A successful young writer is in search of his true destiny. Is it the life with his wife and typewriter in Amsterdam or the offers to go to the dreamworld of the Italian film city Cinecittà which is luring him? Trying to find this out he goes into retreat in the house of a befriended gay couple in the south of France.
Seven authors observe people in a park. A sudden rain shower forces the people into a castle, where they ravage the present books. A wordless short made for the 1965 Boekenweek, an annual event in the Netherlands to promote (Dutch) literature.
ZERO IN THE UNIVERSE is a comedy, a cryptogram–a message in code to the viewer. Who is Zero? What universe? What is the opposition of Zero and his arch enemy, Steinmetz? What does it come from, and where, if anywhere, does it go. The film presents abundant clues, but the answers are never stated. –J. L.
