DVD REVIEW | Serena Donadoni | Concert movies are by their very nature time capsules, and too often feel like relics to be worshipped by the faithful. Few are as vibrant and fun to watch as Stop Making Sense, the ideal pairing of Talking Heads and director Jonathan Demme, who captures them in 1984 as they rock a creative milestone. The band and filmmaker share a philosophy of coordinated spontaneity, and that's why Stop Making Sense remains fresh 25 years later: you can see the work that has gone into making this elaborate show (that transparency is part of the presentation), but you can also feel the joyful intensity of the performance. For a group whose albums are often labeled aloof and cerebral, Stop Making Sense demonstrates that Talking Heads can also be sweaty funksters who relate to music intuitively. (Lest we forget how much preparation went into this carefully choreographed production, just listen to the expertly edited commentary track with Demme, David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Jerry Harrison and Tina Weymouth.) In what would be their last tour, supporting a surprisingly commercial record (Speaking in Tongues), Talking Heads are at a career turning point, but what Demme documents is a musical entity throwing themselves into a series of high-energy concerts (three nights at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood) that feels more like an transcendent experience than a commercial enterprise. If it had been done with less gusto, Stop Making Sense might have come off as a performance art piece, with each song receiving its own distinct presentation, but there's such a sense of playfulness to the show that it never gets bogged down in intellectual rigor. It's as if Byrne and company planned everything out in excruciating detail, and then were able to let it all go when they got onstage every night. By showing the artistry of Talking Heads on a human scale, Demme allows it to breathe. He frames their now famous conceits with an element of surprise, such as when David Byrne opens the concert by walking onto a bare stage for a solo version of "Psycho Killer." As Byrne plays acoustic guitar along to pre-recorded beats, Demme pans up from a close-up of his blindingly white tennis shoes and the boom box he's brought on stage. The camera slowly caresses Byrne's light grey suit (just loose enough to escape Pee-wee Herman comparisons) then hits the visual punchline: catching the singer's head bobbing like a demonic ostrich in front of the microphone. Throughout Stop Making Sense, Demme views this spastic shaman with humor and wonder, but always as an integral part of the extended line-up of Talking Heads, who perform with tight cohesion and a loose, comfortable vibe. Even when Byrne appears in his iconic big suit — that marvel of kabuki geekdom — he doesn't stand apart. That suit may loom large in the collective pop culture memory, but it only makes a brief appearance during the rousing "Girlfriend is Better," and quickly gets deconstructed. No one aesthetic device dominates Stop Making Sense; ideas shift with the song cycle. There's a relentless forward motion to the playlist, evident even in the deleted songs "Cities" and "Big Business/I Zimbra" (in one of the few disappointments of the stellar blu-ray and DVD release, they are presented as VHS quality clips). So when Byrne responds to the crowd's vociferous enthusiasm with, "Thank you, anybody have any questions?" it comes off as sly joke. Despite all the thought that went into creating Stop Making Sense, the band clearly wants to get the audience out of their heads and onto their feet, and Demme is key to getting that across. David Byrne would soon overthink his own film — the clever but overstuffed small-town tale True Stories (1986) — but in his stripped-down, unobtrusive approach to recording this concert, Jonathan Demme reveals the organic interactions beneath the artificial constructs. Stop Making Sense presents the Talking Heads with such unadorned enthusiasm that even after these years, you can't help but want to join the eggheads as they kick loose and shake their groove thing.
© 2009, Serena Donadoni. All rights reserved.
STOP MAKING SENSE | 1984
Director: Jonathan Demme | Cinematography: Jordan Cronenweth | Original music by David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Jerry Harrison and Tina Weymouth | Visual Effects: Sandy McLeod | Editing: Lisa Day | Producer: Gary Goetzman | Released by Cinecom International Films and Island Alive (theatrical) and Palm Pictures (blu-ray and DVD) | Running time: 88 minutes
Cast: David Byrne (vocals/guitar), Chris Frantz (drums/vocals), Jerry Harrison (guitar/keyboards/vocals), Tina Weymouth (bass/keyboards/vocals), Bernie Worrell (keyboards), Alex Weir (guitar/vocals), Steve Scales (percussion), Lynn Mabry (vocals), and Edna Holt (vocals).
