A Zed & Two Noughts (1985)

Calificación de los usuarios:

7.2/10   

Director:

Peter Greenaway

Guionista:

Peter Greenaway (written by)

Release Date:

25 mayo 1990 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Oliver Deuce, a successful doctor, is shattered when his wife is killed in a freak car accident involving...

Plot Keywords:

Absurdism | Movie Theater | Dog | Broken Glass | Fired

Comentarios de los usuarios:

Typically multi-layered examination piece from director Peter Greenaway

Cast

Andréa Ferréol	...	Alba Bewick
Brian Deacon	...	Oswald Deuce
Eric Deacon	...	Oliver Deuce
Frances Barber	...	Venus de Milo
Joss Ackland	...	Van Hoyten
Jim Davidson	...	Joshua Plate
Agnès Brulet	...	Beta Bewick
Guusje van Tilborgh	...	Caterina Bolnes
Gerard Thoolen	...	Van Meegeren
Ken Campbell	...	Stephen Pipe
Wolf Kahler	...	Felipe Arc-en-Ciel
Geoffrey Palmer	...	Fallast
David Attenborough	...	Documentary Narrator (voice)

También conocida como:

Zoo (Argentina) [es]

Duración:

115 min

País:

UK | Netherlands

Idioma:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sonido:

Mono

Clasificación:

Argentina:16 | Australia:M | Finland:K-12 | Sweden:11 | UK:15 | Spain:T | Germany:12

Filming Locations:

Rotterdam Zoo, Rotterdam, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands

Company:

British Film Institute (BFI)

Trivialidades:

Early in the movie, we are shown a front-page newspaper article about the deaths of the protagonists' wives. This front page also contains sidebar articles detailing events from two of director Peter Greenaway's subsequent films, The Belly of an Architect (1987) (the article headlined "Architect Dies") and Drowning by Numbers (1988) (the article headlined "A Hot Bath Heart Attack").

Quotes:

Alba Bewick: Imagine that, the body - in all its delicious detail - fading away leaving a skeleton with iron legs.

Movie Connections:

Featured in The Tulse Luper Suitcases, Part 1: The Moab Story (2003)

Soundtrack:

An Elephant Never Forgets

Typically multi-layered examination piece from director Peter Greenaway

An obsession with symmetry, of repetition and absolute equals. Of creation and creativity suggested by the continual contrast between the theories of Charles Darwin and the expressions of Johannes Vermeer, and in the recurring juxtapositions between light and dark, loss and longing, composition (visual) and decomposition (literal), to tell a story that is ultimately more personal and emotionally affecting than the majority of viewers might expect. On the surface, the film presents the "two noughts" of the title as Oswald and Oliver Deuce - a literal expression of the "double-oh two" as alluded to in the reverse shot of the title, OO2 (OOZ/e), etc - who offer yet another representation of the theme of doubling that will reoccur throughout. We also have the idea of anthropology, as we study the characters who in turn study the objects within the film, and the continually abstracted concerns of Greenaway's direction, which as usual, is filled with all kinds of clever visual and thematic ideas and an extraordinary sense of wit and insight.

The presentation of the film, which essentially works on three separate levels, as Greenaway uses elements of interexturality to continually subvert the presentation of the film, from the lush, minimalist, though no less grandiose score from Michael Nyman, to the voice-over narration from Sir David Attenborough, lifted directly from his programme 'Life on Earth', to turn the events of the film into some kind of post-mortem study with continually ironic references to factual documentary. This in turn is contrasted by the opulent production design and cinematography of Resnais' early collaborator Sacha Vierny, as Greenaway experiments with various lighting sources, from bright fluorescents, to flashlights, car headlamps, sodium bulbs, television monitors, and, in one particular sequence, the reflections of an artificial rainbow. This again is used to add depth to the compositions, which here draw on the presentation of the twenty-six paintings of Johannes Vermeer, as well as Greenaway's own interests in visual symmetry, twinship and the interplay of light and dark, all of which relate explicitly to the themes and ideas developed within the script.

There are also further obsessions with the number 26, and how it explicitly relates to the alphabet - which recited throughout by a character that uses it in a game to list the names of various zoo animals - as well as the twenty-six ways of lighting a scene, as previously alluded to. The idea of lists has always been a key concern for Greenaway, stretching as far back as his formal, short-form experiments such as Dear Phone (1977), A Walk Through H: The Reincarnation of an Ornithologist (1978) and his first feature-length work, The Falls (1980). However, here the lists serve the narrative as opposed to leading it, while the moments of humour (including Greenaway's continual interest in puns - both visual and textual - and clever anagrams and arrangements) are more subdued than his later film, The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover (1989), but still bright enough to register as deliberate. All of these factors are used to tell the story of the film, which, in a precursor to the later film, 8 ½ Women (1999), deals with the notion of grief and how the characters deal with such devastation; retreating into themselves and into one another to reclaim that connection to the world that has since been severed.

Again, if we disregard Greenaway's formal experiments and visual eccentricities, the film can be read as a heartbreaking story about the breakdown of these two, related characters following the loss of their respective partners, and of the eventual descent into both regression and obsession. However, to ignore the secondary elements of the film is to ignore the real sense of creativity that Greenaway's work is noted for, with the layers of self-references and deeper, intellectual interpretation all offering the viewer the chance to almost interact with the film as it unfolds. Admittedly, some of the performances suffer from the usual stiltedness that is an unfortunate side-effect of Greenaway's flat compositions, which sometimes rob the film of the more obvious, melodramatic, emotional manipulation that cinema conventionally panders to, with the often lack of close-ups and flat, tableau-like compositions that again create the idea of an of anthropological study (pertaining to the "human zoo" analogy that the film conveys). As ever with Greenaway's work, many will call it pretentious and dismiss the film completely, but regardless, there is no denying that the film offers a definite alternative to the majority of films being released and, as a result, will remain a beacon of hope for those of us who look for challenging films that allow us to connect and interact with the presentation, as opposed to merely seeking passive entertainment.

Admittedly, the presentation is at-times cluttered, but despite this, the story is ultimately simple. There's the obvious sense of abstraction and the games that Greenaway weaves into the drama so skilfully and the ornate attention to production design and cinematography to occasionally distract us, but deep down, this is an intense film about the relationship between these two brothers devastated by personal tragedy and turmoil. The fact that so many people miss it - no doubt too busy complaining about the audaciousness of a filmmaker to treat us like intelligent adults - is bizarre, but then, there will always be people who just aren't interesting in films of this nature (and there is certainly no shame in that). For me, A Zed and Two Noughts is one of Greenaway's most fascinating and frustrating films; one that clearly requires several viewings to fully comprehend, but is definitely worth it for anyone with a real taste for imaginative, provocative and intelligent British film-making.