Peefeeyatko
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Peefeeyatko |
| Original title | Peefeeyatko |
| Country of production | USA , Germany |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1991 |
| length | 59 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Henning Lohner |
| script | Henning Lohner |
| production | Henning Lohner, Peter Lohner |
| music | Frank Zappa |
| camera | Van Carlson |
| cut | Sven Fleck |
| occupation | |
|
Frank Zappa | |
Peefeeyatko is a biographical art film about the American composer Frank Zappa , which was directed by Henning Lohner in collaboration with Zappa. The 59-minute, essayistic documentary is also known as an “intimate music portrait” and gives an insight into the secluded world of the renowned artist.
In addition to conversations with Zappa himself, as well as interviews with friends, colleagues and well-known contemporaries of the composer, the film mainly focuses on Zappa's execution of his compositional work. Recordings in Zappa's studio environment are also shown. For this purpose, Zappa allowed a film team for the first time to accompany him in a documentary way during his artistic process. The entire soundtrack of the film is an original composition by Zappa, published exclusively by Peefeeyatko .
Content and form
Peefeeyatko is a cinematic essay and a documentary portrait about the work, work and musical process of the American composer and musician Frank Zappa, who is considered one of the most innovative and stylistically diverse musicians of his time. The film shows several days from the last years of Zappa's life, how he spends most of his time composing and living in his home and music studio in Los Angeles, California, isolated from the outside world. The film also contains various video clips and interviews.
Ten years before making Peefeeyatko, Zappa had turned his back on the rock and roll genre for which he had become famous. Since then he has been working on new, orchestral electronic music. This creative process is illustrated in Peefeeyatko . Zappa is shown in his loneliness composing and beyond all commercial conventions and obligations.
The film contains exclusive pictures and recordings from Zappa's studio. It is shown how Zappa created symphonic compositions on an early digital synthesizer , a so-called synclavier . Zappa guides the viewer through his large sound and sheet music archive and lets the audience participate in the development and creation process of his compositions.
In a detailed interview, Zappa finally talks about his approach to his work and his understanding of music in general. He mentions his diverse and diverse musical preferences - for example, how he had been interested in American blues music since early youth and already in the French experimental composer Edgard Verèse. Zappa also comments on his own style of music and his relationship with the outside world - and how the two are connected as if through an interaction. This connection is underlined by short excerpts of metaphorical images and visual impressions, which lead into a final music sequence of Zappa's original composition, with the montage being cut together in rhythm with Zappa's music.
In addition, Zappa explains the meaning and purpose of his compositions and distances himself from the conventions of the term "melody": in his opinion, the popular idea of melody is possibly wrong or at least insufficient. To describe his radical eclecticism, Zappa says, “The easiest way to sum up the aesthetic would be: anything, anytime, anywhere, for no reason. And I think with aesthetics like that you can have pretty good scope for creativity. "
In a further dialogue with the filmmaker Henning Lohner, Zappa says in relation to his digital synthesizer that it is "impossible in the real world, with real instruments [...] to reproduce every written note perfectly - but these machines can." because so desirable? ", objected Lohner. “Why not,” replies Zappa, “nobody has ever heard it - so let's do it.” The film also contains interviews with Zappa's famous musical avant-garde contemporaries John Cage , Pierre Boulez , Iannis Xenakis and Karlheinz Stockhausen , and their statements again and again be cut in between.
At the end of the film it becomes clear that in the supposed language of the Bigfoots - large, human-like beings who, according to American folklore, should have been sighted in the mountains of the USA and Canada - the term "Peefeeyatko" for "give me some more apples" , that is, "Give me more apples," it says. Zappa regards this term as a fitting description of himself and his current work, as he is doing something that “no one has done before” - which is why there is no word for it.
Production background
With Peefeeyatko , Zappa allowed a film team for the first time to film him while he was composing. While filming, Zappa was diagnosed with terminal cancer. The main part of the film was shot over several days in Zappa's Los Angeles home in December 1989.
Peefeeyatko was broadcast on October 10, 1991 on Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR). In January 1992, the film was also presented at the Midem ( Marché International du Disque et de l'Edition Musicale ) in Cannes , the world's largest music fair, which is also considered the leading international business event for the music industry, where it won the International Music Film Award as the best music documentary was nominated. It has also been shown at various film festivals around the world, including the Portland Art Museum in 1996 .
reception
The Süddeutsche Zeitung called Peefeeyatko an “intimate and funny portrait” on the occasion of the first broadcast on WDR . It shows how Zappa is "tirelessly in search of the true sound"; Supported "by repeatedly sprinkled statements of well-known listening habit enhancers like John Cage, Pierre Boulez and Karlheinz Stockhausen, the film [...] also gives rise to the suspicion that a genius is at work here."
In a review of the productions presented at Midem in Cannes, the Neue Zürcher Zeitung praised that director Lohner had completely “adequately transferred” Zappa's personality to the film medium due to the “changing density of multimedia hectic pace” in the film.
The blog Openculture wrote: "Like its subject, Lohner's film is eccentric, with scenes from monster films that are linked to recordings of Zappa at work and in conversation."
Encyclotronic described Peefeeyatko as "an intimate musical portrait of the American composer Frank Zappa" and wrote that the film reveals the sensitivities and facets of Zappa's personality far beyond the narrative content.
Web links
- Peefeeyatko on zappa.com
- Peefeeyatko in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c PEEFEEYATKO - A Film by Henning Lohner .
- ↑ a b c d e f Open Culture - Peefeeyatko .
- ^ Frank Zappa - Outrage at Valdez .
- ↑ Sterling Whitaker: The Day Frank Zappa Died . 4th December 2015.
- ^ Gail Zappa: Frank Zappa's wife, muse and manager who ferociously protected his musical legacy . In: The Independent , October 12, 2015.
- ↑ Peefeeyatko .
- ↑ a b c d Seidl, Christian: Notorischer Wüterich - Frank Zappa: The legend. Süddeutsche Zeitung No. 134, 1991, p. 28.
- ↑ a b Olivier Lamm: Frank Zappa - Peefeeyatko .
- ↑ Karlen, René: Quantity instead of quality - impressions from the 26th Midem in Cannes. Neue Zürcher Zeitung , January 30, 1992.