Tony Palmer

Tony Palmer’s vast filmography of over one hundred films ranges from early works with the Beatles, Cream, Rory Gallagher, Jimi Hendrix and Frank Zappa (200 Motels), to the famous portraits with and about Walton, Britten, Stravinsky, Maria Callas, André Previn, John Osborne, Leonard Cohen (Bird on a Wire), Margot Fonteyn and Yehudi Menuhin, as well as feature films such as Testimony, starring Ben Kingsley as Shostakovich. His 7 hour 45 minutes film on Wagner, starring Richard Burton, Laurence Olivier and Vanessa Redgrave, was described by the Los Angeles Times as “one of the most beautiful films ever made.”

Talks

Groupies, Drugs and Boredom: On the Insanity of Directing 200 Motels with Frank Zappa

Film

By Tony Palmer | January 23, 2017

Groupies, Drugs and Boredom: On the Insanity of Directing 200 Motels with Frank Zappa

Tony Palmer details the favors, lies and innovations necessary to make Zappa's 1971 madcap cult classic on a shoestring in just 10 days.

The Incredible True Story of How My Leonard Cohen Movie Was Destroyed – and Then Resurrected Almost 40 Years Later

Film

By Tony Palmer | January 17, 2017

The Incredible True Story of How My Leonard Cohen Movie Was Destroyed – and Then Resurrected Almost 40 Years Later

Director Tony Palmer discusses the dramatic history behind the making, unmaking and restoring of his film Leonard Cohen: Bird on a Wire.