Jonathan Demme

  • Jonathan Demme – Stop Making Sense (1984)

    Jonathan Demme1981-1990DocumentaryMusicalUSA

    Quote:
    An innovative concert movie for the rock group The Talking Heads. David Byrne walks onto the stage and does a solo “Psycho Killer.” Jerry Harrison, Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz join him for two more songs. The crew is busy, still setting up. Then, three more musicians and two back-up singers join the band. Everybody sings, plays, harmonizes, dances, and runs. They change instruments and clothes. Bryne appears in the Big Suit. The backdrop is often black, but sometimes it displays words, images, or children’s drawings. The band cooks for 18 songs, the lyrics are clear, the house rocks. In this concert film, the Talking Heads hardly talk, don’t stop, and always make sense.
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  • Jonathan Demme – Swing Shift [Workprint Edit, Custom] (1984)

    1981-1990DramaJonathan DemmeRomanceUSA

    A woman finds romance when she takes a job at an aircraft plant to help make ends meet after her husband goes off to war.

    Quote:
    Swing Shift is a 1984 American romantic drama war film directed by Jonathan Demme and produced by and starring Goldie Hawn with Kurt Russell. It also starred Christine Lahti, Fred Ward and Ed Harris. Lahti earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her tragic portrayal of heart-broken ex-singer and Hawn’s character’s close friend Hazel, losing to Peggy Ashcroft for A Passage to India. Singer Belinda Carlisle made a foray into acting and Holly Hunter can be seen in one of her first movie roles.Read More »

  • Jonathan Demme – Melvin and Howard (1980)

    1971-1980ComedyDramaJonathan DemmeUSA

    Quote:
    A beautifully observed, beautifully performed offbeat comedy.

    Milkman Melvin Dummar (Le Mat) picks up a grouchy old hobo in the Nevada desert one night, lends him a quarter while disbelieving his claim to be Howard Hughes, and then returns to a mundane life of work, divorce, remarriage, and failed songwriting attempts, until eight years later he appears to have been left a fortune by the dead tycoon.Read More »

  • Jonathan Demme – The Truth About Charlie (2002)

    2001-2010Jonathan DemmeMysteryThrillerUSA

    This is a remake of Charade with Cary Grant and done with a few twists that make it interesting. A well to do couple in Paris are headed for divorce. The woman finds out her husband is dead before she gets the chance to ask for the divorce. She finds this out when she returns to their residence to find everything in it is gone. Two members of the French police are there and inform her of her husbands death. She encounters several people who want money stolen by her husband.Read More »

  • Jonathan Demme – Last Embrace (1979)

    1971-1980Jonathan DemmeUSA

    Synopsis:
    When his wife is killed in a restaurant shoot-out, intelligence man Harry Hannan (Roy Scheider) has a breakdown and finds that his department doesn’t want him back. Someone’s trying to kill him and it could be them, though a cryptic Jewish death-threat suggests there’s something else going on. His only ally seems to be mousy Ellie Fabian (Janet Margolin) who has managed to move into his New York apartment.Read More »

  • Jonathan Demme – Neil Young Trunk Show (2009)

    2001-2010DocumentaryJonathan DemmeNetherlandsPerformance

    Quote:
    23 March 2010 | by MisterWhiplash (United States)

    There’s something about the way Neil Young ends a song that is unique to him. Actually, a lot of rockers tend to do it, but not to the extent Young seems to do it. That is, just when you think the song is about to reach the end (that is, based on how one has heard the song so many times on an album), it goes on a little longer, or even for another several bars. Take the last song before the encore, ‘Like a Hurricane’. Just when you think the song ends, Young keeps plucking those strings, getting that distortion going, and the band, for maybe just a moment, is not sure if the song is over yet either. They could go on, or stop right there.Read More »

  • Jonathan Demme – Handle with Care AKA Citizen’s Band (1977)

    1971-1980ComedyDramaJonathan DemmeUSA

    Quote:
    The interlaced stories of several characters in a small town united by their use of CB (citizen’s band) radio.Read More »

  • Jonathan Demme – Fighting Mad (1976)

    1971-1980ActionExploitationJonathan DemmeUSA
    Fighting Mad (1976)

    An Arkansas farmer stages a one-man war against corrupt land developers who want to evict him and his neighbors from their farms for real estate developments.Read More »

  • Jonathan Demme – Storefront Hitchcock (1998)

    1991-2000DocumentaryJonathan DemmeMusicalUSA

    Jonathan Demme’s fantastic concert film of cult music favorite Robyn Hitchcock.

    The 1998 Variety review:

    The eccentric appeal of Brit singer-songwriter Robyn Hitchcock gets a nice permanent showcase in Jona-than Demme’s third performance-record feature.

    The eccentric appeal of Brit singer-songwriter Robyn Hitchcock gets a nice permanent showcase in Jona-than Demme’s third performance-record feature. While unlikely to have the same impact as helmer’s two prior such breaks from major studio projects — Talking Heads concert pic “Stop Making Sense” and Spalding Gray monologue “Swimming to Cambodia,” both watersheds for their type — pic should scare up some change in limited release for Orion, then enjoy decent shelf life via rep-house, vid and cable circuits.Read More »

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