INDEPTH: TORONTO FILM FESTIVAL
Much ado about nothing
CBC News Online | September 15, 2004
Elida Schogt's Zero: The Inside Story is a movie about nothing. No, it isn't a documentary about Seinfeld – it's an investigation of the number zero. Schogt's film follows a heard-but-never-seen narrator (presumably Schogt herself) as she travels to India to unravel the origins of the indicator of nothingness.
Sounds like an intriguing concept for a film, right? Well, it is. Unfortunately, the idea is better than the execution. The fatal flaw here is that Schogt's film is way too personal. It's obvious, watching Zero, that Schogt is fascinated by the history of her subject, but what this film lacks is a compelling reason for the viewer to care.
There are certainly many opportunities to grab the audience's attention. Zero, it turns out, has a very interesting back story. It is a fairly recent invention, as far as numbers go, and many people have objected to its existence on philosophical and even religious grounds. The Greek sage Aristotle, Schogt tells us, is the villain of the story because he felt zero represented an unthinkable void.
"What secret hides in this mysterious number?" the narrator asks at the outset of the film. That's a good question. Instead of answers, however, what this film supplies is information about Schogt. In a narrative device reminiscent of the novel Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, these details are related in the third person. For example, this is what she says upon her departure: "Would she find the truth in India?"
"She longed to be mesmerized," she says later, which is just another reminder that Zero is an uninvolving piece of work. Then, at the film's climax, Schogt makes a startling revelation about her childhood. But since the shocking tidbit comes out of nowhere, it means literally nothing to the audience.
Perhaps this film would have worked better using a more straightforward format. As things stand, we get arty touches like interviews with mathematicians who are just heads floating in a sea of blackness. Perhaps this is a commentary about the nature of zero, or maybe it's a diversion intended to make us forget that the film is more style than substance.
Zero is central to the life of Elida Schogt. What the filmmaker needed to do was demonstrate how it is central to everyone else's life. Otherwise, zero remains a personal preoccupation without universal appeal.
Two short films preceded today's screening of Zero. One was The Hill, a nice meditation on how two people can perceive the same event in completely different ways. Using two characters, Jack and Jill, director Deborah Chow sketches out a night that changed both their lives. It's hard to believe the film is only 12 minutes long since it packs the punch of a full feature.
The other was Accordéon, a National Film Board of Canada animated production by Michèle Cournoyer. Accompanied by the sounds of a keyboard being tapped and paper being rustled, various shapes morph into others. As with most NFB creations, I don't pretend to know what it means. But this didn't stop it from being an enjoyable diversion.
Dan Brown will be attending the Toronto International Film Festival for its entirety, from Sept. 9 to 18. Throughout the festival he will bring you reports on the latest Canadian films. Read his dispatches and follow his comments by clicking on the links.
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Dan Brown is the site's senior arts editor/reporter. Before joining us he was a lineup editor and senior writer for Newsworld International. Dan helped to launch the National Post's Arts & Life section, where he was a columnist and reporter. A former editorial writer, copy editor and journalism instructor, Dan has degrees from three universities.
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