I found this tidbit on the Idiot Bastard Son website...

"Lots of you keep telling me about 200 Motels coming out on DVD soon. Well, it’s being released by a company called Intergroove, who also released the Zeppelin Live At Earls Court 1975 DVD. Enough said?"

Anyone here know anything about this?

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Details added by Linda:

Product Description
An image of how 'life on the road' was for rock bands 40 years ago, starring Frank Zappa.

Available for the first time on DVD, Frank Zappa's 200 Motels is a cult classic. The story, scattered with performances by the Mothers of Invention and the Royal Symphony Orchestra, is a plotless tale of life on the road for touring musicians. Originally shot on video and restored here, 200 Motels is a surrealistic nonstop visual extravaganza starring Frank Zappa and the Mothers, Ringo Starr and Who drummer Keith Moon. Includes bonus commentary from Director and script writer Tony Palmer.

Sales Points

• Commentary from Director Tony Palmer
• 8 page booklet
• Remastered from original tapes

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00347ZXY4/?tag=imwan-20

The Zeppelin release must surely be a bootleg... is there any reason to believe this won't be the case with the Zappa disc?

I saw this at Vintage Vinyl. Looked like a bootleg - $30 - was/am hesitant to buy it....especially if it's on a DVD-R.

I don't yet see this on Amazon but this is being reported...is it European only? is it legit?

Thursday, January 07, 2010
Frank Zappa: 200 motels



Frank Zappa 200 Motels on DVD

200 Motels the legendary Frank Zappa film is due for release in early February. The film which was written by Frank Zappa and Tony Palmer and directed by Tony Palmer features Frank Zappa and the Mothers alongside guest appearances by Ringo Starr and Keith Moon. The film was groundbreaking at the time as it was filmed on videotape. The film has now been restored using the original source material and the work overseen by Tony Palmer who has also recorded a director’s commentary as a bonus feature. More details can be found at the dedicated micro site where you can view a low resolution sample from the film.


http://www.frankzappa200motelsdvd.com/

More on this...

the statement of Tony Palmer is interesting:

I’ve read so much rubbish about 200 Motels over the years, much of it fiction, much of it originating with Frank Zappa himself, that the release of the newly restored film on DVD gives me an opportunity - my first - to correct one or two of the wilder stories about how the film came about and what really happened during the filming.

Contrary to what Frank Zappa and his biographers have asserted, when I first became involved there was no script, just a trunk-load of papers containing scenes ‘from the life of’. My ‘job’, Frank said, was to make some sense of this jumble and try to construct a coherent script from which a film, any film, would emerge. True, Frank had written a pile of music, some good, some not so good, but no orchestra had been booked, no soloists, no choir, no choreographer. My second ‘job’ therefore was to organise all this at very short notice. Normally, you need to book a London orchestra – especially if you required them for a week - at least a year in advance. I had three weeks in which to find a top class, professional orchestra.

Next, although the film was entirely Frank’s idea, MGM/UA were unwilling to trust him with a feature film, even if it was estimated to cost only around half a million dollars. (It fi nally cost $679,000). In fact, they had turned him down as the director of the film, and insisted on a safe pair of hands to make sure something emerged for their money. It so happened that I had been offered a picture deal by MGM a little earlier (which I had also turned down), and it was Herb Cohen, Frank Zappa’s longsuffering manager, who, knowing this and knowing that Frank had worked with me before, put the jigsaw together.

Next, it was clear that many of the scenes could not be shot the way Frank envisaged them on conventional celluloid, or rather they could be shot, but would take an age and a lot of money (neither of which we had) because of the special effects involved. It was me who suggested using videotape, not Frank Zappa, because I was already experimenting with video effects using the earliest colour video cameras that had arrived at the BBC only three years before. Initially, MGM/UA vetoed this idea because, as they quite reasonably pointed out, videotape (“what is that?” one executive asked me) could not be projected in their cinemas.

It was a colleague in Technicolor London who came up with the solution, namely that since the old pre-war Technicolor process involved shooting with three different negatives (red, green & blue) run in parallel, and since the television image in those days also comprised three different elements - red, green & blue, it might be possible to transfer each element separately to the different negatives and, when printed together, a true film ‘transfer’ might result. Which is precisely what happened, and the fi rst ever ‘film transfer’ from videotape resulted. MGM/UA was satisfied, because they now had ‘a film’, not a videotape. Frank Zappa was satisfied because he could now have all the effects he desired, quickly and relatively inexpensively. But he had nothing to do with discovering the process; in fact, I’m not too sure he understood it. Nonetheless I’ve often read that he ‘pioneered’ the whole thing, a porky that is repeated in the totally misleading film about the ‘making of’ made by the Dutch television station, VPRO.

In this same film, Zappa asserts that only a third of his script was filmed. Nonsense. The director (me) “quit mid-production”, which is news to me, as well as several actors and a band member. More fiction. Wilfred Brambell, a famous British character actor (famous especially as ‘Steptoe’) refused the part he was offered, and Jeff Simmons was replaced by Martin Lickert in the role of Jeff because he had the temerity to call Frank Zappa an ego-maniac. All true, but Zappa’s later claim that these events “accounted for several radical, last-minute changes” is yet more nonsense. Apparently – according to the Dutch documentary – when I had quit, I had threatened to wipe the tapes – which is odd, considering I edited all the videotapes myself after completion of filming before handing them over to MGM/UA. I’ve also read that the out-takes and the videotapes on which they were stored were wiped and sold back to MGM/UA to reduce the overspend. No company such as MGM/UA would ever accept second-hand tapes, even if wiped, not least because the tapes would be more-or-less worthless. Another Zappa wopper.

It begins to sound as if I am attempting to pour scorn on Frank Zappa’s achievement. Quite the contrary. It’s impossible not to have a sneaking admiration for a film which self evidently would never have been made had it not been for him and his curious talent. And, crazy though the film seems to be, it does have a certain insight into how ‘life on the road’ was for many of these rock bands at that time. The fact is also that, here we are, nearly 40 years later, and there is still a huge market/interest for the film. Oh, and by the way, according to several websites devoted to the film, because I had ‘been fired’ and/or ‘quit’ (delete whichever you think is applicable) I went off and destroyed the master tapes – which is very odd considering that these very same master tapes are sitting in front of me as I write.

And finally, that as a result of any of the above (you choose which), Frank & I ‘never spoke again’. Which is even odder, because a couple of years later when Zappa sued the Royal Albert Hall in London for cancelling a concert in which he had intended to perform the music from 200 Motels, I appeared at the trial in The Royal Courts of Justice in the Strand as Frank Zappa’s ‘expert witness’. Would Zappa have wanted that had we not stayed friends?

So, forty years on, I’m proud to be associated with the film, proud to have known Frank Zappa, and proud to have stayed his friend, in spite of all the rubbish that (mostly) others have written about what ‘really’ happened.

TONY PALMER

I saw a choppy copy in college, but that was 30 years ago. I'd like to see it again on a clean DVD.

I have my VHS copy...but no longer have a VCR.

From the artwork on the link, it looks like a bootleg. I think Zappa.com wouldv'e promoted an actual release.

This is a new, legit release through Tony Palmer Films, and the movie has been remastered for DVD. (It's not the Intergoove release that Charles mentioned earlier in the thread, a couple of years ago.) See the first post for pre-order details.

Thanks Linda - I am in.

The live band pieces are worth the price alone - plus old time favorites Jimmy Carl Black and Don Preston...Keith Moon...Ringo Starr...I saw this 4 times the week it was released at the Linclon Theater in New Haven...in the mid-70's I saw it at a drive in - the 3rd picture in a 3 picture night - it nearly cleared out the drive in - it must have been past curfew for all I guess...I too have it on VHS but I gotta believe the cd is better...(if you watch closely Ruth Underwood is playing drums with the orchestra...

Although it goes against what the folks at zappa.com believe - I liked the Flo & Eddie band - they really had (and still have) a great sense of humor...

Best tunes - Magic Fingers, Lonesome Cowboy Burt, this has some great music...

+1.

Alan

I'm definitely getting this as well.......had always assumed that the ZFT would control the film. Vintage Vinyl has it....hopefully still does on Wednesday.

I think it's a great film throughout....love the bizarreness.....(though Mark Volman in drag/lingerie is a little tough on the eyes)

I love the Flo & Eddie band too.....Just Another Band From LA is somewhere in my top 5 FZ albums.

I picked this up today after work. It is legit.

The packaging/title is emphasized as the front cover (and spine too) "Tony Palmer's Film of Frank Zappa's 200 Motels" with Frank's name not highlighted/part of the title.....(wonder if it means ZFT was going after Tony to stop releaza/make it not seem like Zappa product).

I've only had time to watch 20 minutes. I'm very happy. It's still a little old: blurry with blending colors, but it looks very good, but I put it towards the way it was filmed. It's widescreen. The sound is very good. No extras besides the Tony Palmer commentary track.

It is indeed a legit release....(even if by sort of the same type of inbetween company that issues Steve Marriott releases). This was something that I always put of the yearly wishlist not available threads, and am glad to take it off.....(now if only the Roxy DVD will finally see the light of day).

Go for it!

Sorry - I'm confused. AmazWAN says it releases in April, the web site for the DVD say March, but Charles has it. What am I missing? Other than my own copy, that is.

Alan

I have no idea how distribution works, but for whatever reason, Vintage Vinyl, a fair amount of time, gets releases weeks ahead of Amazon listings......(though usually not this far ahead).

Big ups for Vintage Vinyl's service - I ordered the DVD last night, and I got an e-mail this morning that it shipped. I think the only quicker service I've seen was that received by Wile E. Coyote (Genius) from Acme.

Alan

Amazon is shipping these out now (in fact they've just sold out of their first batch of copies), and has changed the release date in its listing to February 5th, not the April 20th release date it originally said. I assume, then, that the wholesaler Amazon got this DVD from had given them erroneous pre-order information, and now they're catching up.

FYI - I ordered the DVD late Friday night/early Saturday morning. It arrived Monday afternoon.

I've had pizza delivered slower.

Alan

Resurrecting a very old thread:

I picked up a copy released by the mostly legit British label Voiceprint.

Comment & a question:

1. I've made it through about 38 minutes. Though I am a FZ fan, I'm finding it to be dreadful. Does it get any better?

2. This particular transfer has a issue I've never seen before: It is in letterbox wide screen, but the source material they used was obviously meant to be full screen; everyone looks short & fat, due to the messed up aspect ratio. Fortunately my player has 2 options to change WS to FS; one of them is a "stretch mode" which would appear to have been designed for this very issue. It makes a letterbox FS without cropping the left & right edges, which also restores the correct aspect ratio (with a properly made letter box, it would badly distort the aspect ratio, I'll likely never use this feature again!). If you are considering buying the Voiceprint (aka Palmer) edition, be aware that most players don't have this stretch feature. (One Amazon UK reviewer seems to mention this issue also).

The movie is pretty much what you saw in the 1st 38 minutes no radical changes...except the cartoon.

fav scenes are the band playing live in sound studio - This Town Is A Sealed Tuna Sandwhich - Mystery Roach - Lonesome Cowboy Burt

best scenes are live in the studio Magic Fingers and the entire strictly gentile

like the Rino Starr monolog and the Keith Moon as the nun with the girls...coulda been much better but they only had 48 hours to film it...