the main characters of Vera ChitilovaThe hilarious, anarchic 1966 comedy of daisies Two beautiful young women, both named Marie (although they are given pseudonyms in the film itself). Marie I (Zhitka Cherkhova) is a brunette with pointed lips who wears her hair in girlish pigtails. Marie II (Ivana Calbanova) has a strawberry-blonde bob and habitually wears a corolla. After the intro sequence, where the credits run to roaring machines and World War II footage, the film cuts to Marie and the others sitting against a wooden wall like dolls in a toy box (you can hear the creaking of their joints). ), lamenting the “spoiled world” and becoming determined. to win my game. Thus the stage was set. On a dreadful day in Czechoslovakia, two equally terrifying (but strangely likable) girls set out for a purpose. deliberately cause trouble.
nevertheless daisies has been accepted as a feminist classic, but Chitilova resented the description. He was a notoriously nasty person who thought of himself as such.An overheated kettle that can’t be refused’” she variously described her film.A necrolog about a negative way of life“and”A philosophical documentary in the form of a farceBut as a female director in the 1960s and as an artist fighting against censorship by the communist government (alongside directors such as Chitilova) Milos Forman and Izzy Menzel, part of the Czech New Wave, a film scene that blossomed in a brief moment of relative liberalization before the Soviet army sent in tanks), where Kitilova captures Marie’s chaotic energy and playful flamboyance. When you match, you can’t help but feel the game recognizing the game. and surreal montages. Like Chitilova herself, the Maries reject the rules and expectations imposed by the world, defy convention, and follow their desires wherever they go.
The Maries exploit and subvert what society expects of women
Marie and her friends move through the world like a combination of a pin-up model and a trickster god. They ruin a date with a wealthy old man, gobble up expensive desserts, and then see them off at the train station, where a tearful goodbye turns into giddy laughter. They rock out at cabaret performances, blow bubbles into their drinks, and steal the show from the performers with their own dances. Marie II is a wealthy young pianist and butterfly collector who plays string instruments (Jan Kursak), she loves her desperately, even though she mostly just wants to know if he has food. (“How about a jam?”) When not threatening the most eligible bachelors in Prague, the Maries hang out in their Collage Art apartment, where they write phone numbers on the walls and discuss death over milk. and cut off the head of each. Others are scissors. (They are fine, don’t worry.)
The Maries play femininity with their angelic looks and the most hilarious and annoying laugh on our side. AmadeusBut it feels like this performance was just a joke by hilarious pranksters. We call it “malicious gender compliance.” They exaggerate some of the feminine clichés while subverting others to suit their own needs. Society expects men to pay for dates, so the two make the most of it. Society expects women to be youthful and innocent, so they act like overgrown children for their own enjoyment. But society also expects women to be gentle and sensitive, but those two words can never describe a tornado of vices like Mr. and Mrs. Marie. One particularly memorable moment is when they are putting on their makeup in the girls’ bathroom, the quintessential place of female friendship, where they quickly steal another woman’s handbag. Rejecting the selflessness and society’s collectivism expected of women, the Murrays act for themselves. It may be the same that other people do not exist.
‘Daisies’ is pure experimental fun
Chitilova matches Marie’s chaotic energy every step of the way. daisies is a fun kind of experimental film. Full of surreal presentations and unique touches, it really feels like anything could happen. The opening scene shows Marie I violently slapping Marie II as she teleports to the Garden of Eden in a jump cut that goes from black and white to full color. (The film goes back and forth between them throughout.) As Marie II blows bubbles into her drink, the overflowing bubbles are shown as a shimmering stream of iridescent confetti. Elsewhere, a train ride becomes an Impressionist color stain. Occasionally, dizzying montages burst through the film like galloping buses, flicking butterflies and curled papers to music or in complete silence. At one point, Marie and the others frantically cut through the film itself with scissors, fragmenting the action into tiny, wavy blocks.
It all culminates in a scene in which Marie and the others stumble upon a banquet apparently intended for state officials. As they do with nearly all food in the film, they fist-eaten seafood or tear roast chicken apart and gobble it up in the slopiest and clumsiest way possible. Eventually, their revelry reaches new heights. Treat the table as a catwalk and throw cakes at each other while swinging from the chandelier. Finally, just as the heat is at its peak, the scene cuts to two girls in the lake looking frightened and apologetic, promising that everything will be fine from now on. But you should never bet on Mr. and Mrs. Marie being normal. In fact, when they’re back in the banquet hall, cleaning up the clutter while whispering socialist bromides like Smeagol, it feels like they’re doing a little bit. Finally, Marie and the others are ostensibly crushed by a chandelier, but it’s hard to believe that death affects these delightful demons. It might be nice to mourn Bugs Bunny.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, last year’s word of the year was “goblin mode”: Born from a joke post that says, “A form of unapologetically selfish, lazy, slovenly, or greedy behavior, usually done in a way that defies social norms and expectations.” Kanye West and Julia Fox, as a coping mechanism for pandemics, as a middle finger to late capitalism, as an act of radical feminism, there are many considerations of Goblin Mode. But the Murrays have beaten us all by almost 60 years, and I doubt they’ll think too much about it. They may have gone into goblin mode in response to “the spoiled world,” but in the end it was an affirmation of the simple fact they proclaimed to themselves as they marched through the city. we exist! we exist! ”
