Sameer Callahan
It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.
Nayan Gough
A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.
Sanjeev Waters
A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.
Joseph Pezzuto
"We're young and we've got our whole lives ahead of us!" Perhaps the most anarchic entry and explosive eruption of the Czech New Wave of the 60s was Věra Chytilová's disjunctive pop art feminist farce Sedmikrásky (Daisies). The film follows the misadventures of two seventeen-year- old girls in raccoon eye makeup in communist Czechoslovakia: the lively brunette Marie #1 (Jitka Cerhová) and the bob cut, flower head wreath-wearing Marie #2 (Ivana Karbanová). Is this film just a psychedelic buffoonery glorifying woman power or does it contain a deeper meaning? Let's take a look.Believing the world to be "spoiled", the duo of bored, brash childlike women embark on a series of zany pranks and pratfalls in which nothing and anything done or discussed is taken seriously. They also take advantage of any unfortunate older men of whom cross their path as well, using their money and spending it on food or fashion. Scenes are tinted in various colors; our scissor-happy character's heads float in mid-air; a montage of colorful images sporadically flash before our eyes. In one of the most memorable scenes, they enter into a large empty room uninvited in which holds a lavish gourmet banquet and expensive bottles of wine and champagne. They then partake in an eventual food fight, throwing and destroying artisan desserts, making a mess and destroying the room in utter glee (an homage to Laurel and Hardy) as they slurp up costly drinks with nonchalant gusto as trumpets from what seems like the soundtrack from a propaganda film blare triumphantly. Afterwards the girls tear off the curtains and hold a fashion show on the elongated table, dancing and stomping on the remaining food in their high heels. Here were are to gather a sense of when this film came out and what was going on in this area of Europe at the time regarding oppression, incompetence and political liberalization of which had brutalized everyone. The girls dancing on the remains of the once well-crafted, mouth-watering cuisine presumably set for communist officials represent the people's disregard and dismissal to strict communist propaganda and overall control in the hopes of a better tomorrow as a nation. Chytilová as director was in this being her most famous film. It was considered a milestone of the Nová Vlna movement and was innovatively filmed and released two years before the Prague Spring. The film held nothing back in its exuberance, absurd humor and heavily implied message, and was labeled as "depicting the wanton" by the Czech authorities and banned. Chytilová was forbidden to work in her homeland until 1976, although the film did go on to receive the prestigious Grand Prix of the Belgian Film Critics Association. Aesthetically and politically adventurous, hedonistic, kaleidoscopic and dreamlike, Daisies is still widely considered one of the great and daring works of feminist world cinema.
Andres Salama
Director Vera Chytilova's anarchic feminist film from the mid 1960s (right before the Czech new wave movement was broken by the Soviet Invasion that ended the Prague Spring) is hard to describe in terms of plot. Basically, it's about the various antics and gags of two young women. The victims of their practical jokes tend to be established society in general (which exists even in a socialist system as was Czechoslovakia at the time), and older men in particular. Aggressively experimental, the movie uses several types of film stocks, even in a single scene, as well as in your face editing cuts. There are several anti-phallic gags (with the girls cutting while giggling sausages, bananas, etc.) as well as an apocalyptic food fight (the girls seem to have a particular obsession with food). It's fun, imaginative, subversive, but even at a running time of less than half an hour, tiresome at times.
Jason Forestein
I worry about being the lone voice of dissent in regard to this film. It makes me think I might be wrong, especially since people whose opinions I respect enjoy this film. I think it's garbage.The film follows two Maries as they embark on their route to badness. What they do, though, isn't particularly malevolent or, I'd say, bad. They string men along, more or less, behave outrageously/obnoxiously at bourgeois entertainment, and use scissors frequently. There are some not so subtle nods to castration here and there and some not so subtle undermining of traditional feminine ideals.I fear that summary makes the film sound somehow worthwhile. The fact is that the movie brings nothing new to these topics and, really, barely scratches the surface of being a woman in the Soviet bloc. The filmmaker is, ultimately, more concerned with the superficial "pleasures" of psychedelic film making (lots of colors and odd noises) than the plight of women during the Communist era. And the psychedelic style seems to be the end unto itself. Not that Vera Chytilova got that right either. The film seems more like a high school stoner art project than anything else.Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One does a much better job of exploring psychedelia and a much better job of creating the anarchic joy Daisies aims for. It seems like the director was shooting for Bunuel and wound up with, oh I dunno, a Jefferson Airplane album.The Czech New Wave, a grossly overpraised movement in terms of film quality, is besmirched by this movie, with its inane pretensions and obnoxious tedium. It looks bad (the framing is, um, nonexistent; it's as if the director never learned to compose an interesting shot) and it does a grave disservice to politically-charged film making.
NateManD
Vera Chytilova's 1966 film "Daisies" is a surreal, psychedelic Dada explosion from start to finish. The story concerns two teen girls, both named Marie; who act goofy and play slapstick pranks everywhere they go. They take guys on dates to see how obnoxious they can act, before making the men leave. They love food, and these beautiful ladies aren't afraid to eat. Rock on girls! This film is highly trippy and experimental. I love Czech films, but this one is my personal favorite. It is an underrated masterpiece that is rarely talked about. Not only does it have powerful female characters, it's one of the most unique films of the 60's Czech new wave. It uses lots of camera tricks, filters, abstract symbolism and stock footage; for a unique cinematic experience. It also uses food in bizarre juxtapositions. Because of all the food used as art, the film caused Chytilova to be blacklisted. The Czech government said the film was a waste of food and lacked an important message. Oh well, you can't make everyone happy. The camera tricks in this film look similar to the techniques later used in some music videos. My favorite scene in the movie is when the girls crash the banquet hall. They stuff there faces full of food, and it almost turns into a food orgy. If your looking for a good time, "Daisies" is a great film. It's bizarre, colorful, chaotic and filled with laughs. A true Czech masterpiece. Now if only I could visit Prague.
