Daisies (film)

Daisies (Czech: Sedmikrásky) is a 1966 Czechoslovak comedy-drama film written and directed by Věra Chytilová. Generally regarded as a milestone of the Nová Vlna movement, it was made with the support of a state-sponsored film studio and follows two teenage girls (played by Jitka Cerhová and Ivana Karbanová), both named Marie, who engage in strange pranks.

Innovatively filmed, and released two years before the Prague Spring, the film was labeled as "depicting the wanton" by the Czech authorities and banned. Director Chytilová was forbidden to work in her homeland until 1975. The film received the prestigious Grand Prix of the Belgian Film Critics Association.

Plot summary

The opening sequence is that of a spinning flywheel with shots of airplanes strafing the ground. The shots of the airplanes are from US Navy footage shot in the Pacific Theatre during World War II. The first scene shows the two main characters sitting in bathing suits. Their conversation is robotic and from that point on they decide to be bad. The next scene shows Marie I and Marie II dancing in front of a tree. The tree has many fruits and resembles the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Once Marie I eats from the tree, they both fall and appear in their apartment. There is significant action here, with Marie I looking through the window at a parade and Marie II eating. The next few scenes are all similar. They show the two girls on a date with an older man, a 'sugar daddy'. Marie II eats voraciously and Marie I eventually starts acting like her, eating a lot of food.

The girls eventually go to a nightclub with 1920s-style dancers and cause a ruckus. Marie II also goes to the apartment of a man who is a butterfly collector. In this scene, there are a lot of butterflies shown as still frames. At the end, she says that she wants to eat. Later on, they go to a factory. There are still frames of locks, and the building looks run down. They look for "nourishment" and stumble upon a feast presumably set out for communist leaders. They eat the food, make a mess and destroy the room. It then cuts to them being dunked in water like witches. They decide to go back and make everything right again, and at the end a giant chandelier crushes them.

Cast

• Jitka Cerhová as Marie I
• Ivana Karbanová as Marie II
• Marie Češková
• Jiřina Myšková
• Marcela Březinová
• Julius Albert as Man About Town
• Dr. Oldrich Hora
• Jan Klusák
• Josef Konicek
• Jaromír Vomácka
• V. Mysková

Home media

Though made available in some VHS and DVD editions over the years, a new and restored DVD reissue was finally published in 2009 by Second Run DVD, featuring a director-approved version with improved English subtitles and other special features.

References

External links

• Daisies at the Internet Movie Database
• Daisies at Turner Classic Movies
• 2009 DVD reissue at Second Run
• 2007 edition, Japanese official site
• Koresky, Michael. "Criterion Collection Essay". Retrieved 27 April 2012. 
• Trailer of the film in Art Days