Zorns Lemma (1970) Characters, Setting & Themes Explained

Release, runtime and language

1970 · 60 mins · English

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Directed by

Hollis Frampton

Starring

Twyla Tharp, Joyce Wieland, Rosemarie Castoro, Robert Huot, Marcia Steinbrecher

The 1970 American structuralist film by Hollis Frampton, named after the set‑theoretic Zorn’s lemma, opens with a reading from an early grammar textbook. The largely silent body presents an evolving 24‑letter “alphabet,” swapping i‑j and u‑v, cycling and expanding the series. It concludes with a man, a woman and a dog walking in snow while several voices recite passages from Robert Grosseteste’s On Light (The Ingression of Forms).