A trio of classics circulating in 35mm format from the Czech National Archives offers a rare chance to see two films by one of Europe’s most innovative filmmakers from the 1960s, Vera Chytilová, and a third film by her fellow Czech New Wave director Jaromil Jires. Join us for these experimental narratives that remain as eye-opening today as when they first appeared.
Series organized by Susan Oxtoby. We wish to thank Karel Zima, Czech National Archives, Prague, for the loan of these prints.
Daisies
Vera Chytilová (Czechoslovakia, 1966)
(Sedmikrasky). Daisies is a brightly colored surrealist comedy starring a couple of chicks in search of kicks. Spawned by the Prague Spring, the best friends undertake a quest to find a life different from their previously regimented patriarchal society. Picking up men to fleece for fancy dinners, escaping sexual obligations by hopping trains, chatting up a man on the phone while roasting and cutting sausages in their room, the two are transgressive adventurers and inveterate consumers. They must be seen to be believed: frenzied, obsessive, undaunted until a Boschian ending plunges them into the consequences of their actions. B. Ruby Rich
Written by Chytilová, Ester Krumbachová. Photographed by Jaroslav Kucera. With Ivana Karbanová, Jitka Cerhová, Julius Albert. (74 mins, In Czech with English subtitles, Color, 35mm, From Czech National Archives, permission Criterion Collection/Janus Films)
$5.50 BAM/PFA Members and UC Berkeley, staff, students, and faculty, $6.50 UC Berkeley faculty and staff, non-UC Berkeley students, senior citizens (65 & over), disabled persons, and youth (17 & under), $9.50 Adults (18-64)
Print
Remind me
Add to my Google calendar (bCal)
Share