Cat.no: PALMDVD 3013-2

Cert: E

Running time: 89 minutes

Year: 1984

Pressing: 2000

Region(s): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 (UK PAL)

Chapters: 19 plus extras

Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby Digital 2.0 (Stereo)

Languages: English

Subtitles: None

Widescreen: 16:9 (1.77:1)

16:9-enhanced: Yes

Macrovision: No

Disc Format: DVD 9

Price: £15.99

Extras : Scene index, Trailers, Montage, Bonus tracks, Storyboard-to-film comparison, "David Byrne Interviews...David Byrne" promotional clip, Biographies, Discography, Big Suit, DVD-ROM content, Audio commentary from the band and Jonathan Demme

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Director:

Jonathan Demme (Beloved, Married to the Mob, Melvin and Howard, Philadelphia, The Silence of the Lambs, Something Wild)

Producer:

Gary Goetzman

The Band:

David Byrne (Vocals and Guitar)
Jerry Harrison (Guitar and Keyboards)
Chris Frantz (Drums)
Tina Weymouth (Bass)

Talking Heads: Stop Making Sense is a concert film for the revered 1984 album, the stage starting off very bare with lead singer David Byrne announcing that he has a tape to play for the audience... and so leads into Psycho Killer. Little by little, the background builds up, featuring weird pictures and messages and the band certainly seem to be enjoying themselves.

Not all of the tracks featured are to my taste, but my favourite ones from the film are Psycho Killer, Slippery People, Naive Melody (This Must Be The Place), Once in a Lifetime, Take Me To The River and a cover version The Tom Tom Club's Genius of Love, which provided the basis for Mariah Carey's Fantasy, but not my Mariah Carey fantasy :)

Never one to conform, or have that many hits, their UK singles chart history is as follows :

Feb 81	No.14	Once in a Lifetime
May 81	No.50	Houses in Motion
Jan 84	No.51	This Must Be The Place
Nov 84	No.68	Slippery People
Oct 85	No. 6	Road To Nowhere
Feb 86	No.17	And She Was
Sep 86	No.43	Wild Wild Life
May 87	No.52	Radio Head
Aug 88	No.59	Blind
Oct 92	No.50	Lifetime Piling Up
Nov 96	No.60	Don't Take My Kindness For Weakness
		(with Shaun Ryder, but minus David Byrne)

The film is presented in a remastered anamorphic 16:9 ratio - bar the two bonus tracks which are 4:3 - and is fine to watch, but the whole concert has a rather blurred look about it. I'm getting the impression that it's intentional as I can't think what caused it, but I'd prefer it if it didn't look that way. The average bitrate is a fine 6Mb/s.

The sound is spot-on perfect though, with plenty of loud, thumping bass coming out of the speakers. The soundtrack is available in three flavours: Feature Film Dolby Digital 5.1 which is best, Studio Dolby Digital 5.1 which is a rather more tinny alternative and a plain vanilla stereo mix.

Extras :

Chapters & Trailers :

1. Psycho Killer

2. Heaven

3. Thank You For Sending Me An Angel

4. Found A Job

5. Slippery People

6. Burning Down the House

7. Life During Wartime

8. Making Flippy Floppy

9. Swamp

10. What A Day That Was

11. Naive Melody (This Must Be The Place)

12. Once In A Lifetime

13. Genius Of Love

14. Girlfriend Is Better

15. Take Me To The River

16. Cross-Eyed And Painless

17. Cities

18/19. Big Business / I Zimbra

Languages & Subtitles :

And there's more... :

Brief Biographies are available for the band and director Jonathan Demme. There's also a one-page Discography and three on the famed Big Suit which makes an appearance in Girlfriend is Better.

The DVD-ROM content features music samples, info and rough-looking video clips of a range of Palm Pictures produce: Sly and Robbie, Baaba Maal, Mocean Worker, Ernest Ranglin and Kora Revolution.

The feature-length Audio commentary was recorded by all four members of the band and the director in August 1999. Each participant recorded his or her comments separately in their studio of choice. Finally, we have a bizarre promitional self-interviewing clip, "David Byrne Interviews...David Byrne", lasting four-and-a-half minutes.

Menu :

Well, you'll already have decided on whether to buy it or not. If you're a big fan, you will do and you certainly won't be disappointed given the amount of extras. For the rest, rent it first and see if you warm to their brand of music.

I quite enjoyed it, but I'd prefer a concert filmed now with more of their later music and solo offerings, such as Jerry Harrison's excellent Rev It Up which didn't do a light over here, as that's more of what I'm used to from them.

FILM CONTENT PICTURE QUALITY SOUND QUALITY EXTRAS
OVERALL

Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2000.