Details

Release year: 1985

Storyline

Twin zoologists lose their wives in a car accident and become obsessed with decomposing animals.

Top credits

Directors

Peter Greenaway

Writers

Cast

Brian Deacon — Oswald Deuce
Eric Deacon — Oliver Deuce
Andréa Ferréol — Alba Bewick
Frances Barber — Venus de Milo

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Did you know

• Early in the movie, we are shown a front-page newspaper article about the deaths of the protagonists' wives. This front page also contains sidebar articles detailing events from two of director Peter Greenaway's subsequent films, The Belly of an Architect (1987) (the article headlined "Architect Dies") and Drowning by Numbers (1988) (the article headlined "A Hot Bath Heart Attack").

• References to Greek Mythology: Alba Bewick is referred to as "Leda" (in Greek mythology, Leda gave birth to twins Castor & Pollux after being seduced by Zeus in the guise of a swan); in the film, Alba decides to name the twins she gives birth to as "Castor & Pollydeuces" (in reference to the mythological Gemini twins Castor & Pollux).

• This film was Peter Greenaway's first collaboration with cinematographer Sacha Vierny, who went on to shoot virtually all of Greenaway's work in the 1980s and 1990s, until Vierny's death in 2001. Greenaway referred to Vierny as his "most important collaborator".