Review of Daisies (1966)

Moving picture, 74 minutes

Seen in 2016.

Proto-punk feminist arthouse. Surprisingly breezy in its Švankmajerian playfulness despite and because of its formalist games, but I suppose it wouldn’t have been a hit if the leads had been less physically attractive. The final frames, dedicating the film to everyone whose greatest source of outrage is people who won’t keep off the grass, is a brilliant declaration of its purpose. I cannot read the original Czech; it’s often translated as trampling on lettuce, or—in the Cinemateket print I saw—trivialities; I’m guessing that daisies might be included in the implied flower bed or meadow.

References here: Full patte (2014).

moving picture fiction