"Stop Making Sense"

We don't see much of the theatre, but Jonathan Demme's "Stop Making Sense" (Cinecom/Palm Pictures, 1984) with David Byrne and the Talking Heads was filmed over a period of three days at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood.

Noted theatre historian Kurt Wahlner comments:

"After touring through many many cities since July 1983, the 'Stop Making Sense Tour' to support the 'Speaking in Tongues' album the band wanted to make a film of the show. They meant to shoot it at the Kabuki Theatre in San Francisco on December 10 and 11 but something unknown happened to cancel the filming. At the end of the tour, the Pantages was rented for five nights, December 12 - 16.

"The first night (12th) was a rehearsal with no audience, the 13th, was filmed, but none of it made the cut. The 14th was filmed, while the 15th (the night my friend Dave Hunter and I attended) was the night most of the footage used in the film was shot. Prior to the start of the show, a man came out to plead with the audience: 'Think of this as a big fucking home movie - Please don’t do anything to screw it up!' A final concert was held on the 16th, but not filmed."

 

See the pages about the Pantages Theatre on the Los Angeles Theatres website a history of the building along with hundreds of photos.

A production still from Rhino records that appeared with "'Stop Making Sense' Is Back and Talking Heads Have More To Say," a September 9, 2023 article by Jon Pareles in the New York Times. Thanks to Kurt Wahlner for spotting the story. He comments:

"I don’t happen to know what tune is being performed here, but it would be easy to figure, since each tune had specific staging. The article mentions that the concept for the film was to start out with just one man with a guitar, then would build and build, until the audience would finally come in at the end. The theatre hardly shows at all really. But an historic event none the less."

On IMDb: "Stop Making Sense"