Boredom, bikinis and a blistering critique of the beauty myth. From its first seconds, Vera Chytilova’s ever-fresh Daisies kicks wickedly against the pricks and feels as if it was made today. This feminist milestone is an anarchic comedy of subversion whose approach to montage is as exuberant as the film’s two protagonists.
An innovative and brilliantly absurd masterpiece of the ’60s Czech New Wave, the film was made three years before the Prague Spring but dissent is clearly in the air. Daisies follows the misadventures of two young women both called Marie (played by Jitka Cerhová and Ivana Karbanová), who rebelliously scam rich dates, cut off their own heads and wreck an official feast. The film’s anarchic attitude saw it banned by the Czech authorities and it stayed under wraps for years.
Some have called the film’s freewheeling rage against the world proto-riot grrrl, and the two Maries (defiantly unholy) are a total riot. If you haven’t caught up with this genuine feminist classic, see why it’s as thrilling now as it was fifty years ago.
All of our screenings are 18+ unless otherwise stated, the film starts at the advertised time above.
