Subscribe to watch - 14-day free trial, then £4.99 a month
A Zed and Two Noughts
Following a fatal car crash involving a swan outside a zoo, twin-brother zoologists Oliver and Oswald become fascinated by the processes of decay.
Animation & Artists Moving Image 1985 117 mins
Director: Peter Greenaway
Overview
A car collides with a swan outside a zoo. Two women passengers die but the driver, Alba Bewick survives with a leg amputation. Obsessed with the accident, the zoologist husbands of the dead women – twins Oliver and Oswald – become fascinated by the processes of decay and embark on an affair with the amputee.
As dead animals decompose to the playful rhythms of Michael Nyman, symmetry is elevated beyond obsession, and Sascha Vierny's cinematography pays homage to Vermeer. Full of surprises and magnificent conundrums, Peter Greenaway's third feature is as perversely comic and teasing as it is shocking.
Contains moderate nudityAccessibility
Related
Animation & Artists Moving Image
Eden and After Eden and After
Drama 1969 98 mins Director: Alain Robbe-Grillet
Alain Robbe-Grillet’s sensual fantasy follows a group of students who enter a bizarre sado-masochistic realm after taking a mysterious drug.
Bronco's House Bronco's House
Drama 2015 44 mins Director: Mark Jenkin
A young man strives to provide a home for his pregnant girlfriend and their unborn child, in Mark Jenkin's mid-length precursor to Bait.
A Page of Madness A Page of Madness
Animation & Artists Moving Image 1926 68 mins Director: Teinosuke Kinugasa
A haunting, silent, modernist classic, visibly influenced by The Cabinet of Dr Caligari.
Gallivant Gallivant
Animation & Artists Moving Image 1996 100 mins Director: Andrew Kötting
Andrew Kötting takes a terrific, twisting coastal tour of the UK with his family.
Fata Morgana Fata Morgana
Animation & Artists Moving Image 1971 76 mins Director: Werner Herzog
Herzog’s intense, dreamlike mediation on desert life as if seen by an alien.
The Last of England The Last of England
Animation & Artists Moving Image 1987 91 mins Director: Derek Jarman
Derek Jarman's passionate and poetic lament on the rise of Thatcherism and corporate dealings.
BFI London Film Festival
The Painted Bird The Painted Bird
Drama 2019 169 mins Director: Vaclav Marhoul
Based on Jerzy Kosiński’s 1965 novel and a long time in the making, Václav Marhoul’s extraordinary The Painted Bird finds a lone Jewish boy on a dark odyssey towards home during wartime.
After Love After Love
Drama 2020 90 mins Director: Aleem Khan
In this knockout feature debut from Aleem Khan, Bafta-winner Joanna Scanlan is the woman who discovers her late husband’s secrets.
La Mif La Mif
Drama 2021 110 mins Director: Fred Baillif
A gripping drama about a group of teenage girls living in residential care, and a powerful examination of the impacts of abuse.
The Prey The Prey
Action and Adventure 2018 93 mins Director: Jimmy Henderson
An innocent man sentenced to rot in a Cambodian jail is released for the sadistic pleasure of twisted trophy hunters and forced to fight – or die.
Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn
Comedy 2021 106 mins Director: Radu Jude
Berlin Golden Bear winner, Radu Jude’s scathing satire finds schoolteacher Emi threatened with dismissal when a private sex tape goes viral.
Bull Bull
Crime 2021 88 mins Director: Paul Andrew Williams
After ten years’ absence, a vicious gangster (Neil Maskell) returns to his old stomping ground to find his son and take revenge on the gang that double-crossed him.
Directed by Peter Greenaway
Eisenstein in Guanajuato Eisenstein in Guanajuato
Biopic 2015 106 mins Director: Peter Greenaway
One of Britain’s most inventive filmmakers, Peter Greenaway, tackles the story of arguably the most influential filmmaker in cinema history, Sergei Eisenstein.
Nightwatching Nightwatching
Biopic 2007 136 mins Director: Peter Greenaway
Martin Freeman’s hearty turn as Rembrandt anchors one of Peter Greenaway’s most accessible films, charting the creation of the Dutch master’s key work, ‘The Night Watch’.
Goltzius and the Pelican Company Goltzius and the Pelican Company
Biopic 2012 117 mins Director: Peter Greenaway
An artist stages a series of erotic dramatisations illustrating sexual taboos from the Old Testament, in this startling and shocking return from director Peter Greenaway.
The Falls The Falls
Animation & Artists Moving Image 1980 195 mins Director: Peter Greenaway
Peter Greenaway's epic first feature, constructed as an excerpt from an imagined, filmic directory listing everyone affected by VUE – the Violent Unknown Event
New
Saint Jack Saint Jack
Melodrama 1979 115 mins Director: Peter Bogdanovich
An American pimp spends his days hustling on the streets of 1970s Singapore, but dreams of more, in Peter Bogadanovich’s sultry screen adaptation of Paul Theroux’s novel.
No Place Like Home: Redux No Place Like Home: Redux
Drama 2019 89 mins Director: Perry Henzell
Perry Henzell’s long-lost second feature is a love letter to Jamaica, as we follow a filmmaker searching the island for a lost actor.
Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne
Drama 1945 87 mins Director: Robert Bresson
Robert Bresson’s tale of sexual intrigue, rivalry and revenge among Parisian socialites, with glittering dialogue by Cocteau.
Dogman Dogman
Drama 2018 103 mins Director: Matteo Garrone
Gomorrah director Matteo Garrone presents a masterful tale of twisted friendship, not-so-petty crime and revenge.
The Trial of Joan of Arc The Trial of Joan of Arc
Historical drama 1962 64 mins Director: Robert Bresson
The legendary story of Joan of Arc is powerfully retold in Robert Bresson’s minimalist masterpiece.
Bull Bull
Crime 2021 88 mins Director: Paul Andrew Williams
After ten years’ absence, a vicious gangster (Neil Maskell) returns to his old stomping ground to find his son and take revenge on the gang that double-crossed him.