Daisies (1966): love to scam for food with my ladies
Sedmikrásky (Daisies) // dir. Věra Chytilová // Czechoslovakia
For a movie with such a critical reputation, instantly recognizable imagery, and a full eleven years sitting on my watchlist—I was still honestly surprised and overwhelmed with delight finally seeing Daisies for the first time. An absolute dream.
And, an absolutely perfect film to begin on this 1966 series—it bursts with everything I love about 1966 (and life in general): garish colors, INTENSE FASHION, chaos, a political spirit, and girls and women having a great time.
I want to focus on that last piece in particular here.
I do not feel able to competently address the political elements of this film in the context of the Soviet Union or critiquing government systems, so I am not going to even try. Instead, I want to talk to about women gorging themselves on food!
The anarchy of young women out to “spoil” themselves by indulging. It brings me pure delight. With her reckless two Maries, Chytilová taps into those deepest felt feelings of femme-socializing: the safety, weightlessness, and mutual joy. Those moments of feeling powerful together, and outside the constraints of this world. It is all too fleeting though. The world is there, and it does crush. Marie I and Marie II scam the broken system of patriarchal power to feed themselves, and have a wonderful time as long as they keep eating. The pressure remains though; the melancholy returns—especially in the few solitary moments they spend apart.
An unchanged system of power always reverts in the end. The world would explode if you just let young women live unconstrained! THE HORROR! THE TERROR! THE GLUTTONY! THEY ARE HAVING A GREAT TIME!
Every film that truly understands friendships between women has scenes of women eating food together. We love to snack! We love to feast! We love apples and giant jars of pickles (literal pickles). This deep into pandemic lockdown, I am 100% ready for a disgusting egg-milk bath with my best friend while we chow down on a loaf of bread. Please!
This was one of the most delicious looking food movies I have ever seen. I was famished almost instantly, and had to make a late night snack to survive the onslaught of the senses. I am already willing to put it as #2 to Tampopo’s undefeated food movie champ.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs: 1) Friendship, 2) Food, 3) Scamming Rich Old Creepy Men, 4) Societal Chaos
I love to vicariously experience reckless abandon in these (troubled and) isolated times. I know it sounds indulgent, but a communal feast with my femmes is the cure for the symptoms of what ails my soul at most times (a brutal, inhumane, capitalist, white supremacist patriarchy).
All I really want right now is just canned pumpkin, so I can make decadent soft pumpkin cookies, but the pumpkin harvest is late and there is no canned pumpkin. I frantically searched the grocery store shelves before googling “CANNED PUMPKIN SHORTAGE” for my answer. They say the pumpkin is coming…
Joyful anarchy is never quite divorced from consequences, whether societal or communal, but it can be a delicious chaotic break.