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 Stop Making Sense (1984) Directed by Jonathan Demme Starring David Byrne, Tina Weymouth, Chris Frantz, Jerry Harrison, Bernie Worrell, Lynn Mabry, Edna Holt, Steve Scales, Alex Weir, a lighting guy, a magic beach ball Stop Making Sense is a document of a band at its creative and commercial peak. Tom Tom Club would never quite again hit the heights of their breakout hit, "Genius of Love." Talking Heads were also at their peak.  Assembled from footage of three concerts in as many days and funded by the band, Stop Making Sense is often referred to as the "greatest concert film ever." It's one of those claims that can be hard to live up to, and having been so hyped I naturally expected a certain level of disappointment. There was none. Nor did it necessarily feel like an epiphany. But I found myself wrapped up in it. And when it was over I wanted to get on the sixteen-song ride again. David Byrne gets a "conceived for the stage by" line in the opening credits, but there isn't a real "plot" or major conceit driving the entire show. What is there is an attempt to keep things from being static. Every song gets a different treatment in the choreography and/or lighting and/or the occasional prop, creating a feeling of progression and several dramatic moments. The opening of the film famously sees each member of the band arriving on stage one at a time for the first several songs, joining Byrne and filling out the enormous set aided by the stage crew dragging out more equipment. The enlarged incarnation of the band at this time provided plenty of grist for interesting moments in the performances.  Capturing those moments was Jonathan "Silence of the Lambs" Demme's (and cinematographer Jordan "Blade Runner" Cronenweth's) job. Along with editor Lisa Day, their most readily noticeable contribution is the number of long, sustained shots of performances, as opposed to using quick cuts or camera moves to artificially keep the energy up. In a performance with so much going on none of this was needed. The dramatic lighting used on certain songs is also wonderfully captured. What it all adds up to is an incredibly memorable and fun time. Upon release people reportedly got up and danced in the theater as if they were at an actual concert, and that's a good a testament as any.  The Complete Movie of the Month Listing: 1776 | 2001: A Space Odyssey | 24 Hour Party People | 8 1/2 | The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension | Aguirre: The Wrath of God | All That Jazz | American Movie | Baraka | The Battle of Algiers | Being There | Beyond the Valley of the Dolls | Bicycle Thief | Black Hawk Down | Blade | Branded to Kill | The Brave Little Toaster | Breaking Away | The Bridge on the River Kwai | Bullet in the Head | Charade | Chitty Chitty Bang Bang | Close-Up | The Conversation | The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover | Day For Night | The Court Jester | Death Race 2000 | Dead Man | Darkman | Detour | Devils on the Doorstep | Double Indemnity | Downfall | Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde | El Topo | Falling Down | A Face In The Crowd | Fanny and Alexander | Fat City | Funny Bones | Galaxy Quest | Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai | Glengarry Glen Ross | Gremlins 2: The New Batch | Horor of Dracula | La Haine | The Ice Storm | The Intruder | It's a Wonderful Life | Judgement at Nuremberg | Jumanji | The King of Comedy | Last Train From Gun Hill | The Leopard | The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp | Little Shop of Horrors | Living in Oblivion | The Long Goodbye | Love & Death | M | Masculin Féminin | Man on Fire | The Man Who Would Be King | Modern Times | Mousehunt | Mulholland Drive | My Best Friend's Wedding | My Darling Clementine | My Own Private Idaho | Naked | Outland | The Panic in Needle Park | Peeping Tom | Planes, Trains, and Automobiles | Play Time | The Proposition | Punishment Park | The Pusher Trilogy | Rififi/Rashômon | The Ref | Rock 'n' Roll High School | Ronin | The Rules of the Game | Safe | Schizopolis | Son of Frankenstein | The Squid and the Whale | Stop Making Sense | The Super Inframan | Sunset Boulevard | Surviving The Game | The Sweet Hereafter | The Third Man | Titicut Follies | Vampyr | The Vanishing | Videodrome | The Wild Bunch | Wit | Withnail & I | The Young Girls of Rochefort | Zardoz
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Sep 2, 2014 04:01
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This was the perfect movie to pick for this right now because the movie's getting 30th anniversary screenings this year. Most of them are already done, but I found a partial list of the remaining dates:quote:09/06 – New Orleans, LA @ Shotgun Cinema Two weeks ago there was a screening in my city but I had to miss it. That was heartbreaking, this is by far the best concert film I've ever seen.
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Sep 2, 2014 08:09
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Discount Viscount posted:What it all adds up to is an incredibly memorable and fun time. Upon release people reportedly got up and danced in the theater as if they were at an actual concert, and that's a good a testament as any. I believe this, because when I saw it in theaters a few months ago, this is exactly what I wanted to do. I absolutely love this movie, and I vastly prefer these versions of some songs, like Burning Down The House and Life During Wartime, which is a one-two punch of energy and great songwriting.
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Sep 2, 2014 12:45
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This is my favorite movie of all time. I just rewatched the Blu-Ray over the weekend.
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Sep 2, 2014 19:39
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Talking Heads is one of those bands where I think everything they did was gold. 77 is an amazing punk album, and while there were a lot of groups like Wire and Alternative TV who were doing similar stuff at the time they were doing it - even The Clash progressing in a more 'world music' direction - I think it's only Talking Heads who managed to cross the threshold between punk and New Wave without losing anything. Between the '70s and the '80s they managed to consistently produce solid works that took influence from changes in pop music but always went one step beyond. The closest New Wave groups I think that could touch them were maybe Oingo Boingo and The Police. The performance of "Psycho Killer" is so perfectly executed. A lot of concert movies simply live and die on your personal feel for the music or the bombast of the production. (This is where last year's Metallica: Through the Never went so, so wrong.) But the opening with "Psycho Killer," Byrne backed up by the cassette tape while the show is being set up around him, strips away the lazy, superficial spectacle and challenges the spectator to literally look at the music. It recalls the simplicity of Monterey Pop (which I still think is the superior counterculture concert film; sorry Woodstock fans), which fixated on music and performance as an overpowering, religious experience. Except the very genre of music that Byrne specializes in, with its mixture of postmodern and deconstructionist irony and flamboyant rock 'n' roll nostalgia, inflects this spirituality with a synthetic, mechanical subversiveness. It's not anti-spiritual, by any means (again, the music is the spiritual ritual), but by disillusioning and de-romanticizing the performer, it reflects the abandonment of the naive optimism of the 60s counterculture, epitomized in the performance of "Heaven," which soberly informs us that paradise is a place where "nothing ever happens." But because the band is so skilled, it equally rejects the apathetic sophomoricism of punk. It reminds the spectator that we actually need skilled musicians to express emotions other than apathy, self-hatred, and rage. K. Waste fucked around with this message at 22:10 on Sep 2, 2014 |
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Sep 2, 2014 22:07
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K. Waste posted:Except the very genre of music that Byrne specializes in, with its mixture of postmodern and deconstructionist irony and flamboyant rock 'n' roll nostalgia, inflects this spirituality with a synthetic, mechanical subversiveness. It's not anti-spiritual, by any means (again, the music is the spiritual ritual) Byrne's all about dancing on that line. "The Big Country" and True Stories (which I almost decided to pick alongside this and make it a rare Double Feature of the Month but the only readily-available viewing options at the moment are cropped, and gently caress that) both have that detachment from their small-town-life subjects, and yet have affection for them. The performance of "Heaven" in the film is so gorgeous compared to the Fear of Music version (which I just listened to coincidentally earlier today), which really enhances that aspect. The album version is very clearly detached, courtesy of some ethereal treatment on the vocals, and totally emphasizes that it's about Heaven being boring, while the concert one soars, in no small part due to Lynn Mabry's offstage vocal backing. Speaking of the bigger band, I love how the song-by-song buildup mirrors/represents the band's own growth from a stripped down three (or even two) piece outfit to the more-than-double sized touring band. If only Adrian Belew were in this performance... I wish "Pull Up the Roots" from Speaking in Tongues had made it into the setlist over "Swamp," but that's about the only sticking point I have and it's down to personal taste. My single favorite sequence is probably "What a Day That Was." It's almost its own short film. So much energy, and so overtly cinematic in conception and shooting.
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Sep 3, 2014 04:22
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Stop Making Sense is one of those movies I'll watch a few minutes on YouTube, then watch the entire film. This is how you do a concert film. (Also, I love "Swamp" in the film. It's a creepy song on its own, but that shot of David Byrne rising up is perfect)
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Sep 3, 2014 04:29
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Egbert Souse posted:Stop Making Sense is one of those movies I'll watch a few minutes on YouTube, then watch the entire film. This is how you do a concert film. Yeah it's a great shot. I just like "Pull Up the Roots" more as a song, though "Swamp" has grown on me. The best part about The Big Suit is when he takes off The Big Jacket and is just wearing The Big Pants for the finish.
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Sep 3, 2014 04:42
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Discount Viscount posted:Yeah it's a great shot. I just like "Pull Up the Roots" more as a song, though "Swamp" has grown on me. What I like is how the visuals are a perfect complement to the music. It's like a live-action Fantasia. That shot of Byrne's shadow descending the stairs at the beginning of Girlfriend is Better, Lynn Mabry and Edna Holt swishing their hair around in Slippery People, and the athletics of Life During Wartime.
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Sep 4, 2014 02:35
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Egbert Souse posted:and the athletics of Life During Wartime. On the commentary Byrne quips that you can also watch the film as an exercise video, just copy him every day and shed pounds in no time.
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Sep 4, 2014 02:46
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I just watched it again and noted a couple of things. Fades between shots are only used on "Heaven," suiting the subject matter and tempo of the song. "What a Day That Was" consists of facial closeups, a couple of wide shots during the breakdowns, and a couple of slightly pulled out shots focused around Lynn and Edna, including the wonderful bit where Byrne comes in and crosses over to the other microphone and back. The final shot with Byrne bending over and spent and looking a bit like Elvis is wonderful. It all feels like some intense ghost story / conjuring over a campfire. "Once in a Lifetime" is one unbroken shot until near the end (as Wikipedia reminded me), and the shot it finally cuts to is wonderful:  The song's patterned around the repetition and rhythms of a radio preacher, Byrne's spasm dancing resembles someone being filled with the spirit at a faith healing, staying on him in one shot adds to the fixation, and the tension is released in this ethereal image of him and his transfixed acolytes being overseen by supernatural entities on another plane. Egbert Souse posted:What I like is how the visuals are a perfect complement to the music.
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Sep 4, 2014 05:28
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Stop Making Sense is the movie that got me into Talking Heads. And about a year after I first watched it, I got the pleasure of seeing two tornados dance around each other while I blasted the SMS version of "Girlfriend Is Better." It's probably my strongest memory that's associated with a song.
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Sep 4, 2014 12:31
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Discount Viscount posted:"Once in a Lifetime" is one unbroken shot until near the end (as Wikipedia reminded me), and the shot it finally cuts to is wonderful: This is one of my favorite shots ever. Because of the lighting, all perspective is lost, and it looks so ethereal and otherworldly, as the singers slowly rise up toward the mics. Beautiful.
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Sep 4, 2014 12:56
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X-Ray Pecs posted:This is one of my favorite shots ever. Because of the lighting, all perspective is lost, and it looks so ethereal and otherworldly, as the singers slowly rise up toward the mics. Beautiful. The lighting is my favorite supporting character. As noted on Wikipedia (once again! and possibly in the commentary, I forget) Byrne eschewed the use of colored lights for this show, which is part of what gives it its unique look and led to playing around with the lighting in other ways. By the end of the month we'll probably have posted every shot from the movie in here.
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Sep 4, 2014 21:16
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I love this movie. Seen it countless times and shown it to so many people at house parties etc. but if there's one thing I wish I could change it's that loving keyboard solo., it almost ruins the whole thing for me. I love the performances of I, Zimbra and Cities in the bonus features also, I wish there was room for them somewhere in the movie.
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Sep 6, 2014 15:00
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I had never seen Stop Making Sense, but had always heard about how it was this groundbreaking movie made by Talking Heads, the music is fantastic, etc. One night I go over to a party at a friends house, and this Talking Heads movie is on TV. It wasn't really what I expected, but I really loved it, and I found it endearing that there was such overwhelming acclaim for this fun little movie about a small town celebrating their specialness 
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Sep 6, 2014 15:17
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Toebone posted:I had never seen Stop Making Sense, but had always heard about how it was this groundbreaking movie made by Talking Heads, the music is fantastic, etc. One night I go over to a party at a friends house, and this Talking Heads movie is on TV. It wasn't really what I expected, but I really loved it, and I found it endearing that there was such overwhelming acclaim for this fun little movie about a small town celebrating their specialness True Stories is great and I wish it was back on Netflix.
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Sep 6, 2014 18:47
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fruitpunch posted:I love this movie. Seen it countless times and shown it to so many people at house parties etc. but if there's one thing I wish I could change it's that loving keyboard solo., it almost ruins the whole thing for me. I love the performances of I, Zimbra and Cities in the bonus features also, I wish there was room for them somewhere in the movie. Which keyboard solo? I wanna say you're talking about Making Flippy Floppy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qa98AhEVAZQ&t=117s
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Sep 6, 2014 23:47
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Yeah that's the one, its so awful.
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Sep 7, 2014 00:43
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Discount Viscount posted:The best part about The Big Suit is when he takes off The Big Jacket and is just wearing The Big Pants for the finish. With a dorky baseball hat.
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Sep 7, 2014 23:21
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This movie made me wish I appreciated the music of Talking Heads more. It's a drat fine film.
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Sep 8, 2014 11:24
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paradoxically, music made even better by the cocaininess of it all
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Sep 9, 2014 14:35
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I saw this movie when I was like, 12 or 13. It absolutely changed my life and got me interested in music for the first time. (Pity it also taught me to dance like a complete spaz...)fruitpunch posted:I love this movie. Seen it countless times and shown it to so many people at house parties etc. but if there's one thing I wish I could change it's that loving keyboard solo., it almost ruins the whole thing for me. I love the performances of I, Zimbra and Cities in the bonus features also, I wish there was room for them somewhere in the movie. I usually pause the movie to fit the bonus songs in (Cities after Slippery People, Big Business/I Zimbra after Making Flippy Floppy.) It breaks the seamless flow of the movie (unless you have the VHS copy, I guess,) but Big Business/I Zimbra for one is an absolute stunner on a musical, choreographic, and lighting design level — it was a boneheaded decision ever to cut it.
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Sep 10, 2014 22:24
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It's worth it just for I Zimbra, which is probably their most energetic song.
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Sep 10, 2014 22:39
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Nothing to really add other than that this movie is what made me a Talking Heads fan. If you, like me, were turned off from the group by an obnoxious person in college who never shut up about the Talking Heads, then you should, like me, use this movie to realize that said obnoxious person at least had a good group to be obsessed about.
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Sep 11, 2014 17:54
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I took a high school cinema class and one of the highlights was Stop Making Sense. It turned me into a Talking Heads fan for life. I still find the time to watch the film probably once a month and put it on as I go to sleep. Everything is just so fun and full of energy and Byrne is so captivating. I really appreciate they don't do quick, jarring cuts and like that they just show the concert as is. It makes me incredibly sad that I wasn't able to experience a Talking Heads concert live, but this will have to do. My favorite sequences are "Swamp" and "Take Me To the River"
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Sep 12, 2014 21:39
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Harlock posted:My favorite sequences are "Swamp" and "Take Me To the River" WEIRDO though I'm not one to talk, I'm a huge fan of the Genius of Love sequence.
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Sep 12, 2014 22:48
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Magic Hate Ball posted:WEIRDO though I'm not one to talk, I'm a huge fan of the Genius of Love sequence. I'd love Genius Of Love if it weren't for the goofy voices. "JAMES BROOOOOOOWN" always makes me cringe a little.
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Sep 13, 2014 01:10
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I think it's on the commentary that they point out Genius of Love was seen as a sort of ironic flipside to the rest of the show, doing everything Talking Heads didn't want to do in Stop Making Sense - corny strobe, cocky ejaculations from the DJ, etc.
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Sep 13, 2014 22:19
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Magic Hate Ball posted:WEIRDO though I'm not one to talk, I'm a huge fan of the Genius of Love sequence. 
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Sep 14, 2014 03:16
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I just saw this for the first time tonight, after always being a Talking Heads fan. Wow, this is really good. I can't do much more than copy all the hype that everyone else is saying, but it's pretty drat good.
Shoombo fucked around with this message at 03:56 on Sep 14, 2014 |
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Sep 14, 2014 03:37
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At first, I did not like Genius of Love at all. However, it works perfectly in the form of the film as a whole. Going right into Girlfriend is Better after the incredible Once In a Lifetime would be too much to take in without a break. It's just a fun song without the intensity of David Byrne. (And I like the cheesy synth solo on Making Flippy Floppy)
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Sep 14, 2014 05:01
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I stand by my words.
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Sep 14, 2014 21:59
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Magic Hate Ball posted:I stand by my words. The sequence owns, hard.
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Sep 15, 2014 12:24
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Genius of Love rules and that performance rules.
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Sep 15, 2014 15:39
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Chris Frantz is a lucky bastard.
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Sep 15, 2014 23:34
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If anybody lives in/near Nashville, the Belcourt will be showing this a few nights this week.
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Sep 15, 2014 23:37
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Having lived firmly in the age of clear and pristine digital, one of my favorite parts of this as a younger person is simply the joy of watching a concert this good shot on film. That may seem silly but the first time I watched it, I couldn't pick my jaw up. The visual texture and lushness is just gorgeous, and I'd never seen anything like it.
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Sep 21, 2014 18:48
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This is hypnotizing. I'm calling dibs on the October MOTM.
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Sep 25, 2014 11:21
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| # ? Apr 19, 2024 17:09 |
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That's actually the gif that got me to watch the movie in the first place.
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Sep 26, 2014 03:19
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