stop making sense final2 - olli illinoisolli.illinois.edu/downloads/studygroups/2019 spring study...
TRANSCRIPT
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%
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
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
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