Dada and Structuralism in Chytilova's Daisies [Volume: 10(1991), pp. 223-234]

Dada and Structuralism in Chytilova's Daisies
HERBERT EAGLE
Of all the films of the Czechoslovak New Wave, Vera Chytilova's Daisies
(I966) was the most radical in its structure and, in many ways, the most unsettling in
its subject matter. Today, at a distance of twenty-five years, it still appears audacious,
absolutely original, and every bit as pertinent thematically for culture worldwide. If
two decades of enthusiastic responses from my students at the University of Michigan can be taken as an indication, the path toward avant-garde feature-length films
blazed by Chytilova is one that has widespread appeal. Now that the political situation that limited the distribution of her films both domestically and internationally
has come to an end, her stature as one of the most important pioneers in the art of
film is certain to be recognized, and Daisies will take its rightful place among the
masterpieces of cinema.
Daisies, made in collaboration with film designer and director Ester Krumbachova, evokes Dadaism in its imagery, compositional strategies, and explicitly rebellious attitude. The film frequently quotes Dada directly through its wild spectacles, its parodic visions of technology and bureaucracy, its natural images made
abstract through animation, and its combination of words and images within the
same frame. The principle of collage, a major source of Dada's radical collision of
signs from disparate cultural and artistic orders, is realized in Daisies in two respects: within the frame of each shot and as montage between shots. The frequent
violation of cinematic conventions, the unpredictability and logical impossibility of
the film's spatiotemporal syntax, and the heterogeneous, paradoxical nature of the
incorporated signs themselves nonetheless produce a constant awareness of structure. There is a persistent tension between logic and illogic, argument and nonsense,
which is characteristic of Dada's attack on nineteenth-century rationalism.
Daisies employs a wide span of images and techniques, constantly interrupting
and intersecting one kind of practice with another: painterly tableaux become animated with actions, but these actions no sooner begin than their narrativity is interrupted by a new type of formal play. Real-life situations in the lives of two young
women evolve into absurd and rowdy spectacles and rituals. Color is foregrounded
through costuming and mise-en-scene or through the use of filters. Fabula is dis
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