Jonathan Demme - biography

“I only work with actors who take full responsibility for their characters.”

“I don’t think it’s sacrilegious to remake any movie, including a good or even great movie.”

“I don’t think of Storefront Hitchcock or Stop Making Sense as documentaries, I think of them more as performance films.”

“I had very strong feelings, so the chance to make a film that deals in an imaginative way with stuff you care tremendously about is a real high.  It’s a really amazing thing to be able to do.”

“When Silence of the Lambs did well commercially it was more than anything.  My partner Ed Saxon and I were just so relieved that finally we had made a movie that had made some money!”

“I was a sort of rock journalist - whatever that is - in London in the late ’60s.”

“I also feel that the only thing more gratifying than working with someone who you’ve worked well with is working with someone new and coming up with something great.”

Jonathan Demme directed the following films:
Caged Heat (1974)
Crazy Mama (1975)
Fighting Mad (1976)
Handle with Care (1977)
Last Embrace (1979)
Melvin and Howard (1980)
Swing Shift (1984)
Stop Making Sense (1984)
Something Wild (1986)
Swimming to Cambodia (1987)
Married to the Mob (1988)
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Cousin Bobby (1992)
Philadelphia (1993)
Beloved (1998)
Storefront Hitchcock (1998)
The Truth About Charlie (2002)
The Agronomist (2003)
The Manchurian Candidate (2004)
Neil Young: Heart of Gold (2006)
Jimmy Carter Man from Plains (2007)
Rachel Getting Married (2008)
Neil Young Trunk Show (2009)
I’m Carolyn Parker (2011)
Neil Young Journeys (2011)


Jonathan Demme contributed to the screenplay for the following films:
Caged Heat (1974)
Fighting Mad (1976)
Stop Making Sense (1984)
Married to the Mob (1988)
Cousin Bobby (1992)
Storefront Hitchcock (1998)
The Agronomist (2003)
Neil Young: Heart of Gold (2006)
Jimmy Carter Man from Plains (2007)
Rachel Getting Married (2008)
Neil Young Trunk Show (2009)
I’m Carolyn Parker (2011)
Neil Young Journeys (2011)


Jonathan Demme was photography director on the following films:
The Agronomist (2003)
I’m Carolyn Parker (2011)


Jonathan Demme composed the score for the following films:
Neil Young Trunk Show (2009)