Daisies (Sedmikrásky, Věra Chytilová, 1966, Czechoslovakia)

Banned by Czech authorities for its subversive takes on gender, government, and society at large, Věra Chytilová’s surreal, satirical comedy Daisies is a high-water mark of the Czech New Wave. The film’s farcical plot follows two women, both named Marie, as they scam their way through the sort of roguish hijinks usually reserved for male antiheroes. Vowing to be just as rotten as the rotten world, the Maries spend 75 gleeful minutes manipulating men for food, money, and fun.

Part wicked joyride and part indulgent feast, the timeless charm of Daisies is all but superficial. The film shares a critical lens on the totalitarianism of the Czech state with contemporary artists like Milan Kundera, though Chytilová’s reality as the first woman to graduate as a director from Prague’s prestigious and patriarchal Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts (FAMU) undoubtedly shapes the feminist middle finger bubbling throughout the film’s candy-colored filters. In Czech with English subtitles. (75 mins., 4K DCP)

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