Dalbert Pringle (Movie quote) - "So, tell me - Is a zebra a white animal with black stripes, or is it a black animal with white stripes?" Even though I definitely found this 1985, British, "art" film to be something of a "hit'n'miss" production, it was its very striking camera-work by French cinematographer, Sacha Vierny, that certainly helped to elevate it to a position that set it well-beyond the realm of being considered just purely mundane entertainment.Surreal, eccentric and bizarre (and, yes, at times, quite puzzling) - "A Zed And 2 Noughts" definitely had me wondering, often enough, what kind of a curve director Peter Greenaway was going to hurl at me next with this weird and somewhat disturbing tale of obsession with decaying flesh and the amputation of body parts.Certainly not a film to please everyone (and certainly not a film with a gripping plot-line) - I, for one, thought "A Zed And 2 Noughts" was well-worth a view simply for the freakish biology lesson that it quite cleverly wedged into its wacky, little story (all at no extra cost).

Sergeant_Tibbs Having seen Peter Greenaway's The Cook the Thief His Wife & Her Lover, I knew I was in for an intense sensual experience with crude symbolism and even cruder people. A Zed & Two Noughts is a film about symmetry, about its dependence and complimentary tendencies, accidental/natural or intentional/forced. The twins become obsessed with the search of purpose in randomness and therefore especially the meaning for coincidence and symmetry. Although they come up empty handed, there are some profound ideas in there, with nine months for a baby to be born and then nine months for a body to decay. The arresting visuals reflect the use of symmetry with elaborate sets designed as reflections. It has a David Lean level of lushness as the cameras glide through the elegantly coloured sets, as well as featuring time lapses of decaying food and animals, closeups of painting and nature documentary footage, narrated by David Attenborough.Although it has shocking drama and daring tragedy (a woman voluntarily having a second leg amputated then regretting it, a dalmatian shown rotting) it does have a key sense of humour that keeps it from being dreary. It mostly comes from Greenaway's obsession with obscenities clashing within upper class etiquette, particularly with sex, which gives the film more shock value though is never vulgar for the sake of vulgarity. It has an incredibly haunting score by Michael Nyman, who also did the one for The Cook the Thief His Wife & Her Lover, and this one may be even more intense due to the films freakish nature. Of which the script is full of twists of turns of phrases and wordplay to apply to the bizarre scenarios in the film, which isn't always as intelligent as it appears to be. The film has a bad habit of relying on characterisations rather than characters, and it took far too long for its protagonists and primary supporting characters to be fully fleshed out and developed beyond caricatures. It's main downfall is it's far too urgent. Scenes are rushed and sequences hurried with barely any scenes properly savoured enough to soak in the flavour of the film. It gives the film a vignette feel which I didn't think the film needed and a resolution without real closure. Though I guess this exactly fits into its theme of chaos and the meaning of it all.8/10

rlcsljo After two brothers lose their wives in a car crash, realize that death is the most fascinating part of life. They constantly photograph animals in a state of decomposition. This celebrates the fact that for every unique life there is a unique death and it should be glorified as is life in all its forms.Greenaway seems the exact opposite of Lynch. Lynch takes the ordinary and makes it extraordinary. Greenaway takes the extraordinary and attempts to make it appear ordinary.

Theo Robertson I saw A ZED AND TWO NOUGHTS in the spring of 1987 . I read in the tv guide that this film " Contains scenes that some viewers may find disturbing " . Great I thought , this mean`s that it`s gonna be a gritty hard hitting film just like SCUM or APOCALYPSE NOW or all these other films that contain the warning " Contains scenes that some viewers may find disturbing " . So I sat down to watch it and was disgusted by what I saw . What a load of pretentious anally retentive crap ! Who the hell wants to watch vegetable matter and dead animals decompose ? Come on put your hands up . People who admit to liking this film are just kidding themselves on , they`re showing off big time by pretending to be intellectuals . Obviously working class scum like myself and most other people who watch movies are too thick to recognise ZOO as being a wonderful piece of art . And you know what ? I`m glad about that . It`s not often I give a film a 1 on the IMDB but that`s what I`m giving ZOO . On an entertainment level it deserves 0 . Or should that be a NOUGHT ?