Same as it Ever Was: A Reflection on the Talking Heads Phenom Stop Making Sense

Image courtesy of A24

One of the more surprising film developments of 2023 was A24’s 4k remastered re-release of the beloved concert film Stop Making Sense, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. It’s very rare for there to be an overwhelming consensus regarding the legacy of films, but such is not the case for Stop Making Sense, which remains regarded as one of the greatest concert films of all time. It’s held in such wide regard for both fans of cinema and fans of Talking Heads, it could easily be seen as the highest point for the New Wave fixture. 

While primarily known for their music, Talking Heads have never been a group to categorize themselves. They met at the Rhode Island School of Design and have always used this multidisciplinary background in every aspect of their band. There was always a clear affinity for photography, literature, modern art, and films in the music they created. These stylistic choices combined with a general disdain towards their respective cultures drew David Byrne and Jonnathan Demme together for this film. Demme’s latest picture, Swing State, was a film with a promising cast and loads of production drama. Demme renounced the film and Hollywood in general and while the famed director would later go on to make beloved classics like Silence of the Lambs and Philadelphia, it really felt like he was a pristine choice for Talking Heads at this time. Demme built a legacy of “inhabiting an old-fashioned humanism” and this “old fashioned humanism” helped him capture the joyous performance of Byrne. They shot the film in 1984 over four concurrent nights at Hollywood’s Pantages Theater while they were on tour promoting their album, Speaking in Tongues. From this footage spawned one of the most expressive, vivacious, captivating concert films ever, Stop Making Sense.

Music can allow films to rely more on visual storytelling because it can create an intimate story without dialogue, and this film is an exercise in harnessing the intimacy of a concert. Stop Making Sense recognizes that warm glow you get in your stomach when you see the headlining band walk onto the stage and succeeds in creating that fire inside every audience member watching the film. It is the ultimate example of the relationship between films and music, and one of the defining aspects of this relationship in the film is the structure.

Stop Making Sense opens with a bare stage devoid of any band members or instruments, just an atmospheric murmuring from the crowd filling the space. This chatter erupts into cheers as this lanky dude in a normal sized gray suit (soon to be big suit) walks onto the stage, carrying nothing but a guitar and a boom box. Frontman Byrne flips a switch on the music player, strums his first chord, and our journey begins. There is a real precise nature behind the decisions in Stop Making Sense. Despite the narrative limitations of a concert film (especially one without—wait for it—talking head interviews), there is always this feeling that you are following a plot, and this is the result of how they introduce the individual band members. As the set list progresses, another band member enters the stage and thus another instrument joins the building sound. Choosing this method for introducing the band results in a bit of a magic trick as each song gets bigger as each new instrument feels unique and more impactful.

Image couresy of A24

Stop Making Sense strips back the elements of live music by forcing the viewer key into the role of each instrument. There is the visual effect of seeing the drums roll onto the stage and the audio effect of hearing what they add to the songs. It maintains engagement and a wonderful curious aura through the whole runtime. By the end of the film, you feel that you are listening to music differently; hearing the individual components create this overwhelming mosaic. By the time “Burning Down the House” arrives, a full nine-person ensemble occupies the stage. The energy of each person is infectious and the sound is mesmerizing, and this is in no small part to the revolutionary way they recorded audio and the framing of each scene. 

The film has a fantastic visual style and extraordinary sound because of very particular and unconventional choices. Demme was someone who was attuned to Talking Heads eccentricities, he understood that this film needed to avoid the monotony of other concert films. As mentioned above, there are no aside interviews, only limited shots of the crowd with long, slow, and purposeful camera movements. These intentional choices are all bolstered by the curated set design of the stage and the choreographed movements of each person. The dancing around the stage is all so precise, designed to entertain and create interesting camera shots. Props are introduced like Byrne’s iconic big suit and his dancing partner, a lamp, during “This Must Be The Place.” All of it is purposeful and all of it perpetuates the concert feeling as well as the cinematic language. 

Speaking in specifics, Byrne has said the big suit was meant to represent how your body understands music before your head does, so he wanted to make his head as small as possible. Additionally, it was one of the pioneering examples of using digital audio techniques to record the sound. The film was recorded on an analog tape and then transferred to a digital master during post-production. It provided a new and groundbreaking sound that helped bolster the film to its legendary status.

Stop Making Sense is kinetic; there is simultaneously an acknowledgement of reality and showmanship. This film lives in paradox, using the camerawork to create moments of intimacy that are unobtainable at a concert without sacrificing the artifice of a live show. “Girlfriend is Better” is a special song in the setlist because the ending refrain is where the title of the film comes from, Byrne proclaims, “As we get older and stop making sense.” It is doubly important for the film because of a small and significant moment. A sweat-drenched Byrne is marching in place to the beat of the song, facing the audience, then in a moment of intensity he grabs the microphone, finds the camera on stage, and simply holds the microphone up to the camera, almost as if he is requesting that the audience in the theater join in on the refrain. It is such a quick moment, such an intense moment of pure bliss that is wildly effective. “Girlfriend is Better” comes towards the end of the show, so by the time it happens you are already fully enveloped in the bombastic sounds of the film. This quick acknowledgment shatters the façade for the audience in the cinemas, we are no longer watching a relic of days past but now we are present in the moment with the band and the concert audience. This moment feels particularly poignant when watching the re-release in 2023. 

The remaster overall is pretty spectacular, with a real emphasis on preserving the elements that made the original so special. There was a real collaboration when converting the film to IMAX, specifically in the audio aspect. It took a year and was remixed from the original multitrack recordings. The A24 restoration team was able to find the original negatives in the MGM library vault, and from there they did a frame-by-frame 4k scan of the original 35mm print. It’s rigorous and taxing, but the film has never looked better. Finally, they found a screen big enough for Bynre’s suit.

Seven years after the release of Stop Making Sense, Talking Heads acrimoniously broke up, and until 2023, the last public appearance for the band was for their introduction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002. The re-release of Stop Making Sense marked their first reunion in twenty years, so it was a special moment for fans. There is some sort of reverence and sense of discovery when connecting to art from the past. A24 recognized this, and offered audiences the opportunity to revel in the art of the past and it seems that many people felt the connection. At the time of writing, it was just announced that a tribute album would be released, featuring a variety of artists covering the songs from the film’s setlist. Currently, Paramore is the only confirmed artist and they will be covering the song “Burning Down the House.”

Stop Making Sense culminates into a transcendent experience because of its dosage of pure serotonin. As a work, itis a wonderful collaboration between two greats of separate mediums. Exciting camera work, mesmerizing visuals components, and vivacious dance numbers all layered on top of the funkiest and most eclectic beats you have ever heard in your life, Stop Making Sense is mythic. So, the next time you are sitting there with your groceries, your peanut butter, try to chuck on this film, and vainly attempt to fight the uncontrollable urge to dance your rump off.