Daisies

Cast & Crew

Jitka Cerhová

Marie I

Ivana Karbandova

Marie II

Julius Albert

Man About Town

Vera Chytilová

Director

Vera Chytilová

Writer

Ester Krumbachová

Writer

Jiri Slitr

Original Music

Jaroslav Kucera

Cinematographer

Miroslav Hájek

Film Editing

Vera Chytilová

Screenwriter

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Critic Reviews for Daisies

Audience Reviews for Daisies

• Nov 24, 2018

  It is no surprise that this cheeky, daring and visually stylized film (which has no defined plot) was banned in Czechoslovakia upon its release, since it is centered on two anarchic, unruly teenage girls who do whatever comes to their mind, not what any man (or society) wants.
  

  Super Reviewer
• Jul 08, 2012

  "Daisies" is an experimental film from Czechoslovakia about two young women(Ivana Karbanova & Jitka Cerhova) who mostly just hang out all the time in their apartment(one might have a job or not), in one case literally. For food, they conspire to get free meals out of middle aged men before sending them on their way at the train station. All of which is shot in black and white and color and everything in between with any number of filters, accentuated by sound and visual effects. This is all very playful and that's pretty much it. Well, except for the opening and closing sequences which contain archival shots of aerial bombardments. To paraphrase the epigraph at the end of the movie, compared to people killing each other in a war, what these two women get up to is so minor that it is not worth complaining about. Since "Daisies" was made in 1966, maybe it has little to do with what was going on in Czechoslovakia at the time but maybe elsewhere like the escalating war in Vietnam, especially considering this was two years after the infamous 'Daisy' political ad.
  

  walter m Super Reviewer
• Jun 06, 2012

  Two living dolls decide the world is spoiled and so they will be too, leading to nonlinear slapstick adventures drinking, feasting and searching for a sugar daddy. Psychedelic, surreal, silly, sexy; so much absurd hedonistic fun that it was banned by the Czech censors.
  

  Super Reviewer
• Mar 29, 2012

  Made in 1966 Czechoslovakia, director Vera Chytilová's surrealist "Daisies" was banned by the Czechoslovakian government soon after it's release. Not that it was so unusual for the soviet Czech government to ban films, but looking back now, it's hard to understand what their specific beef was. Granted, there are no overt proletarian ovations to be found here, but nor is it some sort of secret capitalist conspiracy. Inspired by the French new wave, it could most closely be considered some sort of nihilistic farce, but even that might be too specific a classification for a film so mysteriously vague. Daisies defies categorization as such. It seems to stem directly from the id of it's director, who doesn't so much explain things as she does allow them to happen. As abstract as whatever the story might be, the filmmaking process is hyper-detailed. Scenes of apparent little consequence are crafted with such fine attention to the miniscule minutiae of background scenery. It could almost be considered obsessive-compulsive the amount of effort put into the "fine print" details. The film arbitrarily switches from black-and-white to various "strip" shades of color; images are filmed through various lenses, in effect, demonstrating great proficiency in the technological art of film craft. It would be almost impossible to deny there is an art to the madness happening on the screen. But what of the "story"? Well, two bored girls eat a lot, then pursue various older men for the purpose of somehow toying with their hearts. They sometimes go to visit a motherly figure who lives in a woman's public restroom and sings all her dialogue to them about how lovely and young they are. Finally, they stumble upon a large, empty banquet room where a feast has been laid out and is unattended. They help themselves to the food and destroy everything in the process. "Why", you ask? I cannot say with any certainty. This is a film of the subconscious, there's no rhyme or reason, save whatever the filmmaker was feeling at the time. It's up to the individual viewer to determine what the film actually means. All I can say with certainty is, the film gives us a look into the gently mischievous moments of youth.
  

  Super Reviewer