“…because it’s good advice…”
says David Byrne to himself, (in his "self-interview) in response to why the film is called STOP MAKING SENSE.
Indeed, why make sense in any sort of musical/performance sense? This is fun.
The performers all throw themselves around the stage, not in the traditional, chaotic sense, but in a rather child-like, playful way, where you get up and run around simply because the music is fast and loud, where you flail your arms widly, not caring about what others think or not worrying about how badly you dance, where the lights don’t obstruct the view and you can see everyone else, laughing and having a good time.
this is like some rock-concert-film utopia in retrospect. Everything is done right, in the most wonderful way. It’s a toss whether this can be attributed to directo Jonathan Demme, or David Byrne, or the Talking Head’s infectious energy. Maybe it’s all of the above, because nothing works without the other. David Byrne understands this perfectly, allowing each performer to show off, show up one at a time as the concert goes on until the performance becomes a stylistic, dada-inspired surreal-fun fest.
It’s all rather gentle too, ironically. With a title like Stop Making Sense, there is a strange amount of …cute-ness, for lack of a better word. I suppose the modern day equivalent (not anymore) would be dance/electronic group Deee-lite, or to a greater extent, the Japanese group Pizzicato Five. All these groups have in common that gentle, happy-go-lucky attitude in the face of everything, where words are ALMOST meaningless, but you can’t help but say them and the bizarre instrumentations and sounds have a comforting familiarity.
I think what truly separates this rock film from others, besides the unique persona of the Talking Heads, is the staging, which has more in common with a play, or even an art installation. It’s not pretentious though, and not overtly clever either. It is fresh and still feels inventive now.
if anything, the film has aged REALLY well (helps that the music is great too. Talking Heads went out of their way to cherry pick the hits from their catalogue).
interesting story: Bernardo Bertolucci saw the film with David Byrne. Bertolucci noticed that near the end of the film, everyone started dancing in the movie theater. Bertolucci was enthralled and slightly jealous, stating that he wished people would do that at his films.
Coincidentally (or not), Bertolucci had Byrne help compose the soundtrack for his epic THE LAST EMPEROR. That film ended up sweeping the Academy Awards (including best original score). Bertolucci may not have gotten dancing movie-goers, but I suppose this is a fine substitute.