Stop Making SensePG

Directed by Jonathan Demme | USA | 1983 | 1h 28m

Big songs. Even bigger suit! Director Jonathan Demme (Silence of the Lambs) captures the intoxicating experience of New York art-rockers Talking Heads performing live at the peak of their powers in 1983. Beginning with frontman David Byrne performing a solo rendition of ‘Psycho Killer’, members of the band join the set one-by-one, song-by-song to create one of the most legendary and joyous live music experiences put to film. Newly restored in 4K to coincide with the film’s 40th anniversary, it is now considered by critics and fans to be the greatest concert documentary of all time.

Join us for a Byrne’s Night double-feature screening of Stop Making Sense alongside David Byrne’s 1986 directorial debut True Stories on Saturday 25th January. Click here to book your double-feature tickets.

Reviews

‘The energy of Jonathan Demme’s 1984 film defies categorisation, and David Byrne in the ‘Big Suit’ is the Chuck Berry of new wave art-rock’
★★★★★
Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

‘And even now, how fresh it seems. For all the reverence and influence, how unique as well. The greatest concert movie ever made? Whether truth or fact, it is.’
★★★★★
Danny Leigh, The FT

Sorry - you missed it!

We showed Stop Making Sense between October 13, 2023 and January 31, 2025.

Join our mailing list and we'll make sure you always know what's on and when.

What else is on?

Today (Thursday 25th June)

12:30

Madfabulous 12A
Parent + Baby Screening
1h 48m
1890s North Wales. Young aristocrat Henry Paget inherits an estate and scandalises polite society. Inspired by a true story, this riotous period drama stars Callum Scott Howells and Rupert Everett in a joyful celebration of spectacle, self-expression, and refusing to conform.

Book here

15:30

Madfabulous 12A
1h 48m
1890s North Wales. Young aristocrat Henry Paget inherits an estate and scandalises polite society. Inspired by a true story, this riotous period drama stars Callum Scott Howells and Rupert Everett in a joyful celebration of spectacle, self-expression, and refusing to conform.

Book here

18:00

Red Rooms 18
1h 58m | French w/ English subtitles
A young woman becomes fixated on a high-profile murder trial, drawn into a disturbing online underworld. Red Pascal Plante’s tense, chilling thriller explores obsession, true crime, and the darker edges of internet culture.

Book here

20:45

Wiñaypacha Cert-TBC
1h 26m | Aymaran w/ English subtitles
An elderly couple in Peru’s remote Andes endure harsh daily realities while awaiting their son’s return from the city. Óscar Catacora’s award-winning debut reflects Peruvian culture, traditions and cosmology. Presented by the University of Oxford Indigenous Society.

Book here


Tomorrow (Friday 26th June)

15:30

Time and Water PG
1h33m
Author Andri Snær Magnason weaves family archives, traditional song, and Icelandic folklore into an elegy for a disappearing landscape. An urgent, deeply personal documentary about memory, loss, and living through irreversible change, from director Sara Dosa (Fire of Love).

Book here

17:45

Savage House 15
1h 54m
When ruthless social climbers Sir Chauncey and Lady Savage secure a dinner with the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire, their ambitions collide with pox, Jacobite uprising, and bloodshed. Claire Foy and Richard E. Grant star in this sharp period comedy about class and power.

Book here

20:30

Tuner 15
1h 47m
A piano tuner discovers his gift for precision translates naturally to cracking safes, and finds himself drawn into a criminal underworld. Leo Woodall and Dustin Hoffman star in Oscar-winner Daniel Roher's thriller of elegant plotting and quiet moral complexity.

Book here


Plan your visit

Our beautiful art deco inspired auditorium can be found just off East Oxford's Cowley Road.We are open 7 days a week. We open the cinema and box office 30 minutes before the scheduled start time of each film, and the Box Office then closes 10 minutes after the film starts. We only show a few adverts – less than most cinemas – and we only play a couple of trailers, so please don’t be late as the film itself starts very close to the advertised time!