Themes: Twins and Lookalikes, Experiments Gone Awry, Death of a Partner
Main Cast: Andréa Ferréol, Brian Deacon, Eric Deacon, Frances Barber, Joss Ackland
Release Year: 1985
Country: UK/NL
Run Time: 115 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
This twisted black comedy is obsessed in turn with swans, twins, and decay. Alba Bewick (Andréa Ferréol) is involved in a swan-related car accident near the zoo. The accident kills two other women, the wives of two twin zoologists, Oliver and Oswald Deuce (Brian and Eric Deacon). Alba is lucky enough to escape with one leg. Eventually her doctor also removes the other "because it was dangerous for the spine." Meanwhile, the Deuce brothers, as a result of losing their wives, have become fascinated with the decay of corpses, and they start making rather gruesome time-lapse films to examine the process more thoroughly. Both brothers become involved with Alba. Needless to say, this film may not appeal to everybody. ~ John Voorhees, All Movie Guide
Review
Like most Peter Greenaway films, the appeal of A Zed & Two Noughts is totally subjective. It all depends on one's tolerance for non-narrative filmmaking . Greenaway never gives the viewer an easy way into the film: plot details are doled in an off-hand, irregular fashion and the characters speak to each other in a series of cryptic sound bites dense with artistic and literary references that will be lost on many viewers. The film is easier to appreciate if approached as a puzzle box for the mind, one that happens to revolve around themes of birth, death, symmetry, and the slender differences between man and animal. Thus, A Zed & Two Noughts is pretty challenging fare but has plenty to offer the patient viewer. For instance, the film is impeccably crafted: Sacha Vierny's stunning cinematography overflows with eye-popping color and Michael Nyman's frenetic, hypnotic score rivals the most intense work of Philip Glass. The actors handle their difficult, often elliptical characterizations with skill, with Andréa Ferréol making the most vivid impression as the woman who changes the lives of the twin brother protagonists in an earth-shaking fashion. In short, A Zed & Two Noughts is not a film for those who love straightforward narratives but is well worth a look to adventurous viewers looking for a challenge that is easy on the eyes. ~ Donald Guarisco, All Movie Guide
Gerard Thoolen - Van Meegeren; Guusje van Tilborgh - Caterina Bolnes; David Attenborough - Narrator; Wolf Kahler - Felipe Arc-en-Ciel; Geoffrey Palmer - Fallast; Jim Davidson - Joshua Plate; Agnes Brulet - Beta Bewick; Ken Campbell - Stephen Pipe
Credit
Sharon Howard-Field - Casting, Patricia Lim - Costume Designer, Dien van Straalen - Costume Designer, Peter Greenaway - Director, John Wilson - Editor, Michael Nyman - Composer (Music Score), Henry Hall - Musical Direction/Supervision, Sara Meerman - Makeup, Nicole Mora - Makeup, Jan Roelfs - Production Designer, Ben Van Os - Production Designer, Sacha Vierny - Cinematographer, Denis Wigman - Production Manager, Kees Kasander - Producer, Peter Sainsbury - Producer, Peter Greenaway - Screenwriter
The plot centres on twin brothers, Oswald and Oliver Deuce, whose wives are killed in a car accident. The brothers enter a relationship with Alba Bewick, the driver of the car, who lost one of her legs in the accident. In an attempt to fathom the reason for their wives' death they become obsessed with decay, making numerous time-lapse films of decaying animals. Culminating in the ultimate experiment, A Zed & Two Noughts is not one of Greenaway's more accessible works. It features a memorable soundtrack by Michael Nyman.
Elements of Michael Nyman's score invoke the "Dies Irae" section from Heinrich Ignaz Biber's Requiem ex F con terza minore. The "Angelfish Decay"/"Swan Rot"/"L'Escargot" theme was originally written for Childs Play, a dance work commissioned by Lucinda Childs.
Track listing
Angelfish Decay
Car Crash
Time Lapse
Prawn Watching
Bisocosis Populi
Swan Rot
Delft Waltz
Up for Crabs
Vermeer's Wife
Venus de Milo
Lady in the Red Hat
L'Escargot
Personnel
Performance of the soundtrack is credited to Nyman, Alexander Balanescu, Elisabeth Perry, Sarah Leonard, and "The Zoo Orchestra". This is not the Michael Nyman Band, but rather the following musicians, as indicated in the film credits:
Arno Bons
Gerard Bouwhis
Bas Dekker
Pieter Gouderjaan
Rob Hageman
John Helstone
Jan Jansen
Sofia Kiss
Henk Leether
Beverly Lund
Gerrit Oloeman
Jelle Schouten
Jorn Shroeder
Peter Stan
Win Steinman
Leo Van Oostron
Marien Van Staalen
Adri Van Velson
Peter Veenhuizen
Lene Te Voortwis
Frans Vreugdenhil
Gerbrand Westveen
The score is in the Michael Nyman Band's repertoire, particularly "Time Lapse" and "Prawn Watching", but they do not perform on the soundtrack.
The album was issued on compact disc in the United States June 4, 1991, with a new cover featuring Ferreol in-between the Deacons in bed, and the title spelled A Zed And Two Noughts. The original LP cover showed a zebra in a cage, as does the UK CD. A digitally remastered edition was released in the United States with the 1991 cover on March 29, 2004.
Albums to which
Nyman contributed
(as composer
and/or performer)
Recent English Experimental Music ·The Pavilion of Dreams · From The Kitchen Archives - New Music New York 1979 ·The Sensual World · Saxophone Works · John Harle's Saxophone Songbook ·Piano Circus · The Contemporary Trumpet ·Taking a Line for a Second Walk · Plus que Tango · Visions · First & Foremost · An Eye for a Difference · Pick It Up · Meeting Point: The Saxophone Concertos of Nyman, Heath and Torke ·Twentieth-Century Blues: The Songs of Noel Coward ·Generation Sex · The Golden Section (album) · Faces (Quartz Saxophone Quartet album) · Ahn-Plugged · Groovebox (Ahn Trio album) · Moving On
Singles/EPs
Mozart/Webern · The Heart Asks Pleasure First/The Promise · Anohito no Waltz · In Re Don Giovanni · Enemy Zero Piano Sketches
