Making Movies

Knopfler wrote the songs in the first half of 1980 and chose Iovine after hearing his production of Patti Smith's Because the Night. David Knopfler left during the sessions, and his nearly finished parts were re-recorded. Roy Bittan played keyboards and Sid McGinnis added uncredited guitar. The title came from an unreleased song that was reworked into Expresso Love. Knopfler said that on this record he was determined not to be held back by anything.

David Fricke wrote in Rolling Stone that this was where Knopfler came out from behind his influences, and Pitchfork heard the opening three songs as the band at its most romantic and cinematic. It reached four in the UK and 19 in the US, topped the charts in Italy and Norway, and placed 52nd on Rolling Stone's list of the best albums of the 1980s.