14 January 2010

Daisies.

Is it true that the moon is a detached piece of the Earth? If it isn't, believe anyway that it is, just for a moment. The relationship between most normal mainstream cinema and Daisies is the same as the relationship between the moon and the Earth. Chytilova's film was formed by the materials of cinema, but it exists solitarily, orbiting a greater mass.

This is a liberation of a different sort, not for example exclusively liberated from one thing. Because it's so impractical and impertinent in nature, it feels critical, maybe it's slightly critical, owing to its political context, but I don't think it's a critical film. I think that its total liberation lends itself to the idea that the film is a sponsorship for anarchy. How cute! Two girls, inviting older men out to dinner, and then ditching them at train stations, and in between discussing men, invisibility, etc, and going on crazy adventures, can be interpreted on deeper, more sinister levels.

Say that about a contemporary American comedy. Just try it.

These two amiable, adorable Czech girls, who go on a series of hilarious, entertaining escapades, are the conduits for the film's extraordinary, expansive depth. The reason Daisies feels framed within greater dimensions is because the quest of the two Maries is the essential point of anarchy: lawlessness, independence. Their terrain is limitless. How do you know you exist Marie, you aren't registered, you don't have a job. I exist Marie, because I am here with you. Essentially.

The narrative is anecdotal, and the filmmaking is playful. A shade of green in apples becomes a green-tinted image of the girls. Green apples in water become green apples on a plate. A trip becomes a sit. A train journey becomes a magical, colorful segue. Scissors cut into the film, rearranging the characters on screen. The girls seem to be able, in part, to manipulate the reality of their existence. The control they exercise in their narrative journey to become bad is sensational, surreal, and alluring. It is ultimately enough to provide them a final escape from themselves. However, the nature of this escape still follows the logic of reality, which requires that we pay for everything.

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