True Stories

Wednesday 22 April at 7.30pm

David Byrne | USA | 1986 | 89 mins | PG cert

True Stories is a 1986 American satirical musical comedy film directed by David Byrne, who also leads. The film’s music is supplied by Talking Heads.

“Music icon David Byrne was inspired by tabloid headlines to make his sole foray into feature-film directing, an ode to the extraordinariness of ordinary American life and a distillation of what was in his own idiosyncratic mind. The Talking Heads front man plays a visitor to Virgil, Texas, who introduces us to the citizens of the town during preparations for its Celebration of Specialness. As shot by cinematographer Ed Lachman, Texas becomes a hyperrealistic late-capitalist landscape of endless vistas, shopping malls, and prefab metal buildings. In True Stories, Byrne uses his songs to stitch together pop iconography, voodoo rituals, and a singular variety show—all in the service of uncovering the rich mysteries that lurk under the surface of everyday experience.” – Criterion

“This being a one-man-band job for Byrne who writes, stars, and directs, True Stories still features a number of songs written by Byrne and performed by various members of the cast, as well as by Byrne’s band (the members of which make cameo appearances). This movie does what some painters try to do: it recasts ordinary images into strange new shapes. There is hardly a moment in True Stories that doesn’t seem everyday to anyone who has grown up in mid-America, and not a moment that doesn’t seem haunted with secrets, evasions, loneliness, depravity or hidden joy.” – International Film Festival Rotterdam 2008