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> 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 “St

> 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?

throwaway2562 3y ago
He’s a little guy in a big suit. He doesn’t fit in this world https://putthison.com/making-sense-of-david-byrnes-big-suit-the-tom/ https://putthison.com/making-sense-of-david-byrnes-big-suit-...
- venusenvy47 3y ago
  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 https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2023-... 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.
  - mc32 3y ago
    It’s a reflection of his childhood. Due to his then noticeable accent he had some issues integrating with other kids in school and became somewhat introverted. That has pretty much defined his career trajectory.
    - bugglebeetle 3y ago
      Well, that and him having autism: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vtX6emk6U5k https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vtX6emk6U5k
  - AlbertCory 3y ago
    He's written a lot and been on TV a lot. I suppose somewhere in all that verbiage, you can find an "answer." Or several.
BurningFrog 3y ago
One angle is that the big suit makes his head look small, which visually says "stop overthinking things", which is what "Stop Making Sense" means.
InSteady 3y ago
Virgil Cane's brother is rolling over in his grave. If I had to rank them then Stop Making Sense is number one, and it's not even that close. But the Last Waltz is definitely the second most iconic concert of all time. Although supposedly the other band members weren't too happy about how the band was presented, as though they were basically "the Robbie Robertson Group," with everyone else in the band being more of an afterthought.
- AlbertCory 3y ago
  I wrote about Once Were Brothers here: https://albertcory50.substack.com/p/once-were-brothers https://albertcory50.substack.com/p/once-were-brothers He was definitely a Big Ego. No other Band members are even interviewed, if I recall. Maybe Levon.
mtalantikite 3y ago
> 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.
- AlbertCory 3y ago
  > isn't The Last Waltz a pretty straightforward recording of a concert? kind of like saying Woodstock is a pretty straightforward recording of a festival. They're both summaries on an era. Watch Once Were Brothers and see Scorcese explain how he planned out every shot ahead of time. And there are NO audience shots.
  - mtalantikite 3y ago
    Yeah, that's fair. I personally am not a fan of The Band and the only guest of theirs I listen to is Muddy Waters (and maybe Joni Mitchell), so I guess the historicity of it is lost to me. I do know people love the whole thing though -- a friend of mine MD'd a complete tribute show in SF years ago with a bunch of great musicians -- so maybe the whole thing hits different for fans of that sort of music.

throwaway2562 3y ago

He’s a little guy in a big suit. He doesn’t fit in this world https://putthison.com/making-sense-of-david-byrnes-big-suit-the-tom/ https://putthison.com/making-sense-of-david-byrnes-big-suit-...

venusenvy47 3y ago
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 https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2023-... 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.
- mc32 3y ago
  It’s a reflection of his childhood. Due to his then noticeable accent he had some issues integrating with other kids in school and became somewhat introverted. That has pretty much defined his career trajectory.
  - bugglebeetle 3y ago
    Well, that and him having autism: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vtX6emk6U5k https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vtX6emk6U5k
- AlbertCory 3y ago
  He's written a lot and been on TV a lot. I suppose somewhere in all that verbiage, you can find an "answer." Or several.

BurningFrog 3y ago

One angle is that the big suit makes his head look small, which visually says "stop overthinking things", which is what "Stop Making Sense" means.

InSteady 3y ago

Virgil Cane's brother is rolling over in his grave. If I had to rank them then Stop Making Sense is number one, and it's not even that close. But the Last Waltz is definitely the second most iconic concert of all time. Although supposedly the other band members weren't too happy about how the band was presented, as though they were basically "the Robbie Robertson Group," with everyone else in the band being more of an afterthought.

AlbertCory 3y ago
I wrote about Once Were Brothers here: https://albertcory50.substack.com/p/once-were-brothers https://albertcory50.substack.com/p/once-were-brothers He was definitely a Big Ego. No other Band members are even interviewed, if I recall. Maybe Levon.

mtalantikite 3y ago

> 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.

AlbertCory 3y ago
> isn't The Last Waltz a pretty straightforward recording of a concert? kind of like saying Woodstock is a pretty straightforward recording of a festival. They're both summaries on an era. Watch Once Were Brothers and see Scorcese explain how he planned out every shot ahead of time. And there are NO audience shots.
- mtalantikite 3y ago
  Yeah, that's fair. I personally am not a fan of The Band and the only guest of theirs I listen to is Muddy Waters (and maybe Joni Mitchell), so I guess the historicity of it is lost to me. I do know people love the whole thing though -- a friend of mine MD'd a complete tribute show in SF years ago with a bunch of great musicians -- so maybe the whole thing hits different for fans of that sort of music.