Stop Making Sense, Jonathan Demme – Stepped Out
Jonathan Demme (Vanity Fair)
rest in peace
Oscar-Winning Director Jonathan Demme Dies at 73
“I can’t think of any other director who is so instinctively and democratically interested in everybody he shows you,” Kael wrote.
Love his documentaries.. we’ll miss you Jonathan.
David Byrne’s tribute here (Slate)
Jonathan helped me as I was developing True Stories, I wrote a song for his film Something Wild, a score for Married to the Mob and we made a test sequence for a never completed documentary featuring Robert Farris Thompson called Rule of the Cool. Jonathan went on to make a lot more features—some hugely successful, others not so much. He interspersed these with a number of documentaries and music films. The documentaries are pure labors of love. They tend to be celebrations of unsung heroes—an agronomist in Haiti, an activist (cousin) and pastor and an ordinary woman who does extraordinary things in New Orleans post-Katrina. The fiction films, the music films and the docs are all filled with so much passion and love. He often turned what would be a genre film into a very personal expression. His view of the world was open, warm, animated and energetic. He was directing TV episodes even this year, when he was in remission.
Jonathan, we’ll miss you.