A Zed and Two Noughts

The fact that Peter Greenaway hasn't shown up on this blog yet is a mystery to me. Most people know him from The Cook, The Theif, His Wife and Her Lover. He has a directing resume 45 movies long and, while I have only seen about five of them, those five are some of the more brilliant and bizarre movies out there. His stunning and Weird (with a capital W) visuals and large scale thematic undertakings make him a director that I would like to expand my experience with.

Made in 1985, before some of his more acclaimed creations, A Zed and Two Noughts is full of Greenaway's trademarks: long, single shots, kinky and bossy women, hospitals and invalids, billowing curtains, sexual quirks (snails!), symmetry, multiple languages and death. Part of the fun for me is trying to find the elements he repeats throughout and follow them: twos, evolution, life and decay, black and white, the alphabet and I am still trying to figure out how the painter Vermeer van Delft fits in.

What does it all mean? Are there lessons? Should we walk away with a richer appreciation of the human condition? I don't think it matters. Greenaway himself said, "Continuity is boring." The characters are more like tools of the theme he is playing with than realistic, sympathetic people. We are never asked to believe in them. For some I recognize this would be a deal-breaker and make the film unappealing. Fair enough. And while there is a tangible story here, it's very, very weird (delightfully so!) and appears to simply be a vehicle to take you on the visual and thematic ride. It's best not to eat beforehand.