#1157: CHYTILOVÁ, Věra: Daisies (1966)

CHYTILOVÁ, Věra (Czechoslovakia)
Daisies [1966]
Spine #1157/Eclipse Series 32
Blu-ray


If the entire world is bad, why shouldn’t we be? Adopting this insolent attitude as their guiding philosophy, a pair of hedonistic young women (Ivana Karbanová and Jitka Cerhová), both named Marie, embark on a gleefully debauched odyssey of gluttony, giddy destruction, and antipatriarchal resistance, in which nothing is safe from their nihilistic pursuit of pleasure. But what happens when the fun is over? Matching her anarchic message with an equally radical aesthetic, director Věra Chytilová, with the close collaboration of cinematographer Jaroslav Kučera, unleashes an optical storm of fluctuating film stocks, kaleidoscopic montages, cartoonish stop-motion cutouts, and surreal costumes designed by Ester Krumbachová, who also cowrote the script. The result is Daisies, the most defiant provocation of the Czechoslovak New Wave, an exuberant call to rebellion aimed squarely at those who uphold authoritarian oppression in any form.

76 minutes
Color
Monaural
in Czech
1:37:1
Criterion Release 2022

Director/Writers

Story by Věra Chytilová and Pavel Jurácek.
Screenplay by Ester Krumbachová and Chytilová.
Chytilová was 37 when she directed Daisies.

The Film

a

Film Rating (0-60):

60

The Extras

The Booklet

Twelve-page wraparound featuring an essay by critic Carmen Gray.

Commentary

Featuring film scholars Daniel Bird and Peter Hames.

Interview

With film programmer Irena Kovarova.

Documentary 1

From 2002 about director Chytilová.

Documentary 2

About the artistic collaboration among Chytilová, DP Jaroslav Kučera, and screenwriter Krumbachová.

Two short films

From 1962 by Chytilová: A Bagful of Fleas and Ceiling.

Trailer

Extras Rating (0-40):

39

60 + 39 =

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