Movie: A Life of Extravaganza - The Genius Frank Zappa

Top 10 Billed Cast

Frank Zappa
Frank Zappa

Self

Dweezil Zappa
Dweezil Zappa

Self

Ahmet Zappa
Ahmet Zappa

Self

Keith Moon
Keith Moon

Self (archive footage)

Brian May
Brian May

Self

Ringo Starr
Ringo Starr

Self (archive footage)

Keith Richards
Keith Richards

Self

Nicolas Slonimsky
Nicolas Slonimsky

Self

Neil Jordan
Neil Jordan

Self (archive footage)

Andy Summers
Andy Summers

Self

  • HomePage

  • Overview

    The documentary examines Frank Zappa and his music through archive footage, including unique video excerpts from Austrian television archives featuring interviews with Zappa and backstage scenes from the 1970s and 1980s. The entire film is divided into chapters discussing the most important themes in Zappa's life and work.

  • Release Date

    1993-01-01

  • Average

    0

  • Rating:

    0.0 starts
  • Tagline

  • Genres

  • Languages:

    DeutschEnglish
  • Keywords

Similar Movies

Berlin: Symphony of a Great City
75%

Berlin: Symphony of a Great City(de)

1927-09-23

A day in the city of Berlin, which experienced an industrial boom in the 1920s, and still provides an insight into the living and working conditions at that time. Germany had just recovered a little from the worst consequences of the First World War, the great economic crisis was still a few years away and Hitler was not yet an issue at the time.

Romantic Mysticism: The Music of Billy Goldenberg
0%

Romantic Mysticism: The Music of Billy Goldenberg(en)

2022-06-21

A career overview of tv/film composer Billy Goldenberg.

P.M.
66%

P.M.(es)

1961-01-01

Controversial cinéma vérité analysis of Havana’s lumpenproletariat in waterfront bars and cafés shortly after the failed Bay of Pigs invasion.

23rd Psalm Branch
83%

23rd Psalm Branch(en)

1967-01-27

Made during the height of the Vietnam War, Stan Brakhage has said of this film that he was hoping to bring some clarity to the subject of war. Characteristically for Brakhage there is no direct reference to Vietnam.

Romantic Warriors IV: Krautrock (Part I)
0%

Romantic Warriors IV: Krautrock (Part I)(en)

2019-04-15

The fourth in a series of feature-length documentaries about Progressive rock written and directed by Adele Schmidt and José Zegarra Holder. Krautrock, Part 1 focuses on German progressive rock, popularly known as Krautrock, from in and around the Cologne, Düsseldorf, and Hamburg regions of Germany. Artist featured include Kraftwerk, Neu, Can, Faust and others.

You're the Top: The Cole Porter Story
0%

You're the Top: The Cole Porter Story(en)

1990-07-23

Biographical portrait of one of Broadway's most brilliant songwriters. Told through the use of archival material and interviews with the rich and famous that knew him, this portrait concentrates on his career and his public life events.

Going Underground: Paul McCartney, the Beatles and the UK Counterculture
0%

Going Underground: Paul McCartney, the Beatles and the UK Counterculture(en)

2013-10-01

Feature-length documentary examining the growth of the UK Counterculture in the mid-1960s, and Paul McCartney's involvement with this movement, which had a significant impact on the Beatles' music and their evolution during the latter half of the decade.

Heterodyne
50%

Heterodyne(en)

1967-01-01

“Geometric animation made entirely by sculptural methods: cutting, punching, welding colored leader. HETERODYNE is related to some of my other work as RNA to a protein or polypeptide. It was made in abject (if blissful) ignorance of Paul Sharits’ early work.” –Hollis Frampton

So Green
80%

So Green(en)

2024-07-01

An experimental four-part short film that shows the outcomes of life through a vacation trip.

Samuel Barber: Absolute Beauty
100%

Samuel Barber: Absolute Beauty(en)

2017-03-23

Known for his mournful "Adagio for Strings," Samuel Barber was never quite fashionable. This acclaimed film is a probing exploration of his music and melancholia. Performance, oral history, musicology, and biography combine to explore the life and music of one of America’s greatest composers. Features Thomas Hampson, Leonard Slatkin, Marin Alsop and many more of the world's leading experts on Barber's music, with tributes from composers Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland, Virgil Thomson and William Schuman. The film was broadcast on PBS, and screened at nine film festivals internationally, with three best-of awards. It was named a Recording of the Year 2017 by MusicWeb International.

Classic Albums: Frank Zappa & The Mothers Of Invention - Freak Out!
82%

Classic Albums: Frank Zappa & The Mothers Of Invention - Freak Out!(en)

2021-10-08

This programme tells the story behind the conception, recording and release of this groundbreaking album. By use of interviews, musical demonstration, performance, archive footage and returning to the multi tracks with Ahmet Zappa and Joe Travers we discover how Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention created the album with the help of legendary African- American producer Tom Wilson.

The Music of Kander & Ebb: Razzle Dazzle
0%

The Music of Kander & Ebb: Razzle Dazzle(en)

1997-12-03

A profile of composing team John Kander and Fred Ebb, who have written many Broadway musicals. Highlights include interviews with Lauren Bacall, Joel Grey and others, as well as the two men themselves, plus clips of performances of their songs.

Third Shift Coming Home
0%

Third Shift Coming Home(en)

2023-03-13

This audio-visual tone poem uses the language of filmmaking to offer a first-hand evocation of the turbulent psychological effects one can experience due to prolonged lack of sunlight.

Tarta
70%

Tarta(es)

2023-12-26

Christmas Eve in rapid camera.

Cara-cola
60%

Cara-cola(en)

2024-05-10

A light explodes and becomes a snail.

In Search of Beethoven
62%

In Search of Beethoven(en)

2009-04-17

In Search of Beethoven offers a comprehensive documentary about the life and works of the great composer. Over 65 performances by the world's finest musicians were recorded and 100 interviews conducted in the making of this beautifully crafted film. Eleven interviews are included in the Extras and Six complete movements.

Frank Zappa: Peefeeyatko
0%

Frank Zappa: Peefeeyatko(en)

1991-01-01

For the past ten years Zappa in composing has turned away from Rock and Roll music - for which he first became famous - and has been working on new, contemporary, orchestral electronic music; in solitude and beyond any commercial conventions or commitments. It is the first time that Zappa has allowed a film crew to study him during compositional work, actually filming the first moments of a new compositional process. By contrast, in a staged interview Zappa gives comments on music. This film seeks to reveal the sensetivities of Zappa's personality and character also beyond narrative content.

New York Portrait, Chapter II
73%

New York Portrait, Chapter II(en)

1981-01-01

Chapter Two represents a continuation of daily observations from the environment of Manhattan compiled over a period from 1980-1981. This is the second part of an extended life's portrait of New York.

Frank Zappa: A Pioneer of the Future of Music
0%

Frank Zappa: A Pioneer of the Future of Music(en)

2007-04-22

Frank Scheffer's (collage like) documentary on the American composer and rock guitarist Frank Zappa, as broadcast by VPRO in the Netherlands April 22,2007. Most of what’s on here is seen before, particularly in Roelof Kier’s 1971 documentary and/or Scheffer’s own documentary “A present day composer refuses to die”. But there is some new stuff too, particularly interviews with Denny Walley, Haskell Wekler, Elliot Ingber and Bruce Fowler.

Liminality & Communitas
0%

Liminality & Communitas(fi)

2018-11-11

After the sunset, a man wonders between the edges of the highways gathering edible roadkill animals.