A Zed & Two Noughts 1985 M
A Zed & Two Noughts 1985 M
16MM, COLOUR, MONO, 112 MINUTES, UK / THE NETHERLANDS, ENGLISH / DIRECTOR/SCRIPT: PETER GREENAWAY / CINEMATOGRAPHER: SACHA VIERNY / EDITOR: JOHN WILSON / PRODUCTION DESIGNERPRODUCTION DESIGNERERERS: BEN VAN OS, JAN ROELFS / MUSIC: MICHAEL NYMAN / COSTUME DESIGN: PATRICIA LIM / PRODUCTION CO: BRITISH FILM INSTITUTE, ALLARTS ENTERPRISES, ARTIFICIAL EYE, FILM FOUR INTERNATIONAL, VRIJZINNIG PROTESTANTSE RADIO OMROEP / PRINT SOURCE/RIGHTS: BRITISH FILM INSTITUTE / SCREENING FORMAT: 35MM
A Zed & Two Noughts is an essay on twin-ship and the idea of meeting oneself, a dissertation on the world as an ark, and a celebration of 17th Century Dutch painter Jan Vermeer, the master of light. The film centres on brothers Oswald and Oliver Deuce (Brian and Eric Deacon) who have lost their wives in a car accident caused by a swan outside the Amsterdam zoo. Both try to overcome and understand their loss by watching evolutionary documentaries narrated by naturalist David Attenborough and by experimenting with stop-motion recording processes to study the decomposition of animals. The driver of the car, Alba Bewick (Andréa Ferréol), survives the accident and both brothers soon become her lover. Through the characters of Oliver and Oswald, Peter Greenaway explores the tendency of men to blame the female sex for their fear of processes beyond understanding or control. Sascha Vierny’s cinematography pays homage to Vermeer, who can be seen as the first cinematographer, creating a world based on split seconds of time modelled entirely by light – the primary definition of cinema.
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