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Customer Reviews
Here, the filmmaker layers his preoccupations so that the film becomes a much more rewarding work; employing an allegorical framework so that each scene conforms to the notions of physical evolution and the origins of life, whilst also developing notions of visual symmetry, twin-ship, personal loss, cosmetic amputation, death, decomposition, lists and lettering, as well as the post-modern self-aware referentialism of filmmaking its self. The central experiment here deals with the notions of film lighting, with Greenaway and his cinematographer Sacha Vierny demonstrating every conceivable method of how to light a scene (e.g. sun-light, moon-light, florescent lights, car-head-lamps, the light from a TV set, and in one partially stunning scene, the reflected light from a rainbow... and so-on).
As with the BFI’s subsequent release of Greenaway’s narrative debut, the Draughtsman’s Contract, A Zed & Two Noughts comes digitally re-mastered with a wealth of eye-opening bonus material. Unlike the majority of filmmakers who use up commentary tracks to spill their guts about the pressures of directing egotistical stars or waxing lyrical on a number of trivial anecdotes, Greenaway uses his talk-track to offer new insight into the thematic layering of the film, as well as clarifying elements of the plot that might otherwise be unreadable. His extensive knowledge on the Dutch renascence painter Johannes Vermeer for example, is particularly interesting, especially when he is discussing the influence of Vermeer’s 26 paintings on the visual design of the film. Elsewhere, we have the filmed introduction to the picture, again by Greenaway, lovingly constructed to ape the design of the filmmaker’s more recent work like Prospero’s Books and 8 ½ Women.
There are also a collection of deleted scenes, sleeve-notes, behind the scenes footage, and a collection of hidden features... very much in keeping with the arcane game-playing central to the plot. The print of the film, in its original, integral cinematic ratio of 1:66.1 spherical gives Vierny’s opulent cinematography a whole new lease of life, whilst the 5.1 stereo surround sound allows the audience to indulge themselves in the brilliance of Michael Nyman’s iconic soundtrack (re-hashed many times for other films, adverts, and so-on over the twenty-years since). Although the film is labyrinthine, austere, calculated and overly designed, it is in no way an elitist work...
Greenaway’s deft-handling of the script allows for innumerable moments of subversive satire and darkly comic wit, whilst the charm of performers like Frances Barber, Joss Ackland, and (shock-horror) Jim Davison is more than enough to break-through the ascetic-veneer. This is one of the greatest British films of all time... an excellent work of artistic entertainment on a lovingly packaged disk, making A Zed & Two Noughts (a film) ripe for re-discovery.
We start the movie with a double death in a car crash by a zoo...death by swan on a lane called Swan's Way. The wives of our two zoologists may be gone, but their husbands, twins and formerly joined twins Oswald and Oliver Deuce, will lead us on an exploration of grief and decay, illustrated by their stop motion movies. We will meet a beautiful amputee, soon to have her remaining leg off by a mad surgeon, probably for issues of symmetry. In addition to wet decay, we'll enjoy vomiting, frontal nudity, Vermeer, Greenaway's magnificent color palette, black and white animals, a white mare named Hortense, several interesting fetishes, plus the movie's unique chapter headings: Mercury, Apple, Prawn, Fish, Crocodile, Swan, Dog, Zebra and Escargot. Black comedy, indeed.
I'll admit I don't think I understood a thing about A Zed and Two Noughts. I started to read what some critics and fans have offered by way of analysis and found much of what they had to say, from my point of view, largely incomprehensible, too detailed or too dull. Greenaway is chilly, controlling and all about style layered heavily on top of substance. He can make Stanley Kubrick look loosey-goosey. I found a Zed and Two Noughts, in a perverse kind of way, enjoyable. I suspect that's because Greenaway comes up with such odd, intriguing and often disturbing visions. They can almost make you forget what the devil he's getting at. For me, Prospero's Books is a perfect blend of style and story; The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover is an almost perfect match of style and story; The Draughtsman's Contract is an amusing overlay of manners, murder, style and story. But A Zed and Two Noughts? Well, I found it chilly, sometimes uninvolving and often amusing. I enjoyed it, more or less, most of the time. (I occasionally used the fast-forward button). If ten people can tell me what the movie means, beyond the old standbys of death, grief and snails, I'll bet I'll read ten wildly different opinions. That's no particular criticism of either Greenaway or the film.
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