P. O. V.

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MAY

DAISIES (Sedmikrsky, 1966) Directed by Vera Chytilova If you can't beat them, join them! Ever so often there comes a flm that defes categorization. An oddity so perfectly realized, so profound in its effect, that like a glitch in cinema time and space it prompts us to ask how ever did this flm get made? Neither bowing to the whims of the commercial market place, the screed of the critics' pen, or the oppressive political dictates of the ruling party, Vera Chytilova's dbut feature, Daisies (1966) is such a flm. Its premise: Having deemed everything in the world to be out of whack, two young women, Marie I and Marie IIprotagonists too nave to be cruel, but perhaps too painfully self-aware to be considered innocentembark on a series of mischievous adventures to combat their boredom. They too will be bad. We watch as the two in anarchic Marx Brothers' style toy with wealthy older men, romp through felds, and most memorably engage in the apocalyptic food fght to end all food fghts. They will not be stopped. No unassuming passerby will be kept safe from their impish ways. They will out do (undo) themselves. Their mantra and justifcation for their moral decadence: If the world around us has chosen to go bad then, logically, why shouldn't we? Chytilova's landmark is regarded today as one of the high marks of The Czechoslovak New Wave (1960 1970), a flm movement whose stunning achievements and lasting infuence, while perhaps less frequently cited than its midcentury contemporaries (Italian Neorealism, French New Wave, Kitchen Sink Realism, Japanese New Wave, etc.) is no less relevant. With such notable flmmakers as Jaromil Jire, Ji Menzel and Milo Forman, Czechoslovak New Wave directors sought a clean break from the stodgy confnes of Socialist Realism. Their flms, while certainly political in their own right, would seek to do more than merely propagandize. Stylistically varied and thematically rich, no other single flm movement casts as wide a net. With its use of non-professional actors, frank handling of societal taboos, and sardonic tone theirs was an effort to inject real human life and blood into the stories of everyday peoples and to question a defunct status quo. But if the flms of The Czechoslovak New Wave can be said to be radical, Daisies is the New Wave's patron saint. Cutting much deeper than its peers Daisies is an early feminist work by and about women which dares to say what no other New Wave flm didThe patriarchy had outstayed its welcome. The time had come for a new alternative. Notable for its lurid use of color it's decoupage like editing and inventive sound design one need not look very closely to see Chytilova hard at work. In the end, Daisies, as personifed by its two Maries, is a flm at play, a play of pure inventiveness. It is a flm which, even as it charms, confounds its viewer, taunting him, existing in spite of him, daring to push the very limits of what flm is and might beB.P. Runtime: 74mins.

SEE ALSO: At Land (Deren, 1944) The Sun Is A Net (Uher, 1962) Intimate Lighting (Passer,1965) The Shop On Main Street (Kadr & Klos, 1965) The Firemen's Ball (Forman, 1967) The Loves of a Blonde (Forman, 1965) The Joke (Jire, 1969) SUPPLEMENTALS: The Czech New Wave: Political Cinema with a Human Face List of Czech New Wave Titles Closely Watched Trains (Menzel, 1966) Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (Jire, 1970) The Ear (Kachyna, 1970) Riddles of the Sphinx (Mulvey, 1979) A Report on the Party and the Guest (Nemec, 1966)

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