No offense to the (alleged) coke booger in The Last Waltz, but Stop Making Sense is the greatest concert film of all time. It says so right there in the trailer for A24‘s 4K re-release of the movie, which you can watch above.
Directed by Jonathan Demme, Stop Making Sense was shot over the course of three nights at Hollywood’s Pantages Theater in December 1983, when Talking Heads were at their commercial peak. The film begins with a legendary performance of “Psycho Killer” with just David Byrne on stage before he’s joined by Chris Frantz, Jerry Harrison, and Tina Weymouth, who later sings “Genius of Love” in maybe the coolest part of the show.
“Jonathan followed us on tour for about a week or so prior to filming, so he knew the show pretty well,” Byrne told Time in 2014 about how the film came together. Demme (who sadly passed away in 2017) added, “The big suit, the lighting, the staging, the choreography, the song line-up — everything was there in the show before the filmmakers showed up.”
Stop Making Sense will play in IMAX theaters exclusively beginning on September 22nd before coming to theaters everywhere on September 29th. Talking Heads will also reunite for the first time in forever at the Toronto International Film Festival. Everyone who goes should wear their biggest suit.