One of the most remarkable changes between the Sight & Sound 2012 chart of the greatest films of all time and the 2022 version was Věra Chytilová’s 1966 comedy Daisies went from not appearing at all to number 28 – ahead of Scorsese’s Taxi Driver.
What prompted this re-evaluation? Accessibility, mostly. The 2022 list benefited from many titles by women, people of colour and LGBTQ+ filmmakers making their way to home video and streaming services. Film societies and cinematheques were also taking advantage of restoration and rescue efforts. (The irony that Daisies is currently difficult to find outside of the US and the UK is not lost on me at this moment.)
We watched it over the Christmas break and I was struck by how sixties it was, as if the times were a more powerful influence than the Iron Curtain context or the emerging and frustrated feminism. It’s almost as if a copy of A Hard Day’s Night had been smuggled into Czechoslovakia and secretly screened in dissident’s apartments. But the Richard Lester film was optimistic and fun. Daisies is chaotic and satirical but also cynical and despairing.
Two young women – both named Marie – pledge to live life in service of pleasure but only find emptiness. While authority figures – and the older generation – are lampooned, it becomes clear that the society they are living in has little or nothing to offer them.
There’s one extended and disturbing scene where the girls discover a banquet set at a huge table and they proceed to devour and destroy it. It goes on and on until they are left with no option but to return and try and make it good – broken crockery and all.
The film begins and ends with footage of war, reminding viewers from our distance of how the people of 1966 were still profoundly affected by World War II – materially as well as psychologically. (Tarkovsky’s Mirror from 1975, number 31 in the S&S list, used real war footage for similar reasons.)
The 50 Greatest Films project is my attempt to watch all of the top 50 Sight & Sound Greatest Films of All Time list before there’s a new survey in 2032 and I have to start all over again. This project started over at RNZ Widescreen and was continued – somewhat haphazardly – at the Substack newsletter.
Where to watch Daisies
Aotearoa: Not currently available online
Australia: Not currently available online
Canada: Streaming on Criterion Channel or Hollywood Suite
Ireland: Not currently available online
India: Not currently available online
USA: Streaming on Criterion Channel or HBO Max
UK: Streaming on BFI Player
