I was recently recommended the 1966 Czech film Sedmikrásky or Daisies, by a lovely lady and what a fantastic recommendation it was! Vera Chytilová’s famously banned film is about two sisters who one day decide that since the world is bad, they should become bad too. They engage in a number of conscience-free high jinks ranging from fake dinner dates with sugar daddies to setting their apartment on fire. There is plenty of food gluttony in this film. Those bitches are HONGRY! Visually stunning and fucking weird as fuck are two of my favorite ingredients for foreign cinema. On top of that I felt like I was on drugs! This was one of those films I couldn’t stop screencapping because every scene looked like celluloid dessert, so allow me to now force feed your eyes. Open wide!
Since we always gotta talk about FASHIONZ up in here, I just have to say that the girls looked cute in every scene. 1966 will of course bring some cute dresses. This movie makes me want to wear a daisy crown.
Naturally by the end of the film I was left trying to analyze everything: the girls being portrayed as robotic dolls in the beginning, their constant fixation with scissors and cutting things paperdoll-style throughout the film, the basic theme of female rebellion and then up until the very end when they are outfitted in pieces of paper [what does that symbolize?!] during their attempt to clean up the destruction of the dining hall, a scene which was voiced-over by some spooky OCD-type whispering, followed by their meeting with fate. However, the lack of plot and character exploration along with the faux-high feeling it produced just made me do an F U middle-finger-80’s style at the television and just sit back and enjoy the imagery. The end scene in the banquet hall also reminded me of something that would happen IN OUR COMIC BOOK WORLD by the way.
Anybody else loved this movie as much as I did? How are Vera Chytilová’s other films? Anything as good as Daisies to recommend to your dear friend Miss Marie?
4 Comments
Tanya
August 12, 2008 at 11:11 pmYes yes YEEES! So glad you loved it.
You reminded me to clear out my draft folder on the blog and release my first installment of food fight scenes from movies & TV shows. It is in dire need of expansion, but was inspired by Daisies. I’ll link to your post there.
Tanya
August 12, 2008 at 11:14 pmOh, and as far as the final scene, I feel that the pieces of paper means that they were glued back to pieces, after tearing themselves to shreds. They were decoupaged and patched up, because it’s clear that their attempt at clearing up the banquet is a way of them to resist “going bad.” The voices are repetitious and devoid of personality, which is kind of reminiscent of how society drills morality into its youth without giving much opportunity for questioning or reflection.
Shaun
August 13, 2008 at 7:21 amVery nice blog! And LOVE the pictures!
Michael
August 13, 2008 at 11:58 amThis sounds like Crime & Punishment meets La Grande Bouffe meets Heavenly Creatures meets something I’ve never seen before. I gotta check out this film (and your blog more often).