Talking Heads‘ seminal film Stop Making Sense is set to return to cinemas in an IMAX format.
The Jonathan Demme film will be screened across 300 IMAX locations across the UK and Ireland on October 2 as part of the ongoing celebrations of its 40th anniversary. Tickets are available here.
A24 has partnered with IMAX for a new monthly screening series, which has seen IMAX remaster classics from their library of 140 feature films. Previous remastered and launched films include Alex Garland’s Ex Machina, Ari Aster’s Hereditary and Midsommar, The Safdie Brothers’ Uncut Gems, Mat Whitecross’ Oasis: Supersonic and the Daniels’ Everything Everywhere All At Once.
Stop Making Sense previously came back into cinemas earlier this year. Last year, A24 released a remastered 4K version of the 1984 movie on the big screen to mark its 40th anniversary. The iconic band also reunited at a special screening as part of the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival.
An official synopsis reads: “Newly restored in 4K to coincide with its 40th anniversary, the 1984 film was directed by renowned filmmaker Jonathan Demme and is considered by critics as the greatest concert film of all time.
“Stop Making Sense stars core band members David Byrne, Tina Weymouth, Chris Frantz, and Jerry Harrison along with Bernie Worrell, Alex Weir, Steve Scales, Lynn Mabry and Edna Holt.”
It adds: “The live performance was shot over the course of three nights at Hollywood’s Pantages Theater in December of 1983 and features Talking Heads’ most memorable songs.”
Earlier this year, A24 announced a Stop Making Sense tribute album, which will feature a cover of Talking Heads’ ‘Burning Down The House’ by Paramore.
The band opened up about the film’s creation in an interview on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in June, saying that they didn’t want it to be “too Spinal Tap“.
At one point in the interview, Talking Heads were asked whether they had approached director Jonathan Demme with any “notes” on how he should capture their performance onscreen.
“Do you all go like, ‘Hey, here’s what we definitely don’t want to do’?” Fallon said. Weymouth responded: “Yeah. We did that.”
The bassist continued: “We said, ‘We don’t want all the gimmicks’. We wanted the cameras to be like a sensitive eye; the way an audience member would be seeing it, without the camera getting in the way and playing around.”
She went on to say that the group wanted “no split screen” and “no interviews” to be featured. “That would be too Spinal Tap,” Weymouth added, referring to the classic comedy rock mockumentary – which was released the same year as Stop Making Sense.