If you're a Talking Head fan and missed out on seeing the Stop Making Sense concert back in 1984, you're getting the chance to correct that mistake, as the 1984 film of Stop Making Sense is getting a re-release in movie theaters worldwide in 2023.
A24 has announced that a 4K remastered version of the concert film, directed by Oscar-winner Jonathan Demme, is going to get a global release this year, though an exact release date has not been shared. What we do have is a special promo video for the event, which sees David Byrne in the present day picking up the iconic large suit that he wore during the concert.
Give the Stop Making Sense promo a watch right here:
Stop Making Sense was a recorded performance of a Talking Heads concert (shot over three days at the Hollywood Pantages Theater) that promoted their album Speaking in Tongues. The concert included performances of "Psycho Killer," "Burning Down the House," "This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)," "Once in a Lifetime," "Genius of Love," "Take Me to the River" and more.
The concert film by Demme, who is best known for directing Silence of the Lambs, has been very well regarded. In 1985 it won the National Society of Film Critics, USA's prize for Best Documentary and was a nominee for the organization's Film of the Year. Then in 2021 it was added to the National Film Registry, which preserves culturally significant works (check out the National Film Registry's 2022 picks).
Though the concert film is almost 40 years old and Talking Heads haven't been active since 2002, David Byrne remains a big figure in the music business. His most recent solo album was American Utopia, which was then turned into a Broadway show and a documentary of its own from Spike Lee.
Byrne also worked on the 2022 Best Picture-winning movie Everything Everywhere All at Once, penning the Best Original Song nominee "This Is a Life" with Ryan Lott and Mitski. They didn't win, but Bryne does have an Oscar on his shelf for Best Original Score for 1987's The Last Emperor.
Again, there is no official date for the Stop Making Sense re-release, though hopefully we'll hear about that and how to get tickets soon. If you can't wait though, the original (non re-mastered) version of the concert movie is available on Pluto TV in the US and Prime Video in the UK.
