Robert Jonathan Demme (February 22, 1944 – April 26, 2017) was an American filmmaker, producer and screenwriter. He was best known for directing The Silence of the Lambs, which won him the Academy Award for Best Director. He also directed the acclaimed films Something Wild (1986), Married to the Mob (1988), Philadelphia (1993), and Rachel Getting Married (2008), as well as the Talking Heads concert film Stop Making Sense (1984), which is widely considered to be one of the greatest concert films
We watched a lot of Cassavetes, obviously — 'Faces' and 'A Woman Under the Influence.' We watched films by Max Ophuls... What we were doing was looking at films where you really love hanging out with the characters.