A Zed & Two Noughts · reception & legacy

1985 · Peter Greenaway

How A Zed & Two Noughts has been received, argued over, and remembered.

The arc

Critics in 1985 were largely baffled or repelled — too clinical, too designed, too much rot — and it did little business; today it's treasured by Greenaway devotees as the moment his mature style snapped into place, and the decay sequences are now the stuff of cinephile legend.

What's debated

The eternal Greenaway argument in miniature: is this ravishing formal intelligence or a cold, airless diagram of a film — painting with a pulse, or style embalming substance?

Its footprint

The time-lapse footage of decomposing animals, pulsing to Michael Nyman's score, is the film's endlessly clipped and referenced image — 'Time Lapse' went on to become one of Nyman's signature concert pieces.

Where it stands

A cult object and connoisseur's Greenaway — the deep cut fans push on anyone who thought The Cook, the Thief was where he started.

★ Did you know? This was Greenaway's first collaboration with cinematographer Sacha Vierny — who shot Last Year at Marienbad for Resnais — and Vierny went on to photograph nearly all of Greenaway's subsequent features.

Named by the director

Influences Peter Greenaway has publicly named — the director's own word, distinct from the inferred lines of influence.

Alain Resnais — Greenaway has repeatedly cited Resnais (and Last Year at Marienbad in particular) as his formative screen influence, and hired Resnais's cinematographer Sacha Vierny for this film in explicit homage.