“We exist! We exist! We exist!” Věra Chytilová’s Daisies bursts with chaotic energy and vivid color, turning each frame into a bold statement of rebellion and laying the groundwork for Czech New Wave cinema. Chytilová described her film as a “philosophical documentary in the form of a farce,” an experimental and psychedelic protest against consumerism, censorship, and authoritarian control. The mischievous and insatiable Marie I and Marie II revel in destruction and excess, daring viewers to decode the political nuance within their antics, all delivered with a heaping dose of subjective realism. In electric montages swirling with surreal imagery, they lounge in bed, create messes, gleefully take advantage of men, and mock the very idea of order and decorum. A film filled with cut-up sausages, eggs, and fragmented bodies, Daisies critiques gender roles, societal expectations, and commodification, all in the guise of chaotic absurdity. To engage with this film, peeling back layers of subtext from its wild exterior, is to expand the limits of our interpretive imaginations. Czechoslovak government officials took a narrower view, threatening to ban the film from distribution for disrespecting the farmers who produced the food “wasted” during the production. Daisies endures as a manifestation of anarchistic feminism and as a radical exhortation to challenge societal norms and power structures.

Preceded by: “Pests for Guests” (Friz Freleng, 1955) – 7 min – 35mm