Daisies
Věra Chytilová’s stunning surrealist “necrologue” of femininity in revolt
“We’ll have to think of a worse kind of life.”
It’s difficult to feel sane and stable in our current era, with all that’s happening or not happening; it’s easy to feel as though the world has become a spoiled and unyielding place devoid of empathy and grace. This isn’t new; though the world continues to throw inventively bleak and troubling bullshit our way, filmmakers have been using the medium to break down and critique societal failures since the form's invention. In the 1960s, Czechoslovakian cinema was in the midst of a “new wave” boom, seeing the rise of new voices like Miloš Forman, Jaromil Jireš', and Věra Chytilová creating films that challenged and satirized life under the communist regime. Chytilova’s landmark film DAISIES uses surrealism and dark, absurdist humor to question the indulgences and indifferences of the privileged members of society during an era of unrest, war, and lack.
What’s the film about? Great question! Like all good art, the film asks far more questions than it answers. Two young girls, both named Marie, find themselves bored and despondent in the face of the world’s “spoiled” nature, so they decide to become just as “spoiled” as the world. The two proto-Jokers embark on a series of disruptions, pranks, and grotesque feasts while rejecting the patriarchy and seemingly losing their minds. The relationship between the Marie’s blends elements of queerness, anarchy, radical indulgence, and destruction into a pureed pulp of insanity that’s up for interpretation. Heralded as an arthouse feminist masterpiece, DAISIES was initially banned for its subversive “attacks on establishment values.” The film is now considered one of the greatest avant-garde art films ever made. And now you get to say you’ve seen it on the big screen and really be a cinephile. Not that that matters. Is that something that matters? “Do you really think it matters?”
Event Links
Tickets: https://go.evvnt.com/3496507-0
Website: https://go.evvnt.com/3496507-2
