Jonathan Demme dies of cancer at 73.
I think the guy who gave us Silence of the Lambs deserves a thread. Not a great director by any means but he did turn out a few memorable films.
He directed the single-greatest “live concert” film ever: “Stop Making Sense” featuring David Byrne and Talking Heads, so there’s that.
The Silence of the Lambs
Stop Making Sense
Swimming to Cambodia
Something Wild
Married to the Mob
Philadelphia
He’s great in my book.
RIP.
That’s a shame.
I remember I was once watching the movie Philadelphia, not knowing much about it, and I suddenly said “This movie was directed by the same guy who did Silence Of The Lambs”, just based on the look of the film and how certain scenes were set up. He certainly had a unique style.
I was just watching Something Wild recently. A very interesting film in terms of structure. First half fairly light comedy, second half dark thriller and the break is precise and instantaneous, with a perfect musical cue* and one menacing line ( at the end of this clip ). A talented man - RIP.
- The opening notes of Loveless Love performed live by the Feelies, another band Demme was fond of and directed a straightforward video for.
Yes! There was also that scene at the beginning of “Married to the Mob” where Alec Baldwin kills the guy on the train, and when he pulls his head back to reveal that he’s dead, the beginning of “Bizarre Love Triangle” by New Order kicks in. That remains to this day one of my favorite uses of a pop song in a movie.
He made 3 of my favourite movies. I honestly had no idea he was that old. I thought he was in his mid 60s at most.
Demme made the official video for New Order’s The Perfect Kiss
It's so simple - it's just the band in the studio - yet so beautiful.Damn that sucks. 
Silence of the Lambs is one of my favorite movies ever.
I was going to write almost this exact same post. RIP Jonathan.
Agreed! He was a master of economy for this show. This entire song essentially only consists of two shots–one of which is perhaps my favorite shot from any of his films.
RIP. 
Will Bernard Shakey make another great concert film?
Best concert film ever and high on my “wish I had been there” lists.
Hell, he even made Justin Timberlake look good!
I wasn’t even thinking he was that old! Very sorry to hear it.
My favorite New Order song. Just love Hooky’s bass. They look so young. Just saw them at Coachella and they looked not so young. Still great though. Demme was obviously a fan.
If he never made anything but Something Wild he would still be a great director. I think he got the best performances out of Jeff Daniels and Melanie Griffith that they ever gave. And maybe Ray Liotta too. I saw a lot of bad films waiting for Melanie Griffith to do something that good again.
I go to films for the director a lot, and Demme was on my list, along with Erich Rohmer, Jim Jarmusch, John Sayles, Peter Greenaway, Akira Kurusawa, Warner Herzog, Pedro Almadovar, David Lynch and Spike Lee. Rohmer and Kurosawa are gone too, and Jarmusch is getting up there, so is Sayles, and many of the others.
My other favorite directors are Fritz Lang, Michael Curtiz, Frank Capra, King Vidor DW Griffith, and so on.
I need to find some good, YOUNG directors to follow.