Daisies (1966)
Review of Daisies / Sedmikrásky (1966), directed by Vera Chytilová
Avant-garde film and art are some of my absolutely favorite things in the world. I think there is something so fascinating about the fact that creative people could just create something absolutely strange to mainstream society, something so outside the norm, and drive home very specific points.
And perhaps that’s what we’re getting here with the movie Daisies, which was an early entry to the incredible Czechoslavakian New Wave of cinema that occurred in the late sixties and seventies. As someone also fascinated with concepts of femininity and girlhood in film and literature, this was the perfect movie to watch.
The director was actually banned by the Czech government from making work, but she continued to do so. Powerful women with statements to make are always met with resistance by the ones in charge, so good for her. We love women making representative pieces about other women. This movie was highly controversial, but let’s dig into why exactly that’s the case.
Two young women named Marie try to make sense of everyday life in a capitalist and patriarchal society.
If that does not make your ears perk up and think, wow, I need to see this movie, then you’re in for losing out on a very special movie. Daisies follows a series of vignettes about these two young women, who, at first, seem very shallow and very in the trained eye of a patriarchal society.
They talk about their appearances, makeup, and clothes. They are first seen in bikinis going out to swim, and, after a brief intermission, decide that because the world is spoiled that they, too, must become spoiled. This sets the scene for the movie, as it is a series of events where these two basically try to live up to this expectation they want to meet about being spoiled.
The first step in this master plan is one of the Maries decides she wants to try and date an older man. This ends up in a hilarious situation, as the second Marie also shows up to their white tablecloth dinner and it gets pretty weird quickly.
However, it is important to note that this is a scene that repeats itself through the movie. The Maries find themselves in situations where they would be spoiled with upper-class things, but when actually presented with said opportunity, they look very out of place in this society they’re chasing.
But in this scene specifically, the second Marie just shoves her face full of food while making fun of this guy, who looks slightly uncomfortable at the entire situation. And when it’s time for them to go home, the first Marie sneaks off with the other Marie and leaves this guy in the dust.
This theme of the two Maries interacting with men much older than them, juxtaposed with the youthfulness of going to clubs and bars, is present throughout the film. They resist any kind of sexual gaze in the movie, choosing to leave these men behind after the dates/situations they encounter them on, and I’m sure you could do a sexuality study on these two. I personally wouldn’t because I like the solace in platonic female friendship as these two sigh and moan about how the world sucks, so you can do some research on that if you’d like.
Both Maries also put on a very big act; we only see them truly themselves when alone with each other, like in the scene where they just lay in milk. They speak in high-pitched voices and try to make themselves appear more desirable (whether it’s cutesy or sexual) to the men that appear in their lives.
We also see them acting like puppets or robots; I interpreted this as thinking about what society expects of these two young girls, and how they may be potentially feeling driven by the need to fit into society.
There is no theme as to how the movie is filmed as well. A lot of it is in black and white, but then it’ll switch to color or strange tints in the middle of the film. This pairs well with the nature of how chaotic the scene changes are.
You feel disoriented when a scene changes because of how jarring it is, and they don’t have any connector (like you may switch into a completely new topic quickly, which some may find hard to stay along with the story).
Overall Thoughts
I quite like Daisies. I think that it’s a charming, quirky movie that reveals a lot in a satire-esque way about how women are treated and viewed in society.
The Maries and their antics I found to be quite entertaining and offered a lot of thought provoking conversations about the meaning of the world they lived within, so I’d recommend the film to anyone even vaguely interested in the content.
