"We're young and we've got our whole lives ahead of us!" Perhaps the most anarchic entry and explosive eruption of the Czech New Wave of the 60s was Věra Chytilová's disjunctive pop art feminist farce Sedmikrásky (Daisies). The film follows the misadventures of two seventeen-year- old girls in raccoon eye makeup in communist Czechoslovakia: the lively brunette Marie #1 (Jitka Cerhová) and the bob cut, flower head wreath-wearing Marie #2 (Ivana Karbanová). Is this film just a psychedelic buffoonery glorifying woman power or does it contain a deeper meaning? Let's take a look.Believing the world to be "spoiled", the duo of bored, brash childlike women embark on a series of zany pranks and pratfalls in which nothing and anything done or discussed is taken seriously. They also take advantage of any unfortunate older men of whom cross their path as well, using their money and spending it on food or fashion. Scenes are tinted in various colors; our scissor-happy character's heads float in mid-air; a montage of colorful images sporadically flash before our eyes. In one of the most memorable scenes, they enter into a large empty room uninvited in which holds a lavish gourmet banquet and expensive bottles of wine and champagne. They then partake in an eventual food fight, throwing and destroying artisan desserts, making a mess and destroying the room in utter glee (an homage to Laurel and Hardy) as they slurp up costly drinks with nonchalant gusto as trumpets from what seems like the soundtrack from a propaganda film blare triumphantly. Afterwards the girls tear off the curtains and hold a fashion show on the elongated table, dancing and stomping on the remaining food in their high heels. Here were are to gather a sense of when this film came out and what was going on in this area of Europe at the time regarding oppression, incompetence and political liberalization of which had brutalized everyone. The girls dancing on the remains of the once well-crafted, mouth-watering cuisine presumably set for communist officials represent the people's disregard and dismissal to strict communist propaganda and overall control in the hopes of a better tomorrow as a nation. Chytilová as director was in this being her most famous film. It was considered a milestone of the Nová Vlna movement and was innovatively filmed and released two years before the Prague Spring. The film held nothing back in its exuberance, absurd humor and heavily implied message, and was labeled as "depicting the wanton" by the Czech authorities and banned. Chytilová was forbidden to work in her homeland until 1976, although the film did go on to receive the prestigious Grand Prix of the Belgian Film Critics Association. Aesthetically and politically adventurous, hedonistic, kaleidoscopic and dreamlike, Daisies is still widely considered one of the great and daring works of feminist world cinema.

This Czechoslovakian film featured in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die was one I certainly did not know anything about regarding the plot or storyline, but when I read a little about it had some good feedback from the critics and it was one I looked forward to trying out. Basically the story revolves around two teenage girls both with the same name, Marie I (Jitka Cerhová) and Marie II (Ivana Karbanová) both have seemingly robotic personalities, but when it comes to their attitude towards life it is very immature. Almost the entire length of the film sees the two Maries cause all kinds of havoc for their own amusement and to the irritation and embarrassment of others, but they also find themselves on occasion in the arms of vulnerable men who want more serious relationships with them. Marie I and Marie II eat from a supposedly forbidden fruit tree (like the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil), they eat vigorously with no real manners including many odd looking foods, they outperform some professional dancers trying to entertain, they behave like pests with some restaurant waiters, they mess up and destroy a few rooms ready for guests, and they play tricks on a man about town (Julius Albert) (and some others) that they pretend to want relationships with but really they just use. In the end, after so much trouble making and pranks the two girls really learn a nasty lesson when they are killed by a large chandelier falling on and crushing them, but they were planning to put things wrong that they did wrong, this obviously came too late. As the two young childish and very naughty teenagers Cerhová and Karbanová give very believable performances, the film does most of the time feel rather weird and because of its destructive and anarchic material it was at the time banned by the Czech authorities, but now it is seen as an interesting alternative and surreal comedy film. Very good!

One of the most vibrant and fun art house films you are ever likely to see. Vera Chytilova was merging feminism, nihilism, psychedelic color filters, collage aesthetic, and silent film slapstick into a one of a kind film about two young girls named Marie who decide to self destruct, and be just as wicked as the world. They con men into buying them lunch and ditch them at train stations, get drunk in posh nightclubs, set their beds on fire, and lay siege to whole banquets(this latter bit got the film and the director into a lot of trouble with the Soviet Czech government for "wasting food"). Anyway this is an energetic and vibrant film as you're likely to find anywhere, and unlike so many great euro art films, this is as fun to watch as it is think about afterwords. I've shown this movie to a lot of people and I've never had a complaint, it clocks in at just over an hour, so if you've got the time, go for it. It's a one of kind experience(in fact the worst part of this movie is the cover).

'Daises' is the most ingenious women movie ever made. The key for watching the movie is to immediately accept the two women as real. Every second in this movie is a statement, so it overwhelms the spectator whether he/she likes it or not. Keep up with Vera C. (the director) because willingly or not she discloses the most precious secret of women's mind. The only condition is that you must like and enjoy her two women (girls). It is a privilege to watch this forty year old movie. The movie was done long before any consensus was reached about the social status of women. The seemingly chaotic world brings out the most essential needs. Vera C. brings us the best out of the'theater of absurd' stream. I think Samuel Beckett would have been impressed with this Experiment.