DAISIES

FREAKY FRIDAYS: YOUR MONTHLY FIX OF CULT FILM

Daisies (Sedmikrásky) is a 1966 Czechoslovakian surrealist psychological comedy-drama film written and directed by Vera Chytilová. Regarded as a milestone of the Czechoslovak New Wave movement, it follows two young women, both named Marie, who engage in strange pranks. Originally planned as a satire of bourgeois decadence, the movie targets those attached to rules and was referred to by Chytilová as "a necrologue about a negative way of life." Daisies also inverts the stereotypical ideas of women and redraws them to the heroines' advantage. The film is considered critical of authoritarianism, Soviet communism and patriarchy, and it was banned from theaters or export in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic.

"Chytilova understands the feminine decorum expected of women in Czech society, and she undermines it at every turn... Irrespective of the film's political specifics, it's this rebellious spirit that feels so fresh."

—Little White Lies

"My favorite Czech film, and surely one of the most exhilarating stylistic and psychedelic eruptions of the 60s, this madcap and aggressive feminist farce by Vera Chytilova explodes in any number of directions."

—Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader