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- 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-filmcomparison, “David Byrne Interviews…David Byrne” promotional clip, Biographies,Discography, Big Suit, DVD-ROM content,Audio commentary from the band and Jonathan Demme
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 Senseis a concert film for the revered 1984 album, the stage starting off very bare withlead 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 arePsycho Killer, Slippery People, Naive Melody (This Must Be The Place), Once in aLifetime, Take Me To The River and a cover version The Tom Tom Club‘sGenius of Love, which provided the basis for Mariah Carey‘sFantasy, but not my Mariah Carey fantasy 🙂
Never one to conform, or have that many hits, their UK singles chart history is as follows :
Feb 81No.14Once in a LifetimeMay 81No.50Houses in MotionJan 84No.51This Must Be The PlaceNov 84No.68Slippery PeopleOct 85No. 6Road To NowhereFeb 86No.17And She WasSep 86No.43Wild Wild LifeMay 87No.52Radio HeadAug 88No.59BlindOct 92No.50Lifetime Piling UpNov 96No.60Don’t Take My Kindness For Weakness(with Shaun Ryder, but minus David Byrne)and in 1992 they released their greatest hits album,Popular Favourites: Sand in the Vaseline.
The film is presented in a remastered anamorphic 16:9 ratio – bar the two bonus tracks which are4:3 – and is fine to watch, butthe whole concert has a rather blurred look about it. I’m getting the impression that it’sintentional 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 thespeakers. The soundtrack is available in three flavours: Feature Film Dolby Digital 5.1which is best, Studio Dolby Digital 5.1 which is a rather more tinny alternative and a plainvanilla stereo mix.
Extras : Chapters & Trailers :There are 19 chapters on the disc, one per track, with the complete listing looking as follows : 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 ZimbraThe trailers included are a theatrical trailer, a “montage” (3 mins of clips from the film),plus three trailers for other Palm Pictures DVDs – Dancehall Queen, Baaba Maaland Ghost in the Machine. There’s also an “Anti-Drugs Trailer” if you’re worriedabout your kids taking drugs in an American school… Languages & Subtitles :English songs, but no lyrics unfortunately. And there’s more… :First up is a couple of Bonus Tracks, but I’ve listed them about as 17 and “18/19” as theback cover quotes them and for some reason are presented in 4:3 rather than 16:9 widescreen.The extensive Storyboard-to-film comparison allows you to seewhat was intended before watching the film and compare it with how it turned out, as well asread notes about it.
Brief Biographies are available for the band and directorJonathan Demme. There’s also a one-page Discography and three on the famedBig Suit which makes an appearance in Girlfriend is Better.
The DVD-ROM content features music samples, info and rough-lookingvideo 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 andthe director in August 1999. Each participant recorded his or her comments separately in theirstudio of choice. Finally, we have a bizarre promitional self-interviewing clip,“David Byrne Interviews…David Byrne”, lasting four-and-a-half minutes.
Menu :Most of the menus are static but have the opening music from Slippery Peopleand Burning Down the House in the background and the extras menufeatures changing pictures of the event. The scene selection menus are silent,but contain animation of the track in question.
Well, you’ll already have decided on whether to buy it or not. If you’re a big fan, you willdo and you certainly won’t be disappointed given the amount of extras. For the rest, rent itfirst 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 soloofferings, such as Jerry Harrison‘s excellent Rev It Up which didn’t do alight over here, as that’s more of what I’m used to from them.
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
OVERALLFor more information, please visitPalmPictures.com
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.