Cultural Context
By the 1960’s Czechoslovakia had been under a strict Communist regime for around a decade after a coup d’etat was successfully carried out by the Soviet backed Czechoslovak Communist Party in 1948. The period of Stalinization that followed this coup was marked by political trials and executions, the collectivisation of farms, the formation of a politically based education system, and the development of censorship as law. Repression defined Czech society until the Velvet Revolution in 1989 that put an end to one-party rule in Czechoslovakia. Food shortages, political corruption, and media censorship enshrined Czech society for a large majority of the reign of the Czechoslovak Communist Party.
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Prior to the Communist coup, the Czech art scene was diverse and represented a wide variety of artistic styles. Visual artists had close ties to the West and were permitted to travel freely and during this time the avant-garde and abstract expressionism were the primary styles of artistic expression. After the Czechoslovak Communist Party took control, the art world was reorganized to be a “politically controlled public institution.” Abstraction was considered to be a form of bourgeois formalism and the regime attempted to force art and culture to serve the purpose of furthering Communist ideals. ([[Svasek 385]])
Towards the end of the 1950’s and in the beginning of the 60’s, a climate of liberalization began to emerge in Czechoslovakia both within the Czech Communist Party and Czech society. These desires for liberalization propagated a widespread desire for the abolition of censorship and a movement to a more democratised society. With this brief relaxation of censorship, Czechoslovakian artists and filmmakers in particular took advantage and kicked off the Czech New Wave film movement.
The Czechoslovakian New Wave movement was spearheaded by a young generation of filmmakers coming out of the Film Academy of Prague (FAMU). Film flourished particularly in Prague as compared to other Eastern European socialist states because it was the only socialist state to emerge from WWII with its film infrastructure in tact. Prague historically possessed a strong film tradition, and the relationship between filmmakers and artists of all other media was intertwined and allowed for enriching collaborations. The students of FAMU collectively set out to make films that broke convention stylistically, while commenting on or critiquing the state. Many films of Czech New Wave aligned themselves with more experimental tendencies also as a way of disguising the content of their films and in effect dodging censorship enough to distribute their film.
The Czech New Wave movement ended in 1968 with the Prague Spring, a mass chain of protests against the corrupt Communist state of Czechoslovakia, where political leaders and citizens attempted to liberalize and reform the state but were shut down when the Soviet Union lead an invasion to end the movement towards liberalization.
Vera Chytilova’s "Daisies" (1966), exemplifies the social state of Czechoslovakia leading up to the Prague Spring. Daisies aims to comment on food shortages, frivolity, and the bourgeois class while breaking convention in its use of editing, plot structure, and character.
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More on the cinematic ripples sent out by the creation of "Daisies" [[here]].
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[[Sources|Svasek 385]]Works Cited
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Prague Spring.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 7 Mar. 2018, www.britannica.com/event/Prague-Spring.
Goulding, Daniel J. Liberated Cinema: the Yugoslav Experience 1945-2001. Indiana University Press, 2005.
Roberts, Adam. “Daisies.” The Metropolis Times, The Metropolis Times, 22 Sept. 2012, www.themetropolistimes.com/the-metropolis-times/2012/09/22/daisies.
“The Films of Věra Chytilová.” East European Film Bulletin, 9 Dec. 2018, eefb.org/retrospectives/The-Films-of-Vera-Chytilova.
“In Praise of Daisies.” Little White Lies, lwlies.com/articles/daisies-vera-chytilova-mubi-ica-light-show/.
“Vera Chytilová for Beginners.” British Film Institute, www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/features/vera-chytilova-beginners.
“Věra Chytilová's Daisies (Sedmikrásky, 1966).” East European Film Bulletin, 4 Jan. 2019, eefb.org/retrospectives/vera-chytilovas-daisies-sedmikrasky-1966/.
“CZECHOSLOVAK NEW WAVE.” New Wave Film.com | French New Wave / Nouvelle Vague and International Cinema of the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, www.newwavefilm.com/international/czech-new-wave.shtml.
Owen, Jonathan L. Avant-Garde to New Wave: Czechoslovak Cinema, Surrealism and the Sixties. Berghahn, 2013.
“Dada.” Artsy, www.artsy.net/gene/dada.
Mann, Jon. “What Is Surrealism?” Artsy, 23 Sept. 2016, www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-what-is-surrealism.
Svašek Maruška. Styles, Struggles, and Careers: an Ethnography of the Czech Art World, 1948-1992. M. Svašek, 1996.
[[Home]]Legacy
Daisies seems to presently exist within a greater fabric of films born from political unrest that aim to provoke some kind of change or dialogue within the society they relate to. Strict censorship led to the film being banned for seemingly promoting the destructive and wasteful tendencies of the two Marie’s. In conjunction with the banning of the film, Chytilova herself was not allowed to make films for six years. Considering many of the other films that exist within this fabric, Chytilova’s Daisies seems to be comparatively passive and easily digestible in its critique of the restrictive and suffocating society fostered by the Communist state. The real power of Chytilova’s Daisies seems to lie in its experimental and chaotic collage style editing. The style of the film itself is an act of rebellion, Chytilova’s choice to incorporate elements of Dada and Surrealism directly refutes the Czechoslovak Communist Party’s condemnation of abstraction and their desire for artists to simply be a mouthpiece for the values of the state.
<img src="http://www.newwavefilm.com/images/czech-daisies.jpg"/>
What has carried the impact of Daisies from Prague during the 60’s into the light of present day film critics and enthusiasts is its common perception as “an explosion of feminist merry-making ([[Newland|Svasek 385]]).” Daisies is frequently championed for criticising gender and hierarchy through the implementation of excess, chaos, and disorder. While it seems Chytilova intended the film to be a moral critique of the protagonists and rejects characterizations of her work as feminist, there is a common reading of the destruction and frivolity of Marie 1 and 2 as a kind of liberating means of rebelling against repressive social structures.
Just in terms of style and Chytilova’s desire to subvert narrative, connections can be drawn to other films that aimed to subvert convention through the employment of unconventional stylistic choices. The collage style visuals of Daisies bear a striking resemblance to [[some of the work of Ken Russell]], particularly in his films Altered States (1980) and Lair of the White Worm (1988). Russell implements this collage and cut and paste style editing to represent fantastical spaces, dream realms, and internal universes.
With its influences of surrealism, the unsettling editing and manipulation of reality that is present the film, "Daisies" is inextricably linked to Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dali's "[[Un Chien Andalou]]" (1929)
The mischevious duo of Marie 1 and Marie 2 seems have inspired a trend of films that star a team of two female friends who tend to wreak havoc upon society in an attempt to gain some kind of understanding or clarity about themselves and the state of the world. Check out some of those films [[here|teengirlmovies]]
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[[Sources|Svasek 385]]Daisies
"Daisies" is a Czech New Wave film written and directed by Vera Chytilova. The film is renowned for its unconventional and striking editing style and its commentary on the communist regime that controlled Czechoslovakia from 1948 to 1968.
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The film portrays the everyday chaotic and mischievous acts of Marie 1 and 2: going on dates with older men for dinner and then ditching them, setting things on fire in their room, crashing a fancy banquet, cutting each others heads off. The film captures a sense of rebellion and carelessness.
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[[Cultural Context]]
[[Influences]]
[[Legacy|here]]
[[Sources|Svasek 385]]Influence of the Surreal
Influences of the artistic movements of Dada and Surrealism are evident in “Daisies,” particularly in its editing style, collage effects, use of color, sound, and juxtaposition. The primary goal of surrealism was to free the human mind from “the oppressive boundaries of rationalism,” and held the belief that the qualities of the irrational, unconscious mind were superior to reason and individualism (Mann). In a similar vein, Dada, born post World War I, encouraged artists to embrace the absurd and to aim to subvert “...traditional formal strategies and concepts of artistic meaning” (Artsy). The rigidity and uniformity inspired in society as a result of WWI is comparable to the strict and repressed society fostered in Czechoslovakia under the Czech Communist Party. A significant amount of the work that belongs to Dada and Surrealism performs a deconstruction of reality, often through the lens of the hyperreal. The collage style editing and narrative of Chystilova’s “Daisies” is a literal deconstruction of reality. Both the characters and their environments are cut apart and reassembled that assigns new meaning, but at the same time further confuses the narrative.
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"Son of Man" Rene Magritte (1946)
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"Daisies" Vera Chytilova (1966)
Socialist realism, or the glorified depiction of values based on communism, was a style ingrained in the culture of Stalin-Era socialist countries. Despite vast differences in style, to Czech New Wave Filmmakers, art was inherently political. When the oppressive political regime utilized realism to assert its goals and values, Czech filmmakers frequently resorted to fantasy, absurdism, surrealism, and Dada to assert their contrasting values. Vera Chytilova’s “Daisies” is no exception.
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[[Sources|Svasek 385]]Ken Russell and "Daisies"
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"Altered States" Ken Russell (1980)
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"Daisies" Vera Chytilova (1966)
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[[Back to Legacy|here]]"Un Chien Andalou" and "Daisies"
<img src="https://cdn.pastemagazine.com/www/articles/2019/07/24/un-chien-andalou-century-main.jpg"/>
"Un Chien Andalou" Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dali (1929)
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"Daisies" Vera Chytilova (1966)
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[[Back to Legacy|here]]Femme Duo Films Possibly Inspired by "Daisies?"
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"Ghost World" (2001) Terry Zwigoff
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"Ginger Snaps" (2001) John Fawcett
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"Jennifer's Body" (2009) Diablo Cody
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[[Sources|Svasek 385]]
[[Back to Legacy|here]]