Peter Greenaway's A Zed & Two Noughts takes place in an eerily empty and dark European municipal zoo, where children with balloons are notably absent, and the dark and seedy nature of animal captivity is notably present. The "story" (Greenaway has himself expressed a great disdain for narrative cinema) follows brothers Oswald and Oliver, who are scientists at the zoo, and who lose their respective wives in a freak car crash involving a swan at the zoo. The driver of that vehicle, Alba, survives the crash, but loses her leg. The brothers become obsessed with the meaning of life and death, and begin engaging in bizarre experiments, mostly involving the decay of life forms, as they attempt to make sense of chaos. Soon, both Oswald and Oliver become Alba's lovers, and she conceives twins. Alba dies after giving birth, and, overcome again by grief and death, the brothers decide to make an experiment out of themselves, commit suicide, and attempt to document their own decay on camera. This experiment, like all of their other plans, is foiled by the force of nature. Greenaway attempts to push his films in a completely different direction than most, and while weird and quirky, the "photography, sets, and music are superb." (Variety) 35mm
1985, color, 1 hour 55 minutes, UK