![]() Some examples:ġ) The alphabet: the title, the names of Alba Bewick’s children, Beta’s interspersed listing of an animal beginning with each letter.Ģ) Numbers: the reoccurrences of “26”, particularly in relationship to the number of letters in the alphabet.ģ) Colors: Van Hoyten’s unhealthy obsession with black and white animals.Ĥ) The evolution of life: Attenborough’s “Life on Earth,” the choices of animals for the time-lapse experiments, the zoo. The film is not driven by plot or character, but instead, it adopts pre-existing organizational systems, lists and taxonomies. The structure of “A Zed and Two Noughts” is closer to an elaborate puzzle-box then than a traditional narrative of the 19th century literary mold, which Greenaway vocally despised. ![]() The very struggle to understand our roots (historically, genealogically, philosophically, spiritually and so forth) is central to the ambiguity that saturates “A Zed and Two Noughts.” Reoccurrences of the knowledge/reality/meaning dilemma come up over and over again:ġ) Venus de Milo proposes a reinterpretation of the Sphinx’s riddle about man, the earliest recorded abstract puzzle.Ģ) References to Vermeer and Van Meegeren engage with the authenticity of authorship and art.ģ) Beta successfully disproves that the brothers’ scientific training is equivalent to omnipotence (by humorously showing that they can’t identify the color of a woman’s knickers).Ĥ) Oliver endlessly questions the disturbing role of coincidences in modern life. The early juxtaposition of two opposing creation stories immediately introduces the friction of truth. Near the beginning of the movie, Oswald references Adam and Eve and soon after clips from “Life on Earth” begins describing the creation of life. ![]() In a somewhat unusual and alienating fashion, Greenaway invites the viewer to relate to his characters through a philosophical goose chase and to share in their repeated frustration. The investigation and rejection of traditional notions of knowledge, reality, meaning and truth is a guiding principle for Greenaway’s film.
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