The film most emblematic of the freedoms afforded artists by the then imminent Prague Spring, Chytilová’s best-known film is a glorious Dadaist revolt against dominant narrative genres and modes of representation. Two young women embark upon an anarchic rampage, joyously exploiting a string of hapless men; chaos and wanton destruction ensue.
Preceded by A Bagful of Fleas (Pytel blech, 1962, 45 mins). Shot in a teenage girls’ boarding school attached to a cotton mill, this quasi-vérité Věra Chytilová short anticipates both Daisies and Miloš Forman’s A Blonde in Love.
CaSFFA is proud to screen Daisies and the digital restoration of A Bagful of Fleas, courtesy of the National Film Archive in Prague, in partnership with the Melbourne Cinémathèque. Admission will be via Cinémathèque membership.
Daisies will be preceded in Canberra by Oratorio for Prague (Oratorium pro Prahu, dir. Jan Němec, 1968, 29 mins).
