“And you may find yourself in the National Film Registry / And you may ask yourself, ‘Well, how did I get here?'”
Arguably the greatest music documentary of all time has finally been given a note of distinction that it richly deserves. Jonathan Demme’s 1984 Talking Heads concert film, Stop Making Sense, has been added to the National Film Registry.
It joins the Library of Congress along with a strong lineup of other inductees in 2021. Pixar’s classic animation Wall-E, Return of the Jedi, The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring, and John Waters’ Pink Flamingos were also added this year. You can check out the full list of 2021 inductees here.
Since being established in 1988, the Library of Congress has annually chosen new films to preserve in the National Film Registry if they are deemed “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant” and are “works of enduring importance to American culture.”
There’s a reason Robert Christgau called Stop Making Sense “the finest concert film”. It was filmed over the course of four nights at the Pantages Theater in Los Angeles in December 1983 during promotion for Talking Heads’ new album Speaking in Tongues. The Stop Making Sense soundtrack of the same name contained iconic hits like ‘Psycho Killer’ and ‘Once in a Lifetime’. It was ranked at number 345 on Rolling Stone‘s list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
It’s actually been a remarkably strong year for music documentaries. Todd Haynes released his stylish and artistic look at The Velvet Underground, while Peter Jackson’s mammoth, in-depth Beatles film, Get Back, has dominated headlines this month. They don’t contain David Byrne in a hilariously oversized suit though, so can they really be considered as masterpieces?
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Watch Stop Making Sense below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53dikqNZLgA
