Post by klep on Oct 19, 2020 7:33:04 GMT -6
MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 10/19: Daisies
IT'S LADIES' WEEK!
The first thing we see in Vera Chytilová's Dasies is a young woman picking her nose. It gets less reverent from there.
Daisies' plot, to the extent it has one, is that a couple of young women played by non-actors Ivana Karbanová (Marie II) and Jitka Cerhová (Marie I) have decided the world has gone bad, so they might as well follow suit. It's a sequence of vignettes of the two women acting as they please, frolicking, drinking, eating, stealing petty cash, and taking advantage of besotted men. Occasionally they reflect on their actions, but they always come back to their refrain: "Does it matter?"
Dasies is a film with all the energy and inventiveness of a Looney Tunes short, and the anarchic sentiment as well. It cuts between scenes with no regard for human life, leaping to its next set of ideas or spaces when it feels like it. Daisies even plays with reality, most notably in a scene where the Maries cut each other up with scissors. Just by its structure it conveys a lack of reverence for the rules of film and of society in general. The point isn't to have a coherent narrative, it's to explore a philosophical question. Why follow these rules, if they don't matter? If they matter, why do they? And how important is it that they're followed anyway?
Over the course of the film the Maries' behavior becomes more and more wanton, though never causes more damage than some wasted food, broken dinnerware, and a few wealthy men a little lighter in their pockets after buyng an expensive meal for three (and a bathroom attendant missing some pocket change). They're probably also not getting their security deposit back, but there's nothing wrong with their apartment a good cleaning and a few coats of paint won't fix.
Dasies ended up pulled from Czech theaters for “depicting the wanton”, but it pretty explicitly states at the end that the Maries' behavior is unsustainable. Eventually they're going to piss off the wrong person and be forced to make restitution. Acting with sociopathic disregard for others just isn't something that societies easily tolerate unless it accrues power.
But there's one final sting. A last note dedicates Daisies to "those whose sole source of indignation is a trampled-on trifle." And the film's brief framing usage of World War II footage is given its context. The Maries may have been behaving badly - that was their intent, after all - but was it really so bad? If that is what provokes your outrage - perhaps even to the point of censoring a film *ahem* - then certainly you should display even greater outrage when it comes to behavior which causes true devastation. If you don't, then what does that say about you?
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 10/26: Alien
1979 saw the birth of one of the great horror franchises with Ridley Scott's Alien. Join us next week for our discussion of this cinematic classic, available for rent in the usual places.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 10/20: Kajillionaire
Miranda July's latest film is the second subject of the podcast's latest pairing on toxic family situations. Come join us Wednesday for our discussion of this film, available for rent at the usual places.
IT'S LADIES' WEEK!
The first thing we see in Vera Chytilová's Dasies is a young woman picking her nose. It gets less reverent from there.
Daisies' plot, to the extent it has one, is that a couple of young women played by non-actors Ivana Karbanová (Marie II) and Jitka Cerhová (Marie I) have decided the world has gone bad, so they might as well follow suit. It's a sequence of vignettes of the two women acting as they please, frolicking, drinking, eating, stealing petty cash, and taking advantage of besotted men. Occasionally they reflect on their actions, but they always come back to their refrain: "Does it matter?"
Dasies is a film with all the energy and inventiveness of a Looney Tunes short, and the anarchic sentiment as well. It cuts between scenes with no regard for human life, leaping to its next set of ideas or spaces when it feels like it. Daisies even plays with reality, most notably in a scene where the Maries cut each other up with scissors. Just by its structure it conveys a lack of reverence for the rules of film and of society in general. The point isn't to have a coherent narrative, it's to explore a philosophical question. Why follow these rules, if they don't matter? If they matter, why do they? And how important is it that they're followed anyway?
Over the course of the film the Maries' behavior becomes more and more wanton, though never causes more damage than some wasted food, broken dinnerware, and a few wealthy men a little lighter in their pockets after buyng an expensive meal for three (and a bathroom attendant missing some pocket change). They're probably also not getting their security deposit back, but there's nothing wrong with their apartment a good cleaning and a few coats of paint won't fix.
Dasies ended up pulled from Czech theaters for “depicting the wanton”, but it pretty explicitly states at the end that the Maries' behavior is unsustainable. Eventually they're going to piss off the wrong person and be forced to make restitution. Acting with sociopathic disregard for others just isn't something that societies easily tolerate unless it accrues power.
But there's one final sting. A last note dedicates Daisies to "those whose sole source of indignation is a trampled-on trifle." And the film's brief framing usage of World War II footage is given its context. The Maries may have been behaving badly - that was their intent, after all - but was it really so bad? If that is what provokes your outrage - perhaps even to the point of censoring a film *ahem* - then certainly you should display even greater outrage when it comes to behavior which causes true devastation. If you don't, then what does that say about you?
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 10/26: Alien
1979 saw the birth of one of the great horror franchises with Ridley Scott's Alien. Join us next week for our discussion of this cinematic classic, available for rent in the usual places.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 10/20: Kajillionaire
Miranda July's latest film is the second subject of the podcast's latest pairing on toxic family situations. Come join us Wednesday for our discussion of this film, available for rent at the usual places.