Fresh off his appearance on IndieWire’s Best Performances of the 80s list, David Byrne will be bringing down the house — hopefully packed movie theater houses.
A24 is gearing up for its re-release of Jonathan Demme‘s adored Talking Heads concert documentary “Stop Making Sense” at TIFF and in a Global IMAX Live event on September 11, with the film rolling out to the general public in the weeks after. Watch the trailer below.
The distributor had previously released a 40-second teaser that showed Byrne picking up his laundry and getting back… the big suit! The comically oversized, boxy suit the buttoned-down singer/songwriter wears during the latter part of the concert during songs like “Girlfriend Is Better.” In that teaser, he put it on again and did his trademark wiggle, the awkward-chic moves that, along with many other things, have endeared him to audiences the past four decades.
This is a 4K restoration, and A24 choosing to release it shows an increasing affinity for the distributor toward revivals. The distributor is also re-releasing Darren Aronofsky’s debut film, “Pi,” later this year.
The re-release also comes after A24 helped David Byrne land an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song, alongside Ryan Lott and Mitski, for “This Is a Life” from “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” He’d previous won the Oscar for Best Original Score, alongside Ryuichi Sakamoto and Cong Su, for “The Last Emperor” 35 years earlier. IndieWire just put the “Last Emperor” on its list of the Best Movie Scores of the 1980s.
“Stop Making Sense” features hits like “This Must Be the Place,” “Bringing Down the House,” “Take Me to the River,” “Life During Wartime,” and “Psycho Killer” from Talking Heads’ first few albums. Demme would go on to direct multiple other music documentaries but the unique harmony between his cameras and Byrne, always in motion, was hard to top. Many consider “Stop Making Sense” to be the finest concert film ever made. You’ve certainly never seen one that looks like this: unique lighting sometimes makes Byrne’s bandmates, such as Tina Weymouth, look like they’re being filmed “Blair Witch” style. At one moment Byrne does a Fred Astaire-style pas de deux with a standing electric lamp. This is the definition of a film that inspires obsession.
Watch the trailer here.
A24 will premiere the restoration of “Stop Making Sense” at TIFF September 11. It will arrive in IMAX theaters September 22, then theaters everywhere September 29.
