I’m kicking off 2023 by trying to watch and review one movie every day for the first 90 days, all of which will be 90 minutes or less.
Title: Daisies
Release Date: December 30, 1966
Director: Věra Chytilová
Production Company: Ústřední Půjčovna Filmů | Kouzlo Films Společnost
Summary/Review:
In this cornerstone film of the Czech New Wave, two waifish young women – Marie (Ivana Karbanová) and Marie (Jitka Cerhová) – determine that the world is spoiled so they will be spoiled too. What follows is a series of vignettes in which the Maries cause mayhem while fulfilling their hedonistic desires. This includes A LOT of eating. Their episodes are intercut with found footage and collages as well as switches from color to black & white and various tints and filters.
This style of film should feel familiar to anyone familiar with music videos, but must have been shocking to audiences in the 1960s. Like a lot of performance art there’s a message in all of this nonsense that’s not readily apparent to me, but it is clear that they are undermining the notion of femininity. Apart from that, the movie is very funny. Karbanová and Cerhová have fits of malicious laughter that is just hilarious. So find your good friend with whom you get into good trouble and watch this together!
Rating: ****
Panorama of the Mountains 