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200 Motels is a american film of genre Science fiction directed by Frank Zappa released in USA on 10 november 1971 with Theodore Bikel

200 Motels (1971)

200 Motels
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Released in USA 10 november 1971
Length 1h38
Directed by ,    
OriginUSA
Genres Science fiction,    Fantastic,    Comedy,    Documentary,    Fantasy,    Musical
Rating56% 2.800112.800112.800112.800112.80011

200 Motels is a 1971 American-British musical surrealist film cowritten and directed by Frank Zappa and Tony Palmer and starring The Mothers of Invention, Theodore Bikel and Ringo Starr. A soundtrack album was released in the same year, with a slightly different selection of music. In 2009, 200 Motels was restored with an audio commentary by Tony Palmer and is currently available on an England-sourced for-retail DVD.

Synopsis

In 200 Motels, the film attempts to portray the craziness of life on the road as a rock musician, and as such consists of a series of unconnected nonsense vignettes interspersed with concert footage of the Mothers of Invention. Ostensibly, while on tour The Mothers of Invention go crazy in the small fictional town of Centerville ("a real nice place to raise your kids up"), wander around, and get beaten up in "Redneck Eats", a cowboy bar. In a long cartoon interlude bassist "Jeff", tired of playing what he refers to as "Zappa's comedy music", is persuaded by his bad conscience to quit the group, as did his real-life counterpart Jeff Simmons, who was fired for insubordination before the film began shooting. Simmons was replaced by Martin Lickert (who was Ringo's chauffeur) for the film. Almost every scene is drenched with video special effects (double and triple exposures, solarisation, false color, speed changes, etc.) which were innovative in 1971. The film has been dubbed a "surrealistic documentary".

Actors

Theodore Bikel

(Rance Muhammitz / Dave)Ringo Starr

(Larry the Dwarf / Frank Zappa)Frank Zappa

(Member of Mothers of Invention (uncredited))Pamela Des Barres

(the interviewer)Howard Kaylan

(himself)
Trailer of 200 Motels

Bluray, DVD

Streaming / VOD

Source : Wikidata

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