Stop Making Sense: Think Of It As A Musical, Not A Concert Film | Film Analysis

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In which I explain not only why Jonathan Demme’s Stop Making Sense (1984), starring the band Talking Heads, is the greatest concert film of all time, but also why that particular label - ‘concert film’ - undersells the movie and how we’re better off thinking of as a ‘experimental existential film noir musical’.
No Spoilers. For educational purposes only. Fair use.
Watch the full interviews here:
Jonathan Demme & David Byrne Q&A, Jacob Burns Film Centre:
• Video
David Byrne Q&A, Film Society of Licoln Centre:
• David Byrne Q&A | Stop...
Jonathan Demme on ‘Stop Making Sense’, Unreel:
• Jonathan Demme - On St...
Jonathan Demme in conversation with Paul Thomas Anderson, On-Story Austin Film Festival:
• On Story: 414 Jonathan...
Books Referenced,:
Steenstra, Sytze, 'Song and Circumstance: The Work of David Byrne from Talking Heads to the Present', Bloomsbury Academic, 2010
Mitoma, Judy (editor), 'Envisoning Dance on Film and Video', Routledge, 2003
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Опубликовано:

4 окт 2024

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Комментарии : 47

@zacspearman 6 лет назад

I'm reading that David Byrne book How Music Works at the moment, and in the chapter about this film he mentions how the exaggerated suit and having the stagehands do their work in full view of the audience was directly inspired by Japanese/Eastern theatre where they don't value naturalism as much.

@TakeMeToYourCinema 6 лет назад

Yeah, there is a lot of influence of Kabuki and Noh in there - especially in the gestures and movements as well. Is 'How Music Works' any good, I've been curious to read it.

@zacspearman 6 лет назад

There's enough interesting and insightful info to overcome the parts which sometimes read like slightly lengthy entries in an encyclopaedia. If you're musical and know what all that terminology really means it will be all the more readable. Still worthwhile for me, 7/10 perhaps

@travislloyd6761 11 месяцев назад

0:46

@SUD8800 6 лет назад

Brilliant review! David Byrne is a freaking genius

@TakeMeToYourCinema 6 лет назад

Thanks a lot. Glad you enjoyed it.

@AngusAngus Год назад

3 minutes in and already supremely impressed. Cannot wait to see the 40th anniversary rerelease in Imax tonight!!!

@Andrew_Whiteford 4 года назад

it’s really about the anguish of shopping for a new suit...

@DarrellGrob 3 года назад

Very interesting review. I've had a tradition of watching SMS every Xmas Eve since 1985, so I've seen it A LOT. I've always thought it was a visually stunning. One of my favorite songs is Found A Job, where Demme had a camera focused in on Byrne, Harrison, and Weymouth from stage right and allowed them to fill the shot from downstage to upstage, an angle not usually seen of a concert live or on film. Also, the exclusive use of white light throughout the concert was a great choice. Nice job.

@TakeMeToYourCinema 6 лет назад

Correction: the end credits state 'all songs in Stop Making Sense written by David Byrne, [et al]'. This is incorrect. I know it is incorrect. I'm not sure how I let that oversight past. Apologies.

@katewintie8271 6 лет назад

Incredible... no words other than that really

@jamesfarrell8339 5 лет назад

Great insight into one of the greatest Rock concert films. I thought it was just me who really appreciated this film. I am glad others love it like do. Thanks for putting this together and giving me a deeper appreciation for this film. I really appreciate it. Have a wonderful day.

@maxvetter1336 5 лет назад

I will say that you are certainly not alone. If you look on Letterboxd, this is the highest rated documentary of all time.

@lynnpehrson8826 3 года назад

Byrne said the suit was to make his head small. I think this is suggesting the protagonist is essentially learning not to overthink things and live in moment. Imo the lyrics to crosseyed and painless, once in a lifetime, this must be the place deal with this. Many talking heads song deal with Byrnes anxieties

@NTJordan 6 лет назад

Interesting video. This is a topic I have given very little thought to, but it's impressive that he was able to take such influence from cinema. Good video!

@TakeMeToYourCinema 6 лет назад

N.T. Jordan Yeah, it’s not the sort of thing that people normally give too much thought too, but when the film is as well made as Stop Making Sense is, there’s clearly more to it than meets the eye.

@MPHORROCKS 4 года назад

Very enlightening! One of my favourite films but had never analyzed why it works so brilliantly! Thanks! :)

@watchstrap1 6 лет назад

Very enjoyable review,I also noticed there is hardly any equiptment,i.e Amps,cables coming from keyboards,However you label it ,it"s a fantastic piece of art which still looks and sounds great today.

@glennkammerer795 Год назад

40th anniversary re-lease and remaster coming out this fall! woo hoo!

@pl5bnsf 4 года назад

Very interesting analysis. Would like to know how much of the end result as laid out in this analysis was planned vs how much it just happened? I always wondered at the song order. Putting two high energy songs in the middle (Burning then Wartime) seemed tiring for the performers with lots of concert left. Guess it just had to be that way, and we are all better for it!

@SuperQdaddy 3 года назад

Its a work of art !

@keithkahn-harris6503 4 года назад

It's a great analysis but perhaps neglects the story of the rest of the band and their relationships with eachother ànd Byrne. Each of the band members are established as individual characters. One of the most affecting parts of the film is 'Heaven', which brings out Tina Weymouth's complicated relationship with Byrne. Also, the Tom Tom Club segment helps to bring out the joy from which Bryne is excluded in the first part of the film.

@yourfairyking 3 года назад

Genius of Love always felt like a distraction before Girlfriend is Better. No relevance to the "plot" really.

@SolaceEasy 5 лет назад

If you had done your research you would have known that the idiosyncratic dancing matched his moves in the music videos for the same songs. There's even more to research on the various dance moves and why David chose them!

@K.J.734 3 года назад

I would love to see & hear that concert on a big screen ( AMOLED would be nice) & through a kickass sound system. 🤘❗

@AntBalzano 6 лет назад

Important

@ammaleslie509 10 месяцев назад

It's a floor wax It's a dessert topping It's a floor wax and a dessert topping. It's a concert film AND a musical.

@timpeters9616 Год назад

It's a wonderful and beautiful piece of spectacle, which I've watched multiple times...but I don't think it really works as a musical, because I don't think it has a narrative.

@steelyd2 Год назад

Of course it has a narrative. Byrne starts out as a stuffy anxious guy who is trying to figure out who he is. His band members come out one at a time and help him find himself through music. It’s beautiful

@troygaspard6732 Год назад

I was 16 when this movie came out. It would be over 20 years before Demme would go down this road again with Storefront Hitchcock.

@nathanhiggins3677 6 лет назад

What is the word you say at 4:43? "High contract ____ lighting design" ?

@TakeMeToYourCinema 6 лет назад

Nathan Higgins high contrast lighting design

@nathanhiggins3677 6 лет назад

Thanks :)

@MarcoDelDottore 6 лет назад

"High contrast *chiaroscuro* design" it's an italian word "in art, is the use of strong contrasts between light and dark" See Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiaroscuro

@BartholomewCounty 4 года назад

David is a performance artist.

@frankmcphillips427 5 лет назад

great thought want inyo this brilliant respect

@Tamar-sz8ox 5 лет назад

Nice1

@surfinmuso37 5 лет назад

This is interesting, but to analyze it in such a way takes all the fun outa it.

@MatauReviews 5 лет назад

That's subjective... I think you fail to see that to analyze art is fun for many people

@yaniratangoart 5 лет назад

Interesting, David Byrne also copied Kid Creole and the Coconuts entire wardrobe and stage set performance from late 1970s and early 1980s. We can see this on RU-vid. Large zoot suit and theatrical performances...

@louisecasserley4104 3 года назад

Seriously, why even try to take apart something so fabulous.

@edomoeli1347 Год назад

to attempt to understand what makes it so fabulous?

@louisecasserley4104 3 года назад

Your commenting is just a big waste of words.

@TakeMeToYourCinema 3 года назад

Thanks for your comment

@Lifesizemortal 2 года назад

Just because Byrne incorporates a few laughable bar tricks amidst this mostly plain concert doesn't make it a musical. It's a concert film that just barely dresses itself in theatrics in order to appear as something "more".