Frank Zappa -200 Motels [DVD] [1971] | ![Frank Zappa -200 Motels [DVD] [1971]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Bvx5hgLbL._SL500_.jpg) | Directors: Frank Zappa, Tony Palmer
Actors: Frank Zappa, Ringo Starr, Theodore Bikel, Mothers Of Invention, Janet Ferguson
Studio: Tony Palmer
Category: DVD
Buy New: £16.99
as of 30/7/2010 02:31 BST details
New (14) Used (1) from £8.46
Seller: Amazon.co.uk
Rating:  3 reviews
Sales Rank: 11203
Format: Anamorphic, Colour, DVD-Video, PAL, Widescreen
Languages: English (Unknown), English (Original Language)
Rating: Exempt
Region: 2
Aspect Ratio: 16:9 - 1.78:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 95 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: MVDDTPDVD127D
UPC: 604388714902
EAN: 0604388714902
ASIN: B00347ZXY4
Release Date: March 8, 2010
Shipping: Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
| |
| Similar Items:
| |
| Customer Reviews:
 A dismal cash-in March 27, 2010
Stephen Cooper (Norfolk UK)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Mastered from poor late sources - both video and film damage is visible, the picture has been 'stretched' - and with a very poor quality soundtrack, Frank Zappa's 200 Motels deserved far better. 39 years ago Tony Palmer was not claiming authorship of this film (quite the opposite in fact) so his motives for this dire issue are at the very least suspect. As is his claim that the film was edited 'live', well the film was really edited in LA from the first generation celluloid transfer (by which time Palmer had long since ceased any involvement in the project).
Get a secondhand VHS tape and rip it to DVD-R, you'll do far better than this. Or if you're fortunate enough to own a laserdisc player hunt it out in that format (good luck to you, it's not easily found) - that shows how it should have been done.
Perhaps Gail has a decent print.....
 Zappa's best? March 21, 2010
Mark Butler (Lancashire)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
It was seeing clips from this on 'Whistle Test' at the time of the movie's release that began my long enjoyment of Zappa's music. I know it's not a fan favourite but I've never been sure why. It contains, after all, some musically beautiful themes that he'd been working on for a few years previously, it blends rock with weird-classical and it contains real groupies. What's not to love? Tony Palmer gets to set the record straight on the commentary.
Let down by poor remastering March 9, 2010
Crispy Phosphorous (Manchester, UK)
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
The film is great if you like that kind of thing - a few rock'n'roll numbers, Ringo Starr and Keith Moon larking around with the Mothers Of Invention, surreal intertwining fragments of ideas and some crazy (and at the time groundbreaking) visuals.
But I'm disappointed with the quality of the pictures and sound. Co-director Tony Palmer claims repeatedly to be in posession of the original video tapes on which it was shot, and the sticker on the front says "restored from the original sources", yet film scratches and blotches are evident throughout and some of the colours are very dark and muddy; and the sound is appalling - very muffled and boomy. So this has obviously been transferred from a cine print (or maybe a duplication negative) with an optical sound track - hardly "restored from original sources". Palmer claims on the commentary to have spent several months remastering the movie but I'm not convinced by the results. If (as he also repeatedly claims) all the editing and effects were done live as they were recording, it should have been relatively easy to go back to the original tapes (or at least the first generation film transfer) and reconstruct the movie in a digital editor.
|
|
|
![Frank Zappa -The Freak-Out List [DVD] [2010]](http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00347ZXYY.01._AA75_PU_PU-5_.jpg)
![Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention: In the 1960's [2008] [DVD]](http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B001JL2UXE.01._AA75_PU_PU-5_.jpg)
![Frank Zappa - In Barcelona [DVD]](http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B001B42E62.01._AA75_PU_PU-5_.jpg)
