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Anamorphic
widescreen |
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Dolby Digital
5.1 |
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DTS |
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Trailer(s) |
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Featurette(s) |
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Documentary |
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Audio commentary
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Deleted scenes
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Concept art
/ storyboards |
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Multi-angle
feature |
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[sung]
Same as it ever was...
Same as it ever was...
A 1984 live performance by 1980s pop
band Talking Heads.
With the possible exception of Scorsese's
The Last Waltz, Stop Making Sense is the best film
ever to capture the energy, joy and immediacy of a popular rock
band performing live at the peak of its career. David Byrne's brilliant
stage concepts are matched by director Demme's acute eye for what's
happening on the stage and bringing us the full on-stage band dynamics.
One of many strokes of genius has the camera completely focused
on the musicians and the stage, and it's not until the final track
that we get a good view of the audience. Most concert films cut
back to shots of ecstatic crowds almost non-stop, the intention
of which seems to be to convince us it must be good, as all these
people obviously love it. This technique however has a severe distancing
effect on the film viewer, as nobody I know particularly enjoys
watching an auditorium full of embarassingly riveted teens leaping
up and down and mouthing along to all the band's lyrics. Demme instead
puts us right on top of the band, giving us fly-on-the-wall shots
of the musicians - who never appear to be posing for the camera
- or wider views of the stage when needed.
At the heart of the band is the amazing figure of David Byrne, an
all-out performer who is thrilling to watch whatever he is doing.
He seems to be operating in his own particular space-time continuum
and he is clearly as authentically odd as he is compelling to watch.
Both the other three Heads and the tour players are virtuoso musicians
who are clearly having a blast giving it their all on-stage. If
there's one quibble you might have about the movie, it's that the
show reaches its musical peak after about thirty minutes, and though
the band certainly does sustain both its energy and the level of
performance, a monotony does tend to creep in at some parts, which
isn't helped by Byrne's departure from the stage for a sadly inferior
number from Tina Weymouth's group Tom Tom Club. Eventually, this
is still however as good a cinematic experience of a concert show
as has ever been produced, and is sure to convert even those previously
unenchanted by the Heads' particular brand of music. |
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The American DVD release is set to Region 0. A Region 2-coded release
is available in Europe but has far fewer extras and lacks the same audio options. The American
release served as a basis for this review.
The anamorphic widescreen image
is framed at 1.85:1. Picture quality is quite good, and the restored
source print shows a very limited degree of graininess and other
defects. Definition is excellent as are contrast levels, and though
there is often visible evidence of edge-enhancement, this does not
subtract substantially from the overall experience of the film.
Three audio mixes are available: a restored version of the original
two-track stereo soundtrack (presented in linear PCM stereo for
optimal quality), and two new Dolby Digital 5.1 mixes. The first
is an excellent enhancement of the two-track version that gives
the band an excellent deep soundstage with great range and fine
use of the rear speakers. The 'studio mix' is one that is supposed
to approximate the way it would have sounded in a recording studio,
but I found this mix to be disappointingly flat and hollow-sounding.
Among the many extras, I found
the audio commentary, edited together from tracks by all four former
Heads and director Jonathan Demme, to be the most worthwhile. Even
though they were recorded separately, all of their remarks are screen-specific
and the editing gives their articulate and witty remarks and immediacy
that could fool the average listener into believing they were recorded
together.
Two bonus tracks can be accessed separately and are also played
automatically at the end of the film. They seem to be mastered from
poor video stock and are presented full-frame, but this was apparently
the best quality still available of these tracks (and probably also
the reason why they haven't been edited back into the film in their
proper order).
A goofy 'self-interview with David Byrne' is highly odd but surprisingly
informative (image quality on this is also poor), and there's lots
of text material on the development of the stage concepts that makes
for some very interesting reading. Byrne's original stage designs
can be accessed either accompanied by his notes or by screenshots
from the final film. All in all, an outstanding set of extra features
that gives remarkable insight into a truly legendary stage show. The
animated menus are very nicely designed, with subtle shifts of light
going back and forth over the navigational options. The Song Selection
screen deserves special mention with its use of animated frame-by-frame
previews of the songs accompanied by the specific audio clips.
Dan
Hassler-Forest
Reviewed: 2001
Click
here for IMDB info on Talking
Heads: Stop Making Sense.
Click here
to return to the front page.
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