A Zed and Two Noughts

by Peter Greenaway

The lives of two brothers, working in a European zoo, are dramatically altered when their wives are killed in a car crash. One brother, unable to accept what has happened, is given over to the strange habit of photographing the decay of animal corpses. The other brother carries out his wife's wishes, and sets free a succession of animals. A bizarre and unexpected story emerges.

Genres: Film

110 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

Peter Greenaway, CBE is a British film director. He is currently professor of cinema studies at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland.

Reviews

[Benno Readsabit · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely one of those books where symbolism and themes take precedence over plot. Which I LIKE, buuut... Like, one of the characters is a surgeon (who's also a veterinarian and does animal surgeries? Talk about a Renaissance man) named Van Meegeren, a supposed descendent of the infamous Vermeer forger of the same name, who obsessively sculpts his own life and that of those around him to mimic scenes in Vermeer paintings? ... So that character results in some odd plot points to be sure, but they're all great and unexpected. There's a reverse siamese twin surgery, a legless pregnancy, all sorts of decay and death. This is an ImAgErY book, which makes sense because it's a screenplay, but maybe not meant for book form in the end.
My biggest gripe was everybody wanting to have sex with everybody. Such a boring, man-want-have-sex-with-woman theme in these biblical allegory things that doesn't even develop any ideas, let alone any real plot. The one relationship that was pivotal to the plot was that between Oswald and Oliver and Alba, without which we wouldn't have gotten the entire ending of the film/book. Every other relationship was completely superfluous, and seemed like very very trite, tired, redundant character development for every other man to just be horny as fuck and greedy. Which don't get me wrong, fine with portraying men that way, belieeeve me, but please let's at least write more interesting women and thus more dynamic relationships for these people?

A tough 3 stars to give, because I really do like the absurdity and dark imagery of the whole thing, but its not 4 star territory for me

[Tosh · Rating 4 out of 5]

It never fails with Peter Greenaway films. After the film is over, a perfect stranger would have to tell me what a horrible film this is. It happens with all his films that I have seen in movie theaters. Not only that, a lot of people in the audience leave in a huff during the showings. This alone makes him my hero!

Peter Greenaway is a total obsessive who can see the world as some strange system either organized by some form of science or numbers. And this is one of my favorite films. Pretentious? Well, yeah to be perfectly honest, but so what! With the addition of a great Michael Nyman score you see two 'twins' study the nature of animals rotting and the duality of the 'twos.' The text explores the film in great detail. Sort of clues in what's happening. Greenway is a lot of fun. Plus the fact that he pisses off people is worth an extra star or two.

[Cleo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This shouldn’t work as well as just a stand alone script, but reading descriptions of time-lapse videos zebras and angel fish decaying only brings home the film’s point better. All attempts to understand and categorize nature and man are ultimately futile