Věra Chytilová
Blu-ray Review: Daisies
I’m a miserable bastard when it comes down to it but one film which will always make me a little giddy is Daisies. Věra Chytilová’s punk masterpiece is brimming with verve, creativity and panache. It also never fails to make me feel incredibly hungry. A genuine pioneer, she was one of the leading lights of …
DVD Review: Something Different / A Bagful of Fleas
Czech New Wave filmmaker Věra Chytilová had a penchant for the avant-garde, which is is personified in her most celebrated film, Daisies. Her career was blighted by the censorship she suffered under the Czechoslovakian and Soviet regimes,stifling the career of the most promising female director of her generation. Her early work is less well known …
DVD Review: Fruit of Paradise
Communism has been inadvertently responsible for a raft of great films and brilliant directors. Despite heavy censorship under the Soviet regime, the Czech New Wave was responsible for some of the more outlandish, experimental and visionary films of the 1960s. These films were epitomised by their absurdity, dark humour and focus on the ordinary concerns …