Session 3: Stop Making Sense (1984)

Today’s film:Stop Making Sense

• Director: Jonathan Demme• Written by: Talking Heads and Jonathan Demme• Starring Talking Heads

– With an appearance by Tom Tom Club• Premiered April 24, 1984 at San Francisco International

Film Festival– Opened in US theaters October 18, 1984– Also released theatrically (1984-1987) in West Germany,

Netherlands, Australia, Japan, France, Denmark, Sweden, Finland

• Budget: $1.2 million ; Box office: $5.1 million• Hybrid Observational documentary

Features of Observational documentaries

• Observational documentaries usually include the following elements:– Non-intervention of filmmaker with subjects– No asking questions directly– Longer camera takes– Synchronous sound: what you see has the actual

sound that goes with it– Examples: March of the Penguins; Koyaanisqatsi

Today’s film:Stop Making Sense

• Awards:– Won National Society of Film Critics Award for Best

Documentary: 1985– Nominee, NSFC Award for Best Film: 1985– Winner (Jonathan Demme), Ghent International Film

Festival Grand Prix: 1985• Honors:– Ranks #3 on vulture.com’s 2015 list of 50 Best Music

Documentaries of All Time• Rotten Tomatoes score: Critics 97% ; Audience

98%

Jonathan Demme

Demme (left) and David Byrne (right) in 1984

Demme resume summary

• As director: 69 credits, both fiction and documentaries– Best known for The Silence of the Lambs (1991), Philadelphia

(1993), Rachel Getting Married (2008), Ricki and the Flash(2015), and a remake of The Manchurian Candidate (2004)

• As producer: 45 credits, both fiction and docs• As writer: 11 credits, both fiction and docs• Won Oscar for Best Director for Silence of the Lambs

– Additional 31 wins and 35 nominations including documentaries on Nelson Mandela (1996), Jimmy Carter (2007), and Jean Dominique (2003)

• February 22, 1944 – April 26, 2017– Died of esophageal cancer and heart disease, aged 73

Talking Heads

David Byrne (guitar, lead vocals) in Stop Making Sense

Talking Heads

Chris Frantz (drums) in Stop Making Sense

Talking Heads

Tina Weymouth (bass guitar) in Stop Making Sense

Talking Heads

Jerry Harrison (keyboards, guitar) with backing vocalists Ednah Holt and Lynn Mabry in Stop Making Sense

Touring Band Members

• Steve Scales– Percussion, backing vocals

• Alex Weir– Guitar, backing vocals

• Bernie Worrell– Keyboards

• Ednah Holt and Lynn Mabry– Backing vocals

Talking Heads (2002)

Frantz, Weymouth, Byrne, Harrison in 2002

Today’s film:Stop Making Sense

• “… a dose of happiness from beginning to end” –Pauline Kael in The New Yorker

• “… the overwhelming impression throughout [the film] is of enormous energy, of life being lived at a joyous high.” – Roger Ebert (3.5 stars)

• Let’s watch ...

Brief epilogue

• Talking Heads are not still at it– The tour documented in the film was their last– Brief history:

• Byrne, Frantz, and Weymouth met at Rhode Island School of Design in the early 1970s

• Byrne and Frantz formed a band named “The Artistics” in 1973

• Weymouth learned to play bass after the 3 had moved together to NYC

• First gig as Talking Heads: opening for the Ramones at CBGB’s in June 1975

Brief epilogue

• Brief history (cont.):– Jerry Harrison joined the band in March 1977– First album Talking Heads: 77 released Sept.– 1978: began collaboration with producer Brian Eno on

More Songs About Buildings and Food– 1979: released Fear of Music– 1980: released Remain in Light– 1981-1983: hiatus, with side projects for all– 1983: released Speaking in Tongues

• “Burning Down the House” first and only US top 10 hit

Brief epilogue

• Brief history (cont.):– 1986 – 1988: three more albums, then hiatus

• All members had side projects, including Tom Tom Club

– December 1991: officially broke up

– 1996: Weymouth, Frantz and Harrison released an album titled No Talking, Just Head under name The Heads

–March 2002: final appearance as Talking Heads at Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony

Brief epilogue

• “New Wave”– Grew out of the punk music scene in the mid-

1970s in the US and the UK• Many early new wave bands performed regularly at

CBGB’s in NYC– US acts: Talking Heads, Blondie, Devo, Cyndi

Lauper, The B-52’s– British acts: Elvis Costello, Duran Duran, Joe

Jackson, Nick Lowe– By mid-1980s, the wave was over

Brief epilogue