Word: zappa
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...both outlook and musical style, 200 Motels is an updating of the 1931 Kurt Weill-Bertolt Brecht opera, The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny. Instead of Brecht's thieves and prostitutes, however, Zappa gives us rednecks, rock stars, and groupies who populate a movie set that at times is supposed to pass for a small American town. ("Centerville--A Real Nice Place to Raise Your Kids Up.") The rock stars are, of course, the Mothers of Invention, all of whom portray themselves, except for Zappa, who rarely appears in the film, but is sometimes represented...
...described as a socially unproductive and financially worthless class of people (portrayed in the film by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra). Surrounded by a high wooden fence that is topped with barbed wire and vigilantly patrolled by Nazi soldiers carrying rifles, the orchestra is forced to perform pop music (i.e., Zappa's score), since that is more lucrative...
...there is any theme to the whole film, it is that rock and roll musicians on tour are reduced to desperate paranoia. The only thing the Mothers ever talk about is getting drunk, getting laid, and getting paid. They all hate working for Zappa and think he is ripping them off. They are sure that he has their rooms bugged, so he can steal all their ideas, pervert them, copyright them, and claim them as his own. (At one point we actually see Larry the Dwarf, disguised as Zappa, transcribing a tape of the band into a music notebook...
...Zappa's score for the film utilizes the entire orchestra most of the time and owes quite a lot to Stravinksy and Berg, as well as Kurt Weill. Although much of the music is impressive, particularly such numbers as "This Town is a Sealed Tuna Sandwich" and "Penis Dimension," it is also just plain ugly. The words to these numbers are real funny, if you go in for Zappa's type of humor, but they are frequently inaudible, so it is advisable to listen to the album carefully before seeing the movie...
There are also several rock songs in the film that tend to be inferior to the best of Zappa's work. Unfortunately these numbers are accompanied by psychedelic, out-of-focus visuals of the Mothers playing. The result is boring...