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A Look Into Vera Chytoliva’s film Daisies

The Czech New Wave was a movement in Czech and Slovak cinema of the late 1960s and 1970s. Czechoslovakia was occupied by the Soviet Union between 1948 and 1989, where political conditions made it difficult for filmmakers to work in their home country. The films produced during this time are seen as influential in their critique of the communist government and culture. The overlapping stylistic phases of the Czech New Wave include surrealism, expressionism and poetics. This was an era of cultural revolt and change in film making, paving the way for new ideas and styles. There are many critics out there that have plenty to say about the Czech New Wave, as well as some specific films included in this film movement. In this blog, we’ll get a good idea of how these critics felt about the movement overall and a few of those films too.

Mirek Gosney, from The University of Southampton claims that a shortcoming of the Czech New Wave was it’s ambiguous time frame, as the films equally resist the past, reflect the present, and anticipate the future. The New Wave often has become subject to sentimentalizing sixties nostalgia. Gosney explains that the New Wave also had fragmentary organization, with its filmmakers only assembling on two main occasions: once to defend Daisies (1966) and The Party and the Guests (1966) against dissension charges, and the second time to produce Pearls of the Deep (1965). Gosney felt that the New Wave was destined to remain “unfinished” because it was “evidently unrealistic to preach egalitarianisim with such a hostile political climate unless all fronts are united behind a coherent, long-term cause”. He sees The New Wave as neither reformist nor revolutionary, because the only organization it yielded was further Communist rule. This is a different take on the Czech New Wave than most other ones I have heard before. 

Fernando Gomez, from the Czech Center Museum in Houston, Texas, claims that Jan Nemec’s A Report on the Party and the Guests (1966), is a direct reflection of communist Czechoslovakia’s imposing nature on its own citizens. He explained that it is also an observation of how people are willing to accept things for the way they are when they are faced with such high power. Gomez believes that although the Czech New Wave ended following the Soviet invasion, the directors’ legacy lived on through subsequent films such as Milos Forman’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975). This film contained the same anti-establishment themes as in Forman’s Czech New Wave films. Gomez finished his critique by concluding that in Czechoslovakia, the sixties were an important point in time for film history because it exposed communist Czechoslovakia to the world. He explained that they did this through works of art, daring to criticize a complacent regime full of propaganda. 

Facets co-founder, Milos Stehlik said that ���some people called [The Czech New Wave] the Czech film miracle”. His reasoning for this was because this movement came out of nowhere very quickly after an era of harsh communism. Stehlik believes that there are some directors who did achieve international success, such as Jan Kadar with The Shop on Main street, and Jiri Menzel with Closely Watched Trains, both winning Academy Awards for best foreign-language film. Another film, Daisies (1966), by Vera Chytoliva was a legendary anarchic comedy that was denounced by government authorities, saying that it represented “a road of our cultural life on which no honest worker, farmer, or intellectual would like to embark”. Stehlik explains that it was a testing of limits, and a testing of rules and conventions. Many people felt the same way about this film, as it crossed boundaries people were not expecting it to. 

Vera Chytoliva’s film Daisies, was a playfully subversive take on women’s roles, seeing through a jarring lens. Throughout this film, the two main characters, both girls, run around pranking older men and just laughing at the world around them. There are random jump cuts throughout Daisies, as well as abrupt switches between color and black and white. The look of this film is very different than the predictable ways of the mainstream cinema from that era in Czechoslovakia. Both of the main characters were not professional actors, but not much else in Daisies conformed to the basic Czech approach, seeing how eccentric it is. Chytoliva explained in an interview with writer Antonin J Liehm in 1967 that “we are still living as guests in a man’s world”. When she says “we”, she is referring to women. Christina Newland closes her critique saying that if what Chytoliva said was true, then the women of Daisies would be the world’s worst guests. This is because they jump on the furniture, swing from the chandeliers, and cause much more chaos. This film is like no other during this era, so it is still very fun to watch. 

Trailer for Daisies:

https://youtu.be/cPpPpnVwRgY

Trailer for A Report on The Party and The Guests:

https://youtu.be/COhqThlv_04

food fight in Daisies

https://youtu.be/zm9Gh8Fpy0c

References

https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/kinema/article/view/1232/1554

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/333565786_The_Czechoslovak_New_Wave-_The_Golden_Sixties_or_Beginning_the_Descent_into_a_Postmodern_Abyss

https://www.czechcenter.org/blog/2021/5/17/cinema-under-communism-the-czech-new-wave

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-apr-03-et-liebenson3-story.html

https://filmlifestyle.com/czech-new-wave-cinema/

https://lwlies.com/articles/daisies-vera-chytilova-mubi-ica-light-show/

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A Look at A Later Film of The Czech New Wave

The Czech New Wave refers to a period when young Czech directors made films talking about the absurdities of life under communist rule. This movement started with a film called Closely Watched Trains (1966) by Jiri Menzel, that showed us a young man’s dream of escaping his small town. The main theme of the Czech New Wave is focused on contemporary issues and how the Czech government’s obsession with work makes labor itself lose meaning. Evald Schorm’s The Courage of Every Day (1964) by Evald Schorm is a great example of this theme. 

One of the later films, The Firemen’s Ball (1967), was a little different than the earlier films of this movement. This is because it followed a loose script with improvised dialogue, and had a cast of predominantly non-actors. This film did still encompass the main themes of the Czech New Wave, such as showing how the Czech government takes advantage of the people. There were many scenes in this film that were indirectly making fun of the Czech leadership as everything went wrong. This included all of the women picked to be in a beauty pageant running away as they were getting called up on stage, as well as all the prizes for the raffle getting stolen at the end.

The Firemen’s Ball was quite fun to watch because everything kept going wrong and was just so absurd to me. The scene when the grandpa’s house was on fire was so crazy to me because the firemen at one point thought it was a good idea to bring the grandpa closer to the fire to keep warm, and a whole bunch of people just stood around the house and watched. 

The films in this movement exposed communist Czechoslovakia to the world through works of art, daring to criticize a complacent regime filled with propaganda. 

Trailer for The Firemen’s Ball

https://youtu.be/kGMakTwMRoY

References

https://www.czechcenter.org/blog/2021/5/17/cinema-under-communism-the-czech-new-wave

https://filmlifestyle.com/czech-new-wave-cinema/

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The Influences of Milos Forman and Vera Chytoliva

The Czech New Wave is often viewed as an era of cultural revolt and change in filmmaking that paved the way for new ideas and styles to be incorporated into filmmaking. This movement was characterized by many different yet overlapping stylistic phases, ranging from surrealism and expressionism to poetics. 

Milos Forman, a famous Czech New Wave filmmaker created many great films, such as Black Peter, Loves of a Blonde, and The Firemen’s Ball. Forman immigrated to the United States after the Soviet Invasion of 1968, and began creating films there. In 1984, he produced Amadeaus, which won eight Oscars, including for best picture and best director (Forman’s second one). 

James Mangold, an American film and television director, screenwriter and producer, was influenced by Milos Forman. Mangold worked under Forman (he was Mangold’s mentor) and wrote his film called Heavy during this time. While going through screenplays with Forman, Mangold explained that Milos would tell him what was good and what wasn't. He would explain that it was about finding moments inside the script. Mangold explained to an interviewer that Milos Forman had this great expression that he would say. The expression was “don’t tell me two and two is four, I know two and two is four. A movie should tell me two and two is five, and then explain why”. 

Natalie Portman, who starred in Milos Forman’s Goya’s Ghosts, said that Forman’s film set was an absurdity adventure and that he had phenomenal direction. He was constantly making her laugh and also making her think. The time they spent filming in Madrid, she explained, was one of the most meaningful filmmaking experiences of her life. 

Vera Chytoliva was also a Czech filmmaker during the Czech New Wave and contributed numerous avant-garde films. Chytoliva would often produce work that commented on the political corruption and media censorship of the Czech socialist regime. All of her work was very innovative, making a significant contribution to women’s cinema. 

Her first film, Something Different, exhibited hyperrealistic camera work and was an example of women’s cinema. Peter Hames, a Professor in Film Studies explains that many critics believed that Chytoliva’s films Daisies and The Fruit Paradise were relevant to women’s cinema because of their freedom and intersubjectivity. Daisies was actually banned initially by the Czechoslovakian Government in 1966, but then received the Grand Prix at the Bergamo Film Festival in Italy the following year. 

Both Milos Forman and Vera Chytoliva were very influential in the film industry, as clearly stated above. They contributed greatly to the Czech New Wave by incorporating different elements into their films. Forman and Chytoliva often added political criticism into their works through obscure narratives as well as imagery. Much of their work was not condoned by the Czech Government, however they still became very popular and successful in the world of film. 

Trailer for Daisies

Trailer for Goya’s Ghosts

References

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Valerie and Her Week of Wonders

https://youtu.be/LPyPEraG74c

As previously mentioned in my first blog, the Czech New Wave was an extraordinarily influential movement throughout the 1960s and 1970s. During this movement, there was a change in leadership in Czechoslovakia that resulted in numerous cultural and political reforms, such as abolishing censorship. Because of these changes, truly unique and experimental films were created. 

One of these films is a 1970 surrealist horror film called Valerie and Her Week of Wonders. This film is one of the more obscure cult films in the Czech New Wave, encompassing fantasy and Czech fairy-tale. The films in the Czech New Wave are known to have a boldly radical aesthetic, and Valerie and Her Week of Wonders definitely lives up to that. This film is about a Czechoslavakian teenage girl named Valerie who experiences a sexual awakening after putting on magical earrings. This film brings us on a journey through the beginning of Valerie’s womanhood. Valerie encounters vampires, a priest trying to seduce her, and many more strange beings, including her grandmother who tries to sacrifice Valerie for her own youth. 

At one point in the film, Valerie’s grandmother disappears, and is replaced by her “aunt”, who is actually the grandmother after becoming young again. 

Right when Valerie and Her Week of Wonders came out, people in Czechoslovakia were still getting over the last blast of the Cold War, so it must have seemed like a crazy impossible dream to these people. Jaromil Jires, the director of Valerie and Her Week of Wonders, did not just tell the nightmare of one girl, but of the whole country.

Valerie and Her Week of Wonders is an important coming-of-age film that is very strange, yet uniquely beautiful, which is seen from the strange camera shots and costumes. Throughout this film, feminine symbols such as pearls, flowers, the color white, and blood are shown, symbolizing female sexuality. There are many times in Valerie and Her Week of Wonders where I felt a little weirded out and uncomfortable, but I think Jires did that on purpose. He wanted his viewers to feel a little uncomfortable while watching Valerie encounter strange beings and situations, scavenging through her sexual awakening. This film is not like any other film I’ve ever seen. 

In the very beginning of the film, Valerie is seen walking outside, wearing a white nightgown. She walks by some flowers and then looks back and sees some drops of blood on the flower petals. Valerie then picks up the flower with blood droplets on it and then notices more droplets on the flowers directly below her. She gasps at what has happened, finally understanding what it means: she got her period. She then runs home and we see her lay down in her all white bedroom, no longer a child, Valerie explains to her grandmother. 

Valerie and Her Week of Wonders is based on a gothic novel that mixes high and low arts. It focuses on Valerie’s moods and findings as she watches others engage in sexual activity and gender roles. This film is definitely one of the more “out there” films of the Czech New Wave, showing just how unique and creative this movement really was.

Trailer of the movie:

https://youtu.be/LPyPEraG74c

References

https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2007/cteq/valerie-week-wonders/

https://wkuherald.com/16732/opinion/opinion-valerie-and-her-week-of-wonders-the-strangest-coming-of-age-story-youll-ever-see/

https://garage.vice.com/en_us/article/pajvz9/sex-scenes-valerie-and-her-week-of-wonders

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What is the Czech New Wave?

The Czech New Wave was a movement, between 1963 and 1968, led by daring, rebellious film directors in the 60s. This movement, also known as the Czech Film Miracle, enabled cinema as an art, as well as a form of communication and expression. Starting as a result of a new film school in 1947 (Film and TV School of The Academy of Performing Arts in Prague) and the De-Stalinization of Czechoslovakia in the 1960s, the Czech New Wave conveyed the thoughts and perspectives of the people during this time. The students in the film school had an objective “to make Czech people collectively aware that they were participants in a system of oppression and incompetence which had brutalized them all”. 

In the 1950s, many writers and directors did not favor the authorities because they did not conform to the ideologies of the society. Because of this, those writers and directors were forbidden to make and publish films. Under the communist government, each film produced during this time stuck to the standards, making them boring for those who went to see them. Czech director Milos Forman stated “‘...film produced by the Communist studios in Prague and in Moscow, everywhere in Communist countries… was so artificial, so far-fetched, so unreal and untrue that we only wanted to see some reality, some real people on the screen.’”

The medium of films was revolutionized by this movement with radical concepts, idiosyncratic imagery, and politically aggressive themes. In addition to those, the films in the Czech New Wave explored themes of warfare, conservatism, consumerism, social identity, and ideological conditioning as well. 

Steeped in anti-communist and anti-regime sentiment, the Czech New Wave is most notably known for criticizing the Czech government. An example of this is Jan Nemec’s A Report on the Party and the Guests (1966). This film reflects communist Czechoslovakia imposing on the citizens, and shows how the people accepted them when faced with this power.

This movement is characterized by a variety of subversive masterpieces that take jabs at certain ideologies. As a result, many of the films made during this time were created to show people the truth by criticizing their ruling forces. The Czech New Wave grew to express the disappointment (of the people) with, and alienation from their government.

A few of the key filmmakers of this movement are Jaromil Jires, Jan Nemec, Milos Forman, Vera Chytilova, Ivan Passer, Jiri Menzel, and Jan Kadar. The Fireman’s Ball, directed by Milos Forman, was actually banned by the ruling regime because it was a communist roast. 

Another example, Daisies (1966) expressed the needs of its people and the disobedience toward its circumstances through a hedonistic and absurdist film. This is just one of the numerous films during this time that portrayed the feelings of people in Czechoslovakia. 

The Czech New Wave ended at the end of the Prague Spring following the Soviet invasion. After the nationalization of the film industry in 1945, cinema had become boring. However the Czech New Wave created a turning point in the world of film, often expressing dark and absurd humor, opposing social realist films made in the previous decade. Through these films, communist Czechoslovakia was exposed for their complacent regime filled with propaganda.

References

De Semlyen, Phil, et al. “Movie Movements That Defined Cinema: Czech New Wave.” Empire, Empire, 8 Aug. 2016, https://www.empireonline.com/movies/features/czech-new-wave-movie-era/.

Dhruv Bose, Swapnil. “10 Essential Films from the Czech New Wave.” Far Out Magazine, Far Out, 11 Dec. 2020, https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/10-essential-films-from-the-czech-new-wave/.

Gomez, Fernando. “Cinema Under Communism: The Czech New Wave.” The Czech Center Museum Houston, Czech Center Museum Houston, 19 June 2021, https://www.czechcenter.org/blog/2021/5/17/cinema-under-communism-the-czech-new-wave.

Maurer, Frances. “Daisies: The Audacity of the Czech New Wave.” Film Inquiry, Film Inquiry, 20 July 2020, https://www.filminquiry.com/daisies-1966-review/.

Nair, Aravind. “10 Best Films from the Czechoslovak New Wave.” High On Films, High On Films, 3 Nov. 2021, https://www.highonfilms.com/best-czechoslovak-new-wave-films/.