Jonathan Demme
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Trailer Watch: 40th Anniversary 4K Restoration of Jonathan Demme’s Stop Making Sense
World premiering at TIFF before hitting IMAX and theater screens later this fall, the trailer arrives from A24 today for the 40th anniversary 4K restoration of Jonathan Demme‘s Stop Making Sense. The seminal Talking Heads concert film captures the band—comprised of David Byrne, Jerry Harrison and spouses Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz, married now for 45 years—performing at Hollywood’s Pantages Theater in December of 1983. The September 11 TIFF world premiere of the 4K restoration will be followed by a Q&A conducted by Spike Lee with all of the original Talking Heads band members (this should be juicy in its […]
by Natalia Keogan on Aug 17, 2023 -
Watch: A24 Is Bringing Jonathan Demme’s Stop Making Sense Back to Theaters in 4K
With the 40th anniversary of Jonathan Demme’s impeccable Talking Heads concert film Stop Making Sense on the horizon, A24 has announced a worldwide theatrical re-release of the film, which has been remastered in 4K. While dates have yet to be announced, it’s likely that the restoration’s theatrical run will tie into the band’s forthcoming deluxe vinyl reissue of the soundtrack, which will hit shelves on August 18. Notably, the vinyl reissue will also feature two previously unreleased tracks: “Cities” and “Big Business/I Zimbra.” Tied into the announcement is a brief teaser that depicts David Byrne picking up his iconic “big suit” […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Mar 16, 2023 -
Looking Backwards To Look Forward
Lately, it seems that events are conspiring to make me look backwards. First of all, about two years ago, I was invited to donate my personal archives to the University of Michigan’s Screen Arts Mavericks & Makers Collection. It was an incredible honor to be joined with such illustrious company as Orson Welles, Robert Altman, John Sayles, Alan Rudolph, Nancy Savoca and, most recently, Jonathan Demme. But it was also a bit nerve-wracking to think that total strangers would be rummaging through my proverbial attic—a hoarder’s collection of film posters, correspondence (actual hardcopy letters, memos and mimeographs!), grosses and marketing […]
by Ira Deutchman on Sep 17, 2018 -
The Subject as Auteur: Jonathan Demme on Enzo Avitabile Music Life
Italian jazz saxophonist and composer Enzo Avitabile might not be a household name in the States, but in the annals of world music he’s quite a fixture. In his native Naples he is so famous that when he visits the neighborhood of his youth, folks bustle into the streets and onto rooftops and balconies to lay eyes on him. A scholar of jazz, he can hold court on the evolution of the form as long as you’d like him to, although as Academy Award-winning director Jonathan Demme discovers in his newest concert film, Enzo Avitabile Music Life, that may not […]
by Brandon Harris on Oct 25, 2013 -
Three Questions for Jonathan Demme
Academy Award-winning director Jonathan Demme has made Hollywood spectacles (The Silence of the Lambs, The Manchurian Candidate), eccentric indies (Rachel Getting Married, Something Wild), timeless rock docs (Stop Making Sense, Neil Young Journeys) and other unclassifiable delights. At the 12th annual Festival International du Film de Marrakech, Demme’s filmmaking legacy was honored with both a formal tribute, and an invite to give a “masterclass” to an enraptured Moroccan audience. Filmmaker sat down with Demme to discuss his iconoclastic career. Filmmaker: For decades, you’ve been slinking between narratives and documentaries. What interests you more? Demme: I’ve always followed my enthusiasm. If […]
by Aaron Hillis on Jan 9, 2013 -
Alchemy at Emerging Visions
It’s been nearly two weeks since my participation in IFP’s Emerging Visions Program and now that the dust has settled, I can see clearly how valuable this experience was, not only in a practical sense, i.e., the nuts and bolts of filmmaking, but also in more intangible ways. I was lucky to have the opportunity to participate in the Emerging Narratives and the Emerging Visions Program, back to back, with my feature film script The Whispering Giant. Both IFP programs offer filmmakers a chance to pitch their projects in a “safe” environment, where they can be critiqued by an industry […]
by Kim Spurlock on Oct 18, 2012 -
James Ponsoldt, Smashed
Kate Hannah (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) is a devoted elementary school teacher who, early in James Ponsoldt’s new film Smashed, shows up for work with a wicked hangover and vomits in front of her students. Forced to explain her behavior, she tells her class and colleagues that she’s pregnant. The lie leaves her feeling awful, and it’s soon clear to Kate that she needs to back away from the bottle. After all, this isn’t a one-off incident. She and her husband Charlie (Aaron Paul) are almost constantly drunk, and it’s pretty clear to her that they live for booze as much […]
by Kevin Canfield on Oct 10, 2012 -
Transparency & Emerging Visions
An older filmmaker friend of mine recently told me about his first experience with Kickstarter. He hated it. It wasn’t that he didn’t get his money–his campaign was actually successful. No, It was something else. As he put it, it was “transparency.” He really didn’t like having to be so open about his needs, about the status of his project, about his desperation to raise money. Transparency can be uncomfortable for filmmakers–too much and you seem like you don’t know what you’re doing, too little and you don’t get the help you need. I guess it’s about finding the right […]
by Musa Syeed on Oct 9, 2012 -
PREVIEWING DOC NYC
Since I’ve never attended the Toronto International Film Festival, or the long-running doc series Stranger Than Fiction, I was shamefully late to discover the curatorial wizard behind-the-curtain by the name of Thom Powers. But ever since Powers’s programming became, for me, the highlight of this year’s Miami International Film Festival he’s been firmly on my cine-radar. So when I noticed he’d be returning as artistic director of DOC NYC (which runs Nov. 2-10) I thought, “Oh, no.” I didn’t have time to cover DOC NYC right before I flew to Amsterdam to tackle the mother of all nonfiction fests IDFA! […]
by Lauren Wissot on Nov 2, 2011 -
2ND ANNUAL ARUBA FILM FESTIVAL
A Dutch protectorate tucked near the very bottom of the Caribbean, Aruba is a small, arid, resort powered island that, despite its idiosyncrasies, may feel at times, especially along its sunbather packed eastern shores, like any other tourist satellite (although a particularly intoxicating one it is). Still, woe is he who gets caught in the all too ubiquitous American simulacrum, one of decidedly marked-up Five Guys fries and T.G.I. Friday’s chicken fingers, of cheeseburger “specials” at Hooters with beef that taste like copper. Of course, this is a film festival on a beautiful tourist trap, so there’s a lot of […]
by Brandon Harris on Jul 7, 2011
