Press Release Criterion Press Release: Daisies (1966) (Blu-ray) (1 Viewer)

[Robert Crawford]

If the entire world is bad, why shouldn’t we be? Adopting this insolent attitude as their guiding philosophy, a pair of hedonistic young women (Ivana Karbanová and Jitka Cerhová), both named Marie, embark on a gleefully debauched odyssey of gluttony, giddy destruction, and antipatriarchal resistance, in which nothing is safe from their nihilistic pursuit of pleasure. But what happens when the fun is over? Matching her anarchic message with an equally radical aesthetic, director Věra Chytilová, with the close collaboration of cinematographer Jaroslav Kučera, unleashes an optical storm of fluctuating film stocks, kaleidoscopic montages, cartoonish stop-motion cutouts, and surreal costumes designed by Ester Krumbachová, who also cowrote the script. The result is Daisies, the most defiant provocation of the Czechoslovak New Wave, an exuberant call to rebellion aimed squarely at those who uphold authoritarian oppression in any form.

FILM INFO

• Czechoslovakia
• 1966
• 76 minutes
• Color
• 1.37:1
• Czech
• Spine #1157

BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES​

• New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
• Audio commentary featuring film scholars Daniel Bird and Peter Hames
• New interview with film programmer Irena Kovarova
• Documentary from 2002 about director Věra Chytilová
• Documentary about the artistic collaboration among Chytilová, cinematographer Jaroslav Kučera, and screenwriter Ester Krumbachová
• Two short films from 1962 by Chytilová: A Bagful of Fleas and Ceiling
• Trailer
• New English subtitle translation
• PLUS: An essay by critic Carmen Gray
  
  New cover by Jillian Adel

11-01-2022

 

[Robert Crawford]

See on Amazon

 

[seangood79]

Never heard of this title, I'm intrigued, but not enough to blind buy.
Do we know if the Criterion Channel is streaming the 4K restoration, or the master they used for the Eclipse Series DVD?

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Never heard of this title, I'm intrigued, but not enough to blind buy.
Do we know if the Criterion Channel is streaming the 4K restoration, or the master they used for the Eclipse Series DVD?

No idea, but it does look pretty good (as far as streaming via TCC goes)... like it could be from the same new transfer...

Since sounds like you probably have TCC, why not just watch it on there and see for yourself?

IF you don't have TCC and are wondering if it's worth trying, I certainly think so, especially if there are plenty of Criterion titles you don't want to blindbuy... although TCC only cycles thru the Criterion catalog, not keeping everything available at all times -- they do also cycle through some other interesting, non-Criterion catalog titles though...

_Man_

 

[Robert Crawford]

Added Pre-Order Link!

 

[JoeStemme]

This new restoration is having a brief theater run. Got to see it on the big screen.

Here's my review:


DAISIES (1966) - Vera Chytilova's ground-breaking film has been newly restored and is playing in limited theatrical release as it heads for a Criterion Blu Ray in November. It's a superb restoration with rich textures including just enough film grain to keep it authentic looking.

Chytilova's extraordinary film was a key component of the Czech new wave of the 60s - a movement not as famous as that of France or Italy, but all the more remarkable coming under the thumb of a communist government. Milos Forman, Ivan Passer and Jiri Menzel were the most famous of the filmmakers, but Chytilova holds a special place as the work of a strikingly original female Director (also, unlike many of her contemporaries, she never left her homeland).

DAISIES grabs one's attention right from the opening with two young women both named Marie (Ivana Karbonova - the “blonde” and Jitka Cerhova - the “brunette”) seated and talking about how the world has gone wrong and that it's time for them to go “bad”. What follows is a series of anecdotes, seemingly disconnected montages and extended skits. The actresses are exuberant and incredibly expressive, especially with their eyes (exaggerated makeup is used to emphasize them even more). Chytilova shoots this with an almost absurdist avant-garde free-flowing flair. Color and Black & White. Various filters and tints. Jagged jump cuts. Sound effects. Discordant music. The cabaret sequence is well-choreographed and beautifully sustained. A scene involving cut-outs is as striking as anything in 60s cinema. The characters are constantly slicing and dicing objects and the Director is distoring and re-colorizing the images in all ways imaginable. Chytilova is not only experimenting with the film medium but simultaneously critiquing what the objects represent.

At first, DAISIES may seem like Chytilova is simply making a 'girls want to be free and have fun' loose fairy-tale. And, on that level, it certainly works with the women using their wits and whiles to grift older men into giving them lavish meals and to just toy around with society in general. Food is their sex. Their drug. Chytilova herself rejected the notion that this was a feminist statement - she stressed that it was about individualism. Still, the vision of two free-spirited women acting out their desires with heedless impulsive abandon -- and with a female director at the helm certainly evokes so much. This is a classic that isn't a homework for the viewer. It's as joyous now as it was 50+ years ago.

Slyly, over time (the movie is only 74 minutes long), Chytilova's true themes emerge. The Daisies' endless food appetite is clearly a metaphor of how the communist elites used their power and influence to gorge themselves at the expense of the proletarians. The crusty old ruling class embodied by the bumbling old fools the women scam. The symbolism is quite open in the grand set-piece - a huge glutenous buffet laid out in a large banquet hall. The Daisies finally have found their seats at the table.

It's hardly a shock to find out that the government banned the film, despite its international success. The irony that the state banned DAISIES because it wasted food is one for the ages. Of course, Chytilova had the last laugh. DAISIES endures, as does the spirit of the dual Maries.

DAISIES is in limited theatrical release with a new Blu Ray of this restoration coming in November. The previous restoration is available to stream on HBO Max, Kanopy and Criterion Channel as well as for rent.