Jonathan Demme (paraphrasing, maybe misattributing) said about Stop Making Sense - "concert films like to show the audience having fun, but our feeling is it limits/detracts from the experience" (stop making sense shows the audience very very little in its runtime)
So, to me, this carries over in the US coverage - they make all the decisions about how I should feel about every part, rather than letting the viewer come up with their own experience.
Reminds me very much of the scene from film Stop Making Sense of David Byrne singing and dancing with a lamp:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cqg_ZGcuybs