A Casual Introduction to Věra Chytilová

Hey there, how's it going? This is casual. A casual introduction to an important Czech filmmaker who passed away today, Věra Chytilová (1929-2014).

In the last month, I've been thinking and journaling about Věra Chytilová so much that I can spell her last name without checking the internet and sort of pronounce it. She was the Czech film director of "Daisies" and "Fruit of Paradise"-- two feature films with one foot in experimental film and one foot in narrative. 

To the American watcher, Chytilová is the maker of three available movies: Daisies (1966), Fruit of Paradise (1969), and the short film, Automat Svet (1966), which is part of the omnibus film, Pearls of the Deep. Since the rerelease of Daisies (beautifully done by Janus Films or whoever is responsible for that) and of it's soundtrack (by the wonderful Finders Keepers), its reputation has been growing in the last five years or so.

She made a lot more films than that, but I haven't been able to find them even in bootleg fashion. 

Daisies stands out. From descriptions of many of her unavailable films, Daisies remained an unusually bold film for the rest of her career, and many of its attributes were not consistent in her following films. In other words, if you've seen Daisies and want more, get in line. None of us here in the line are really expecting Daisies-calibre awesome shit, though. 

But there is Fruit of Paradise, a beguiling and at least equally unconventional feature she made after Daisies. Fruit of Paradise is for now only available from a Facets DVD, and it's print quality doesn't look great. Maybe its reputation will grow once Janus and Finders Keepers get their hands on it, please?

Fruit of Paradise is a great film but let's talk about Daisies. 

It's an explosion of creativity and inspiration. It's Chytilová's second feature film. Her first in color. Her husband, Jaroslav Kucera, was the cinematographer on it and was a writer on it. They were expecting their first child while making it. And I think that's interesting.  

Another major collaborator was Ester Krumbachová, who worked on the script and design---two big contributions on any film but especially Daisies, since the speeches were the only thing they kept from the script and much of the film plays out in beautifully designed tableaus. Krumbachová was a filmmaker, but primarily a costume designer who worked a bunch of times with Jan Nemec and also did Fruit of Paradise. She's a great, resourceful designer; the more I look at this work the more I admire it. She also co-wrote and designed Valerie and Her Week of Wonders---another amazing film with an amazing soundtrack released by Finders Keepers, and the design is one of the best things about it.

In my readings on Daisies, I haven't found anyone talking about Miroslav Hájek, who edited the film. He also edited Fruit of Paradise and a lot of other big Czech films from the 60's and 70's, like Milos Forman's Loves of a Blonde, for instance. I think it's interesting because Daisies has a lot of razzle dazzle in the editing department. And both Daisies and Fruit of Paradise have Stan Brakhage-esque parts with flash edits and unconventional printing that help define them as experimental films. Which isn't to say Hájek is responsible for them, but it raises some interesting questions.

If you haven't seen Daisies, it's available bootleg-style on youtube multiple times, and lookin good on Criterion's Hulu page and DVD. 

It's a movie that benefits from multiple viewings. It also avoids easy categorization completely. Psychology feels mocked by the film, like consumerism and romantic relationships. So the traditional arch of storytelling, with one event leading to another while the characters learn about themselves and change, is thrown into Chytilová's bonfire. And yet something keeps Daisies from being angry. It magically stays buoyant and wonderful despite trashing everything. Maybe it's because it's so sexy, funny, and unpredictable. It's a dense 74 minutes.

Based on my amateur research, seems like we've got a couple of films bookending her available films to look forward to checking out. Her first feature, Something Different (1963), which Jonathan Rosenbaum wrote influenced Jacques Rivette's Out 1, and The Apple Game (1976), her first film after being banned from making films and the beginning of a more naturalistic style. She made a lot more films after that but its hard to find much info on them. People writing about Chytilová will refer to other things written about her which I can't find anywhere, including something written by Rivette. What I've been able to find was in Peter Hames expensive book The Czechoslovak New Wave, the liner notes of the record for Daisies, and the internet.