Product Description

Vera Chytilová's classic of surrealist cinema comes to Second Run DVD in an all-new digital transfer with improved picture and sound. A satirical, wild and irreverent story of teenage rebellion. Two young women rebel against a degenerate and oppressive society, attacking symbols of wealth and bourgeois culture. A riotous, punk-rock poem of a film that is both hilarious and mind-warpingly innovative, Daisies was banned in native Czechoslovakia and director Vera Chytilová was forbidden to work until 1975. Special features include; New filmed interview with director Vera Chytilová; Booklet essays; All new director-approved digital transfer from original negative materials with restored picture and sound.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4628 in DVD
• Released on: 2009-06-01
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Black & White, Colour, Full Screen, PAL
• Original language: Czech
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 76 minutes

Synopsis
An acclaimed comedy-drama revolving around two teenage girls who decide that since the world is spoiled they will be spoiled as well. A series of destructive pranks ensue.

Review
Extremely funny, witty and expertly-fashioned film displays a remarkable control of filmic language, special effects, rhythm and sight gags. --Variety

Review
Freshly humorous and accessible a key film in the Czech New Wave movement... A surrealist comedy way ahead of its time --All Movie Guide

Customer Reviews

fantastic
I saw this film on TV when I was about 15 (about 17 yrs ago!) and have been trying to track it down ever since. I didn't know anything about art house films or foreign films back then, but this film totally captivated me. It was so mad, but in a good way because it represented a desire we might all have at times- to have fun and forget rules for a while. It was so refreshing to see women totally free and silly, and literally messing up the order and pomp of the male business world. If you are feeling serious and want to loosen up, this is the film to see. Just wish they would bring out a region 2 version of the film so I could see it again!

A brilliantly mad little film
The Czech New Wave bloomed out of nowhere and was brutally suppressed just as suddenly. After Daisies, Chytilova directed a number of films which were duly banned indefinitely before, tragically, kow-towing to her government's ridiculous censors and softening her approach. That she never left her country as many of her contemporaries did (perhaps most famously Milos Foreman) is both inspiring and sad.

Daisies is a mad little film. It's about two young women who take it in turns to go on dates with rich men. The other then invites herself along also and they proceed to wreak cheeky, anarchistic havoc wherever they go. The uninhibited, slap-dash, try-everything invigoration of Chytilova's direction surpasses anything from Godard or Truffaut. I didn't even know there was a Czech New Wave until I found this. It was a wonderful revelation. The film ends with the girls spectacularly trashing a lavish banquet before swinging maniacally from the chandelier. It's allegorical potency need not be specific: I read it as a simple, wonderful freedom. It deserves to become an instigative tag-line:
"Daisies?"
"Daisies." Cue havoc and hilarity.


I don't know anyone else who's seen this. It deserves more attention. I know the French New Wave was hugely significant and seminal (Chytilova was obviously familiar with it) but many other film movements (the Polish New Wave, for example (See Wajda)) seem neglected by the masses. I wonder how this favouriting of the French movement become as total as it did.

Tedious, Pretentious and Over Rated
The scene with the two girls at the start of Daisies looks like something drama students at a sixth form college would cobble together. It sets the tone for this over rated and pretentious film. These self-centred and unlikeable characters serve as vehicles for Vera Chytilová's supposedly feminist ideology. Apparenlty sponging off men in restaurants is 'empowering' for women... ha ha. Chytilová's gender discourse culminates with the two girls cutting up representations of male genetalia with scissors and knives... how intelligent.

Chytilová doesn't seem to know how to set up shots or how to maintain viewer interest. 'Daisies'' supposed 'psychedelic' properties drew me to it but to be honest you could have a more interesing psychedelic experience with a child's kaleidoscope than you could with this film.

The fact that Daisies is often mentioned in the same bracket as Jaromil Jires' 'Valerie and her Week of Wonders' is a real insult to the latter - a sumptuous cinematic masterpiece ... and for a far more intelligent and visually sophisticated represantation of the roles that women have sometimes been subjected to in society see Makaveyev's 'Sweet Movie.'

The DVD also has a documentary in which Chytilová comes across as a real bore. Don't waste your money on this film like I did.