I worry about being the lone voice of dissent in regard to this film. It makes me think I might be wrong, especially since people whose opinions I respect enjoy this film. I think it's garbage.
The film follows two Maries as they embark on their route to badness. What they do, though, isn't particularly malevolent or, I'd say, bad. They string men along, more or less, behave outrageously/obnoxiously at bourgeois entertainment, and use scissors frequently. There are some not so subtle nods to castration here and there and some not so subtle undermining of traditional feminine ideals.
I fear that summary makes the film sound somehow worthwhile. The fact is that the movie brings nothing new to these topics and, really, barely scratches the surface of being a woman in the Soviet bloc. The filmmaker is, ultimately, more concerned with the superficial "pleasures" of psychedelic film making (lots of colors and odd noises) than the plight of women during the Communist era. And the psychedelic style seems to be the end unto itself. Not that Vera Chytilova got that right either. The film seems more like a high school stoner art project than anything else.
Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One does a much better job of exploring psychedelia and a much better job of creating the anarchic joy Daisies aims for. It seems like the director was shooting for Bunuel and wound up with, oh I dunno, a Jefferson Airplane album.
The Czech New Wave, a grossly overpraised movement in terms of film quality, is besmirched by this movie, with its inane pretensions and obnoxious tedium. It looks bad (the framing is, um, nonexistent; it's as if the director never learned to compose an interesting shot) and it does a grave disservice to politically-charged film making.
The film follows two Maries as they embark on their route to badness. What they do, though, isn't particularly malevolent or, I'd say, bad. They string men along, more or less, behave outrageously/obnoxiously at bourgeois entertainment, and use scissors frequently. There are some not so subtle nods to castration here and there and some not so subtle undermining of traditional feminine ideals.
I fear that summary makes the film sound somehow worthwhile. The fact is that the movie brings nothing new to these topics and, really, barely scratches the surface of being a woman in the Soviet bloc. The filmmaker is, ultimately, more concerned with the superficial "pleasures" of psychedelic film making (lots of colors and odd noises) than the plight of women during the Communist era. And the psychedelic style seems to be the end unto itself. Not that Vera Chytilova got that right either. The film seems more like a high school stoner art project than anything else.
Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One does a much better job of exploring psychedelia and a much better job of creating the anarchic joy Daisies aims for. It seems like the director was shooting for Bunuel and wound up with, oh I dunno, a Jefferson Airplane album.
The Czech New Wave, a grossly overpraised movement in terms of film quality, is besmirched by this movie, with its inane pretensions and obnoxious tedium. It looks bad (the framing is, um, nonexistent; it's as if the director never learned to compose an interesting shot) and it does a grave disservice to politically-charged film making.