Daisies (1966) — A Fantastical Avant-Garde Feminist Piece

☆☆☆☆☆

Věra Chytilová's 1966 satirical milestone of the Czechoslovak New Wave follows two young girls, Marie I and Marie II (Jitka Cerhová and Ivana Karbanová), as they play bizarre and anarchic pranks, such as scamming old men to get free food, in revolt of the world being spoiled.

Spoilers ahead.

Opening with footage of war and a flywheel, before jarringly cutting to Marie I and Marie II in bathing suits, overlaid with creaking noises, doll-like movements, and deciding to become spoiled in protest of the world being spoiled, Daisies immediately sets its tone as abstract and abrupt. Stylistically, it's like a collage. A mash of various images and pictures juxtaposing the Maries antics. In a time of socialist realism in the USSR, this kind of work was unbelievable. It follows very little actual form or plot. I mean, it goes scorched earth with it. Jarring cuts, non-linear narrative, and a difficult plot to follow. I find it charming, but I see why others would decide against that.

In a world where women are recurringly infantilised, treated as lesser beings, as dolls, Daisies works to up the ante in such a bizarre way that it weaponises it, calling out just how absurd those portrayals are. While immature, infantile, Marie I and Marie II both have full autonomy, act without consequences, act fully and hedonistically. Men get to do that, why can't they? They mess with older guys to get free food, they mess with them for the sheer fun of it, like cutting up various phallic-shaped foods and eating them while a man calls, infatuated with one of them, and gorge themselves almost disgustingly. It's a real subversion in how women were portrayed then and still are now.

Daisies is a remarkable movie, with gorgeous colouring, sets, editing, everything. This movie makes me think that I'm really not living my life to the fullest.