Rating: 
Summary: Get the BFI Version
Review: If you have a European or multi-region DVD player, get the BFI edition of this movie, which includes a director's commentary and introduction, trailers for this and The Draughtsman's Contract and extracts from a "making of" documentary.The film itself? Brilliant, arch, beautifully photographed and probably Greenaway's most accessible work.
Rating: 
Summary: Humorous, intellectual, perverse and over the top. GREAT!
Review: If you're looking for a movie to leave you with a warm, fuzzy feeling at the end...then this is not for you! It is a visual essay as much as it is an anthology of scientific and philosophical musings. The film is about two brothers - Oliver & Oswald Deuce (played by Eric & Brian Deacon), zoologists by profession, whose wives die in a car accident. The driver, Alba Bewick (played by Andrea Ferreol) ends up with an amputated leg. Oliver & Oswald in their quest for details about the accident end up in a three-way love affair with Alba. The brothers become obsessed with decay, while Alba becomes obsessed with her one leg and eventually has her doctor amputate it as well. After the accident, the brothers engage in philosophical and scientific conversations about the beginnings of life on earth, evolution and the mechanics of decomposition. Soon after the accident Oswald says "I can't bear the thought of her (his wife) just rotting away." Then the Deuce brothers begin a conversation about how the decomposition of a body begins, the intestinal bacteria that set off the process and how in one lick of the human tongue the are 100,000 of these bacteria. And how Adam might have passed 200,000 of them onto Eve in a French Kiss. Then one of them says "What if Eve kissed Adam?" - "Unlikely! She would have used the first 100,000 (bacteria) on the apple" This is absolutely hilarious... they are having a hypothetical conversation about Genesis as if Adam & Eve were the true origin of mankind, when in reality, as scientists they cannot take such religious concepts seriously. At one point Oliver is watching a film on the evolution of species and the narrator says "If evolution had happened in a span of 365 days, then, man made his first appearance on the evening of December 31 just as daylight is fading." We hear the narrator of these documentaries on evolution a number of times in the background, later we hear him saying "...it is difficult for people to comprehend the evolutionary leap between the most sophisticated of apes to MAN, and more difficult still how LIFE could emerge out of NOTHING." College-level biology students and philosophy students would enjoy this film. The contrast between the moral and the perverse becomes increasingly intensified in the film with the use of philosophical quotes and excerpts. For example, when we are introduced to a woman named Venus DeMilo, she's dressed in black going into the zoo (where the Deuce brothers work) and a man with whom she obviously had sexual encounters asks her "How are the zebras?" In a very indifferent tone she answers, "Black and White." That is a wordplay on the aristotelian, objectivist, Ayn Rand idea of the black and white, good and evil. Venus DeMilo makes it very clear she finds obejctivism tedious, and the question of whether the zebra is a "black animal with white stripes or a white animal with black stripes" is irrelevant. There is a scene in the film which I found particularly intriguing, Venus DeMilo and Oliver are naked on the bed (presumably after a sexual encounter) and he has a tray full of live snails. He plays with the snails while she rants on and on with superficial small talk. Then she asks, "Why do you like snails so much?" Oliver says, "They're a primitive form of life... they help the world DECAY! They're also hermaphrodite... they can satisfy their own sexual needs!" Which in the context of things could be taken to be an indicator of the degree of contempt he feels toward having to resort to her for sexual satisfaction. Later when he's visiting a recovering Alba, Oliver blames her for the death of his wife. At this time we learn that Alba was ten weeks pregnant. Olivers says "It's your fault my wife is dead. Pregnant women are notoriously unreliable...especially when they're trying to procure an abortion!" Later in the film, Alba announces to the brothers that she's pregnant. Oliver and Oswald want to know who the father is. Alba says, "As far as I'm concerned you are both the fathers...what's a few SPERMATOZOA among brothers?" Then while the three of them are in bed Alba announces to them that she can tell they are twins. Oliver and Oswald admit to it, saying that even their wives never knew they were twins, and furthermore they were siamese twins. A Zed and Two Noughts is deeply intellectual at times, very irreverent, silly, and hystecally funny. Goes over the top in just about every scene. Writer and Director Peter Greenaway is brilliant. I have seen two other films by him: Drowning by Numbers and Prospero's Books. Both were beautifully photographed as is A Zed and Two Noughts. Art students should enjoy Peter Greenaway's use of chiaroscuro in his sets, the atmospheres created in his films through the use of light and shadow are magnificent. The characters in the film are like caricatures, much like people in real life. The film blurs the line between humans as the superior creatures certain philosophies claim them to be and the primitive, hairless apes they remain at their very core...their self-awareness notwithstanding. This film is a must see for the Liberal Arts Student.
Rating: 
Summary: Pointless
Review: Like many of Peter Greenaway's movies, this one suffers from several problems. The most critical of these is that his opening scenes never emotionally tie you to any of the characters, resulting in you watching 2 hours of film without really caring. Secondly, his filming technique is basically more appropriate for a play - all the scenes look like they were specifically made as movie sets rather than as natural surroundings, and his direction of the lighting makes it obvious that everything is artificially lit. Thirdly, his subject matter. always bizarre, just isn't interesting. Why can't he pick the bizarre and the interesting? If you like film noir, then this isn't it. Having sat through 113 minutes of this, all I was left with was how pointless and a waste of film this was.
Rating:
Summary: Pointless
Review: Like many of Peter Greenaway's movies, this one suffers from several problems. The most critical of these is that his opening scenes never emotionally tie you to any of the characters, resulting in you watching 2 hours of film without really caring. Secondly, his filming technique is basically more appropriate for a play - all the scenes look like they were specifically made as movie sets rather than as natural surroundings, and his direction of the lighting makes it obvious that everything is artificially lit. Thirdly, his subject matter. always bizarre, just isn't interesting. Why can't he pick the bizarre and the interesting? If you like film noir, then this isn't it. Having sat through 113 minutes of this, all I was left with was how pointless and a waste of film this was.
Rating:
Summary: A must see
Review: The very first time I watched this film was not in a theatre but on a small black and white TV (at the time I was about 17 and still living with my parents, so what do you expect :-). It made a tremendous impression on me then and it's still my favorite film ever. The plot is rich and weird, the music addictive and the dialogues are both odd and witty. As you might expect of one of the early films by Greenaway, the alphabet plays a big part in this film. A film about the beginnings of life, birth, life itself, death and decay. Excellent usage of clips of natural history films with the distinctive voice of David Attenborough. There are many storylines in this film and there's a kind of character development you don't see to often in these modern times. Greenaway created an atmosphere I had never seen before in films and very few films are even coming close to it. All in all, as you might have noticed, I'm a sucker for this film. I can recommend it to anyone. And hey, if you don't like the pictures, you can still play the DVD and not watch it, but enjoy the soundtrack.
Rating:
Summary: A dark celebration by the simetry
Review: This film is an intelligent puzzle. You must be building the story , the clues are given ironically, tragicaly and above all subrepticiously.
Two twins married with two sisters , a swan , murder, guilty the same lover, the one and the couple are engaged, come together , and become unending laberynth of borgian proportions. A man dreams that another guy dreams. This story is just fascinatong
The archetipes are precisely defined. Oparin makes his own web.
The feelings involved around a common tragedy, just having the zoo as a huge frame where the life begins and ends, without any pain, with natural precision. The speling music of Nyman, Sacha Vierny and his amazing photography, the dark poetry supports the dialogues, the desperation seems even not forced but she assumes slowly its place in the play.
Greenaway is a brilliant director with a unpleasant life's view. What it realy is amazing is the total absence of feelings in every one of the depicted characters. ou won't see a teardrop, even in the worst of one situation.
The homagge to Vermeer makes the film still more interesting, arrestong and provocative, in a style who reminds us to Luis Buñuel but without the religious ethics underlayed of the spanish director.
Certainly the multiple readings that Zoo and two noughts offer us walk around the biology, the huge affection of Greenaway by the insects, worms and all that little universe who survives under our indiferent behavior.
This trilogy of films together with the bely of an architect and drowning by numbers, allows us to traduce the universe of this excentric and irreverent film maker.
Don't miss this film.
Rating:
Summary: Visualy an extremely good film
Review: This film is one of the best films in term of a perfect visual image. All the symetry in most scenes are excellent compositions up to the best detail. Of course the topic and the way is manage lets the watcher to be surprised and at the same time to enjoy them with black humor. Visually is one of the best film ever and is highly recommended. The only problem of the DVD is the lack of close caption and subtitles in any language which makes it diffcult to understand for those who do not have english as a native born language or for people with hearing problems as well. It is a shame that such excelent movies made in the latest technology (DVD) does not come with technology features as close caption.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful, unique and fascinating
Review: This is a facinating, unique and beautiful looking film from Peter Greenaway. The story follows twin zoologists Oliver and Oswald Deuce, who after their wives are killed in a car accident, start to photograph decaying animals and plants, and search for a meaning in life. Also, they become fascinated with the amputee lady who survived the car crash. It's a film to watch many times to discover its many layers, and is perfect for DVD. The DVD is Ok. The picture is in widescreen 1.66:1 and is very clear. Watching some of the many rich colours really is wonderful. The sound in mono is alright, but could have done with a surround mix. The extras are just filmographies and awards of the actors and director, and production credits. It would have been better to see more. Still, the film is sumptuous, and fascinating to watch for many viewings.
Rating:
Summary: truly excruciating in the most positive sense...
Review: this is easily one of my favorite films. NO ONE I show it to seems to understand why. It is stunningly photographed, flawlessly executed, mind-numbingly cerebral. Symmetry freaks, watch this one closely! Peter Greenaway is not for those who just want to "take in a flick"...but everyone should watch at least one of his masterpieces.
Rating:
Summary: A Zed and Two Naughts
Review: This movie is one of those that stays in your mind for quite a while after you have seen it. It has a fairly bizarre plot and there is some gore but what you mainly take from it is the depth of the emotions. There is a lot of emotional pain and a lot of love but it is not expressed in the traditional movie ways. This is a movie you will want to see over and over again. I first saw it more than 10 years ago and have been seeking a copy since.
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