STOP MAKING SENSE TAKE TWO
TAKE 2
H eralded by many as the greatest concert film of all time, Stop Making Sense is the product of astute, organic direction (by Oscar winner Jonathan Demme), lead singer David Byrne’s physical performance and the simple fun associated with Talking Heads’ toe- tapping rock-punk-funk music. Opening with a long take of Byrne’s white sneakers as he walks onstage, places a tape deck beside his feet and embarks on a solo version of Psycho Killer , the film instantly establishes both itself and Talking Heads as unconventional. Shot over four nights in December 1983, Stop Making Sense captures the Talking Heads arguably at the height of their collective career. Touring their 1983 album Speaking in Tongues , the band had been rising up the ranks since their formation in 1975, pushing the new wave movement with a clean-cut look that proved antithetical to the rock-and-roll aesthetic of the early seventies. Their cross-genre sound – recorded for the film on a Sony PCM-3324 24-track digital recorder – also set them apart. The concert film focuses entirely on the band and their music, cutting to the audience during only one song: Crosseyed and Painless . There are no interviews, no split screens and barely any speaking, and the result is an 88-minute jam sesh. This was a conscious choice from Demme – and a wise one in hindsight, since the band’s creative prowess shines brighter when it’s devoid of distractions. While Demme did originally want to film the audience, this
would have required additional lighting and disrupted the band’s energy. A concert film can take many forms, but Stop Making Sense reads almost like musical theatre. First, the film introduces one band member at a time, beginning with Byrne, then adding bassist Tina Weymouth for Heaven , then drummer Chris Frantz for Thank You for Sending Me an Angel and finally guitarist Jerry Harrison for Found a Job , with the remaining ensemble (backup singers and so on) joining in for Burning Down the House. This provides a natural visual expansion and warrants the use of more wide shots, which Demme dedicated an entire night to shooting so as not to have any onstage cameras in frame. Byrne’s iconic ‘big suit’ – the focus of the film’s key art – also makes an appearance during Girlfriend Is Better , the inspiration for which he derived from Japanese theatre. The box-like suit serves as a metaphor for music, since the body often understands it before the brain, according to Byrne. Recently restored in 4K to coincide with the film’s 40th anniversary, Stop Making Sense enjoyed a theatrical re- release – occasionally screened in IMAX – with A24 as its distributor. Restoring the film required a slight scavenger hunt, as both the original negatives and audio tracks were missing; eventually, they were found in an MGM film vault and a Sony warehouse in Kansas, respectively. Though it now appeals to a new generation of filmgoers and Talking Heads fans, the film remains a definitive classic, a feat of concert filmmaking.
Talking Heads deliver a once-in-a-lifetime performance, with Jonathan Demme at the helm of this hugely celebrated concert film
WORDS Katie Kasperson
SPEAKING IN TONGUES Each member is brought on stage one by one, while the audience is only seen during the last song
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