Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3929 in DVD
• Released on: 2004-03-15
• Rating: Exempt
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Anamorphic, PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 99 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Over the course of three nights at Hollywood's Pantages Theatre in December 1983, filmmaker Jonathan Demme joined creative forces with cinematographer Jordan Cronenweth and Talking Heads ... and miracles occurred. Following a staging concept by singer-guitarist David Byrne, this euphoric concert film transcends that all-too-limited genre to become the greatest film of its kind. A guaranteed cure for anyone's blues, it's a celebration of music that never grows old, fuelled by the polyrhythmic pop-funk precision that was a Talking Heads trademark, and lit from within by the geeky supernova that is David Byrne.

The staging--and Demme's filming of it--builds toward an orgasmic release of music, rising from the bare-stage simplicity of Byrne, accompanied only by a boom box on "Psycho Killer" to the ecstatic crescendo of "Burning Down the House", by which time the Heads and additional personnel have all arrived on stage for a performance that seems channelled from heaven for the purpose of universal uplift. (God bless Demme for avoiding shots of the luckiest audience in 80s pop history; its presence is acknowledged but not at the viewer's expense.) With the deliriously eccentric Byrne as ringleader (pausing mid-concert to emerge in his now-legendary oversized suit), this circus of musical pleasure defies the futility of reductive description; it begs to be experienced, felt in the heart, head and bones, and held there the way we hold on to cherished memories. On those three nights in December 1983, Talking Heads gave love, life, and joy in generous amounts that years cannot erode, and Demme captured this act of creative goodwill on film with minimalist artistic perfection. Stop Making Sense is an invitation to pleasure that will never wear out its welcome. --Jeff Shannon

Special Features
16:9 Anamorphic Wide Screen
English
Region 2
Dolby Digital 5.1 English
Dolby Digital 5.1
Bonus Tracks
Audio Commentary
Storyboard To Film Comparisons
Theatrical Trailer
Interviews
Promotional Clip
Full Motion Menus

Synopsis
Jonathan Demme made this stunning and unique rock concert video of the Talking Heads by documenting three different shows the group performed in Hollywood at the Pantages Theater in December 1983. Restrained while maintaining a classic sense of style, Demme gets the most out of his subjects. The camera is always a second citizen to the action. The film begins with a solo from David Byrne, performing an acoustic version of "Psycho Killer," and soon has evolved into a nine-piece band for "Take Me to the River." In addition to Byrne, the Heads include Jerry Harrison, Tina Weymouth, and Chris Franz, who are joined by three more musicians and two backup singers--who don't shy away from the chance to dance and run around with the rest of the band. The screen behind the band displays a variety of images ranging from words to evocative images to children's drawings. The end result is a resounding testament to the band's talent and sense of humor--and one of the finest rock films ever made.

Customer Reviews

Once in a lifetime
Before David Byrne's collaboration with X-Press 2,"Lazy", Talking Heads had fallen off the critical radar and disappeared from public consciousness. It is high time they were credited for "Remain in Light" and this, easily the best live concert of all time. Audio releases of the concert (especially the original nine track version) do the visual power of the concert an injustice even though "Slippery People" "Burning Down the House" and "Take Me to the River" better the respective studio versions.

The pacing of the film is exemplary: the gradual addition of musicians provides the context for David Byrne's metamorphosis from tense New Waver to full-on funkster. And while the rest of the Heads, augmented by musicians of the class and charisma of Bernie Worrell and Alex Weir amongst others, play brilliantly, Byrne steals the show. He is more compelling than Michael Stipe in "Tourfilm", Bjork at the Royal Opera House last year or anyone else you care to mention.

Thankfully the classic "I Zimbra/Big Business" (the latter a Byrne solo number from "Songs from the Catherine Wheel") is included as an extra and proves one of the many highlights of the disc. Making further great use of DVD's potential, the disc provides the viewer with a choice of sounds tracks. While the concert sound was always good, the remastered track blows it away for clarity, depth and feeling. The voiceover gives great history and background and is good accompaniment to "Fa Fa Fa Fa Fa Fa", the biography of the band which reveals the extent of the inevitable animosity as Byrne garnered all the plaudits.

Accusations that this is over-rated and dated are without foundation as well as explanation. While the music is still great (same as it ever was), the influence of the visualisation of the concert is palpable: countless subsequent concerts/live performances such as REM's "Tourfilm" and U2's "Zooroopa" are unthinkable without "Stop Making Sense".

"Stop Making Sense" manages to be simulataneously cerebral and celebratory, enigmatic and ecstatic. In short, unmissable.

The best concert movie - even if you aren't a fan...
"Stop Making Sense" changed my life. The album, actually, not the film; I was 15, on a disastrous school trip to Amsterdam (I know, I know, what were they thinking sending a bunch of drink-and-drug crazed mid-teens to Amsterdam, of all places) and somebody lent me a tape of the original soundtrack album, a great Talking Heads primer in its own right. I had been having a spectacularly bad time, and had never much liked the Heads before, but somewhere in there I glimpsed the psychodrama, so much clearer in the movie, of a nerdy white boy loosening up - and I never looked back.

This is the greatest concert movie ever made because it works as a movie, even if you aren't much of a fan of Talking Heads' music (and God knows, I got over my subsequent obsession with them). From David Byrne's hopeful, intellectual-at-summer-camp rendition of "Psycho Killer" all the way to the manic version of "Crosseyed and Painless", it builds and builds and grips your attention. The most striking thing about it, watching it again 20 years later, is just how much this foursome of uptight preppies could rock. Their enjoyment of their own music is genuine, unforced and palpable. Byrne cheerfully admits on the commentary that he was going through a "dictator" phase at the time, to the point that he wouldn't even allow plastic cups of water onstage, because it would spoil the visual effect; if ever a band needed them, it was this one. In the studio, they could sound clipped and filtered to a fare-thee-well, but live, they had a real swing. The extra musicians are superb (it's worth watching just for Lynn Mabry and Ednah Holt's wacky dance moves) but the drama of the film is in the sequencing of the songs, the passion of the performances, and the care with with Jonathan Demme registers the interactions between the musicians.

The commentary is fun (Tina Weymouth's sardonic remarks about her shapeless stage costume are priceless) and if you happen to have digital audio, I'm sure it sounds fab. Even on my analogue telly, it's a beauty; all the evidence you need to refute the idea that Talking Heads were too clever and not a real band. I could still wish that the Dolette McDonald/Nona Hendryx/Busta Jones/Adrian Belew lineup was caught on film, but until they see fit to rerelease "The Name of This Band is Talking Heads" on CD, this is, as stated above, a guaranteed cure for the blues and the closest any of us will ever get to being there. Outstanding.

Tiptop re-release and excellent use of medium
At last a DVD that makes use of the technical advantages of the medium. Looks and sounds so much better than the video. Includes the original set design diagrams with notes by Byrne. An amazing concert concept brilliantly brought to life - the remixed sound is incredibly lifelike.

If only more bands bothered to put this much thought into their live shows... ;-) Highly recommended