Symmetry in Zed and Two Noughts is used by Peter Greenaway as a symbol of duality as well as a symbol of destined reunification between opposing elements. 

            Like Belly of an Architect, the composition aims for a symmetrical unity, disregarding the typical “rule-of-thirds” framing.  Greenaway and Vierny take advantage of the lead brothers for their natural on-screen symmetry emphasizing the visual composition of the sets.

            Amy Lawrence describes the use of symmetry in a critical overview of Greenaway’s work: “Oliver and Oswald’s relationship is spelled out through mise-en-scene.  Using mostly long shots, Greenaway stresses the brother’s position within the frame.  The exaggerated symmetry when the brothers are in a shot together draws our attention to the relationship between the actors and the sets, encouraging us to read the scene… as a visual composition.”1  Similarly, scenes with the twins at Alba’s bedside are structured upon a symmetry in which she represents the central axis of the frame. Alba is the mediating element between the brothers, controlling the relationship between them. The circle – such as the halo that appears over Alba’s head in almost all the bed shots symbolizes her role in the union Oswald and Oliver.  As the brothers’ differences and physicality begin to merge, Alba is no longer needed as the mediating element – the brothers are shot alone.

            In addition, the film’s thematic content is split into a series of contradictions or dichotomies: Black (the absence of all colours) and White (the presence of all colours), Birth and Death, Growth and Decay, Science and Art, and Zed (the last letter) and Nought (the first number).2  Ultimately these dichotomies come together or compliment each other by the climax of the film.  The revelation that he Deuce brothers were once Siamese twins separated at childhood is once such example of reunion.  The brothers merge over the course of the film, in likeness and in personality.  As their obsession with symmetry increases, they ask Van Meergen to join them together again.  When he refuses, Venus de Milo (who has the name of an armless sculpture, to contrast Alba - the legless woman) sews them a special suit to regain their lost symmetry. However, this is only a temporary solution.  In order to complete the symmetry and conclude their ultimate experiment, the brothers commit suicide, ending their lives simultaneously – in the same manner as their birth. Thus, the film has come full circle, framed by the deaths of husbands and wives.

             Another example of symmetry that Greenaway uses to structure A Zed and Two Noughts, is the mirroring of the letters ZOO.  In the first half of the film the giant blue letters “ZOO” loom in the background, but in the second half, we see them from behind as “OOZ.”  This exchange echoes Oswald Deuce’s comment when viewing the rotting prawns; they are “on their way back… to ooze,” referring to the primordial soup previously described in a documentary.  Greenaway purposely uses this symbol to frame the film into halves, which are mirror images of each other.

Allison Janes, 2008