This Must Be the Place

by Karenna Umscheid

Oh, the concert film. Swaths of fans, tight intimacy, winks to the camera, audience sing-alongs, and everything in between. The question of whether they are a mere attempt at replicating the magic of live music, or if they are a really special kind of artistic cinema is answered by Jonathan Demme with Stop Making Sense. The Talking Heads concert film, which focused beautifully on the rhythmic movements of one David Byrne, demonstrates the exceptional art of morphing live concerts into stunning cinema.

Stop Making Sense is so phenomenal because it deeply understands the power and magic of both music and film, marrying them in a way that does not champion one form over the other, passionately depicting the beautiful drama of both in combination.

The concert feels transcendent, and while I would fully give a limb to have seen this live performance, Demme’s direction adds a marvelous layer of intimacy that only film provides. Where most concert films rely on interview footage and behind-the-scenes extras to inject the film with the unique sensibilities of its subject, Demme needs only the band. His cinematic intimacy shines a brilliant light on Byrne, his stage presence even more beautiful on the screen.

Though every track is stunning, my favorite live song from Stop Making Sense is “This Must Be The Place.” The song yearns for a sense of belonging, pouring heart and writhing emotion in the lyrics, my favorite being “Love me ‘til my heart stops / Love me ‘til I’m dead.” Talking Heads are profoundly romantic, and love coming to town at the center of their sound. Every lyric hits me like a ton of bricks, echoing gorgeously through the concert hall.

As I write this from my home in Beaverton, Oregon, I am reminded that everywhere I go, I long for home and simultaneously am there, much like the lyrics of “This Must Be The Place.” It is a love song, but it’s not solely romantic, it’s a ballad for belonging, a hunt to end the loneliness, and the realization that all you need is already around you. Oregon is home, but so is Boston, Thailand, any place that I have been, lived, and loved. It can be concert crowds surrounded by screaming fans, movie theaters at a richly packed opening night, small acoustic shows, festivals, dances, parties, anywhere that you can feel that unshakable feeling.

Concert films belong to cinema as much as any other kind that is enamored with care for the form, and passion for the story it tells, the music it makes. And we, as people, viewers, fans, listeners, can belong anywhere that we understand the sound.

Stop Making Sense screens at the Brattle Theater on December 31, 2023, and January 1, 2023.

Until next Wednesday,

Karenna

Photograph: Esquire