Extremely well-researched and undeniably respectful of the accomplishments of (Demme).
An entertaining road trip through the works of one of the great humanist directors. Stewart gives newbies a lively introduction to Demme's documentaries and feature films while providing details even the filmmaker's biggest fans may not know.
This nicely detailed, well-researched book provides keen insight into one of modern Hollywood's most noteworthy filmmakers, the inner workings of the film industry, and the navigational skill required of a filmmaker to work within a profit-driven, studio-dominated system retaining a commitment to art.
In There's No Going Back, David M. Stewart ties Demme's unusually diverse filmography together in an entertaining account focused on the films without losing sight of the man who made them.... Stewart's biography is compelling testimony for Demme's role as an insider-outsider in an industry that, in the last years of his life, was increasingly inhospitable to creativity.
Jonathan Demme's excitement for filmmaking, dedication, and passion for storytelling made him the legend he was. There's No Going Back takes you on an unforgettable journey through the ups and downs of the life of one of the most important and memorable filmmakers of our time. Iconic, powerful, and inspirational. A must-read for any artist, storyteller, or lover of film.
David M. Stewart's brisk, comprehensive, and insightful There's No Going Back: The Life and Work of Jonathan Demme epitomizes the kind of character the filmmaker, who died in 2017 at the age of 73, would demonstrate throughout his life.... Throughout (his) ups and downs, Demme remained true to his basic decency and humanity. These are the themes, plus an insatiable curiosity and passion for experience, which are the defining marks of his wide-ranging oeuvre.... It is a portrait of the artist as a good man.
A rich and revelatory profile rather than a formal biography, There's No Going Back is as surprising and inventive as the films made by its subject, Jonathan Demme. Demme (whom I had the pleasure of knowing) exuded optimism and inspired collaboration in his work. He managed to combine politics and cinema, and would have loved the way David Stewart charts his peripatetic life and career from his early, earthy Roger Corman films to the Oscar-winning The Silence of the Lambs. The book also explores the legend of Swing Shift that was assassinated by its studio and nearly ended Demme's career. This is a book that offers a clear-eyed look at the New Hollywood and how a nice guy and brilliant talent survived the gauntlet and left a stunning personal and professional legacy. He and his films are missed.
Like John Ford and Howard Hawks, Jonathan Demme is entitled to several biographies. David Stewart's is more than a good start—it's a smart, acute, compassionate, and rightly admiring (but never whitewashed) account of the man and his work.
Despite being the director of the modern horror classic The Silence of the Lambs, the triumphal Talking Heads concert documentary Stop Making Sense, and the dark screwball thriller Something Wild, Jonathan Demme has never truly gotten his full due as a creative force, independent spirit, and all-around mensch—until now. An act of invocation, Stewart's compulsively snackable biography restores Demme to his rightful place in the celluloid heights.
2025-04-04
The career of a celebrated American filmmaker.
Like the great German director Wim Wenders, Jonathan Demme (1944-2017) was an eclectic filmmaker who shot documentaries as well as narrative films. He made commercial Hollywood movies, fromMarried to the Mob toThe Silence of the Lambs, but Demme considered documentaries, includingStop Making Sense, his landmark 1984 concert film about the Talking Heads, to be his “solace from his conflicting issues with the film and television industries.” In this admiring biography, Stewart sums up Demme’s life and career, from his early days as a film critic for his college newspaper and a publicity-department dogsbody for Embassy Pictures to a director of the first order. His directing career started when Roger Corman hired him to helm exploitation films such asCaged Heat andCrazy Mama before moving on to more mainstream efforts. Stewart takes a linear approach, chronicling Demme’s upbringing and the passions that motivated his choices, noting that Demme considered himself a “cultural magpie” who “championed stories about strong women and characters who resisted bigotry and racism.” Demme’s successes and frustrations are all here, from “critical arthouse hit”Swimming to Cambodia, a record of monologist Spalding Gray’s one-man show, to his work on 1984’sSwing Shift, an attempt at mainstream appeal that became “one of the most difficult films he would ever direct” and was so painful that he considered giving up filmmaking and opening a bookstore. A deeper analysis of Demme’s themes rather than a chronological presentation of his films would have made this a stronger book. There’s a lot here to entertain fans, however, with enlightening behind-the-scenes stories. For example, when Demme worked in publicity at United Artists in 1968, he was François Truffaut’s New York driver. Truffaut told Demme, an obvious cinephile, that he looked forward to his first film. “I’m not interested in directing,” Demme said, to which the ever-astute Truffaut replied, “Yes, you are.”
A heartfelt appraisal of a cinema iconoclast.
