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Spike Lee’s American Utopia concert film returns to cinemas for one night in 4K
Spike Lee’s David Byrne concert film American Utopia will screen in 4K in cinemas for one night only on August 5.
David Byrne and Spike Lee’s concert film American Utopia is heading back to cinemas for a one-night-only 4K screening on August 5.
The film captured Byrne’s Broadway-era production, built around songs from his Talking Heads catalogue and solo work, performed with an 11-person ensemble that danced and carried its instruments across the stage.
Before it reached Broadway, American Utopia toured internationally off the back of Byrne’s 2018 solo album of the same name. NME described that tour as “the most ambitious and impressive live show of all time”, and Byrne later used that quote as the title of a live EP from the run.
Tickets for the screening go on sale June 18 and will be available here. The film will play in independent and multiplex cinemas.
NME gave the 2020 concert film five stars, calling it “New York’s finest teaming up for a greatest hits extravaganza that doubles as one of 2020’s best films”.
Its review also noted the inevitable comparison with Stop Making Sense, Jonathan Demme’s 1984 Talking Heads film, while pointing out that Lee’s version trades on a stripped-back setup that keeps attention on the 12 barefoot musicians in sharp grey suits, lit in purple and green.
The stage show ran at Broadway’s Hudson Theatre in New York City from October 2019 to February 2020. It also played a UK city tour from October to November 2018. Lee filmed the production with 11 camera operators to capture the performance closely.
Byrne previously told NME he was surprised by how involved Lee was with the material. “I didn’t know how much of a fan Spike was! He’d even go, ‘Why don’t you do this song? Why don’t you add this song in’. We knew one another casually so I could text him and say, ‘I want you to come and see our show; I think that you might be interested in making a film of it’.”
Elsewhere, Byrne recently brought choreography and theatrics to Coachella with a set built largely around Talking Heads classics, including “Psycho Killer”, “Once In A Lifetime”, “This Must Be The Place” and “Burning Down The House”.
