I find it is very easy to admire a peter greenaway film but harder to love them and i. Having carefully staged their own death so that the decay that follows may be captured on film, we see how nature intrudes. Symmetry and structure in greenaways a zed and two noughts. Twin zoologists lose their wives in a car accident and become obsessed with decomposing animals. This film was greenaways first collaboration with cinematographer sacha vierny.
A zed and two noughts greenaway, peter, deacon, brian, deacon, eric. A masterpiece of modern cinema, a zed and two noughts is peter greenaways beautifully disturbing and darkly humorous take on erotic obsession and death. A zed and two noughts nr by hal hinson washington post staff writer may 27, 1988 at the beginning of peter greenaways 1985 film a zed and two noughts, the wives of identical twin. A zed and two noughts is a 1985 film directed by peter greenaway. Everything in this film is deliberate and meaningful, in contrast to life, or the view thereof it offers, anyway. A zed and two noughts 1985 peter greenaway synopsis. Ooze is the opposite of zoo as several mirror image shots of the zoo sign remind. Distant voices, still lives and a zed and two noughts. It is the brothers grief that leads to their fixation with natural decay of animal flesh. Following a fatal car crash involving a swan outside a zoo, twinbrother zoologists oliver and oswald become fascinated by the processes of decay. A zed and two noughts is the tale of two separated siamesetwin zoologists oliver and oswald whose wives are killed in a swanrelated car accident.
I admittedly dont know exactly what this film is, but can say for certain that a zed and two noughts, an early feature by englands peter greenaway, is a morbid and fascinating oddity unlike anything else peter greenaway has made quite a few idiosyncratic films since his debut feature, the three hour bbc mock documentary the falls, in 1980. The film s one weakness, if it can be called one, is that it is rather inaccessible. Everything shown or heard in this film can be interpreted in any number of ways and all of them are intriguing. My first foray into the work of peter greenaway, a filmmaker i have heard much about, and have wanted to get into for awhile, but just. They both deserve a lions share of credit for the tone and texture of this film and, indeed, greenaways main body of work. There is a thesis here, and i am not sure whether it is an artistic thesis. Sep 20, 1986 a zed and two noughts will be shown today at 3 p. In terms of form, the visual language is rich in symmetries and symbols which reinforce the evolving construction of the scenario. Made during the transition between his early experimental short films and his later more narrative.
A masterpiece of modern cinema, a zed and two noughts is peter greenaways beautifully disturbing. The key difference is that film s heroes, the twins oswald and oliver deuce brian and eric deacon, remain detached recorders and observers of death and decay. Mar 06, 2019 drama, black comedy, art film or body horror. With typically exacting detail and symmetry, greenaway combines these twin obsessions even in the film s title, which is itself a wordgame of alphanumeric substitution or what is now known as a.
Late show how to make a peter greenaway film duration. A woman named alba berwick is driving outside a zoo when a swan which apparently escaped from the zoo smashes into her windshield. A zed and two noughts follows the lives of alba bewick, and oswald and oliver deuce. Product description two legs look so good together, dont you think.
I admittedly dont know exactly what this film is, but can say for certain that a zed and two noughts, an early feature by englands peter greenaway, is a morbid and fascinating oddity unlike anything else. Just your weekly reminder that peter greenaway is the greatest who has ever lived. One of his early features, a zed and two noughts 1986, aka zoo, clearly encapsulates both these aspects, and reveals as well an unusual rhetorical structure. Why are his movies not more widely recognised the draughtmans. The two become increasingly obsessed with the decay of dead organisms, the evolution of life and. Jan 19, 2014 a zed and two noughts opening titles hd duration. Winners best picture winners golden globes emmys san diego comiccon new york comiccon sundance film festival toronto intl film festival awards central festival central all events. The film that established peter weir as a major filmmaker remains one of the most. A zed and two noughts or zoo is greenaways best film. This is not for people who think watching a movie means some quiet time and maybe a laugh or two. This comedic drama tells what happens when two zoologists face the results of a farcical tragedy in which both their wives were killed in a traffic accident that involved a swan. I find it is very easy to admire a peter greenaway film but harder to love them and i think zoo captures this perfectly.
This is a film where you are constantly challenged to make observations and opinions based on what you are shown. When one takes a zed and two noughts, one might spell the word zoo. The film opens with an automobileswan accident in front of the rotterdam zoo. An atheist himself, greenaway here gives us a pessimism that cuts deep. A zed and two noughts despite its visual pyrotechnics and an impressively woven texture of intellectual allusions, peter greenaways feature fails to engage the audiences sympathies. Jan 24, 2008 a zed and two noughts is the tale of two separated siamesetwin zoologists oliver and oswald whose wives are killed in a swanrelated car accident. Michael nyman music for peter greenaways film a zed. Inside the rotterdam zoo which makes up the zed and two noughts of the title, near where the crash occurred, the grieving brothers brood over the causes of their wives deaths in this beautifullooking puzzle of a film. For some time ive been an admirer of peter greenaways. A zed and two noughts turns out to be a british way to spell zoo.
I do want to include this postscript to add that because ive barely delved into cinema as of yet at least as much as id like i have much to learn about asian cinema, and much to learn about experimental cinema, whilst i know a bit about horror, i still have a lot of exploring to do. Im sure that i will never see a better movie fixated on amputation and rotting carrion. Having carefully staged their own death so that the decay that follows may be captured on film, we see how nature intrudes upon this scene and foils the effort. Oliver deuce, a successful doctor, is shattered when his wife is killed in a freak car accident involving the car being driven by alba bewick colliding with a very large rare bird.