There’s no shortage of movies that shock, or want to shock; 2023 saw raunchy movies like Saltburn and Poor Things, while 2024’s The Substance has taken the movie-watching world by storm with its crazed sequence of events. These movies provoke to extreme extents, characterized by outlandish characters with no desire to conform and strong visual language immersed in the time period. But films have provoked since the 20th century: Věra Chytilová’s 1966 film Daisies from Czechoslovakia’s New Wave movement is one of many such cases. Daisies centers on two mischievous women, who upon gaining sentience, ensue on a series of hedonistic misadventures, in pursuit of pleasure and sensation and at the expense of others.

The film is comedic and surreal, told through vivid sets and colored filters, sometimes interlacing sequences with montages of collage-like prints whenever it pleases. Its formal elements are as chaotic as its protagonists, who do as they please much to the dismay of the respectable public. Daisies’ visual language ranges from decadent to coruscating, with various shots of the girls messily indulging in fruit, dessert and food, and countless visual effects appropriate for the raunchy film. 

The opening scene features the two girls, Marie I (Jitka Cerhová; dark hair, pigtails) and Marie II (Ivana Karbanová, short hair, blonde), whose movements are synced to doll-like creaks as they gain consciousness. It tells of their disillusionment to the state of the world, and becomes the basis for their hedonistic approach to life. “When everything is being spoiled,” one says, “then we’ll be spoiled too”. The movie switches easily from the girls dancing in a field to their shared apartment, a surrealist sequence that disobeys any logic the audience demands. One of them slaps the other into a new location, apples spill on the carpet, the color grading switches from a deep envious green to a scintillating yellow. The editing is as playful as the girls, as music starts and ends abruptly, to the girls skipping and giggling away. 

In a nightclub, the girls continue their shenanigans. They are escorted off the dancefloor to their booth, bouncing in their seats with childish fervor while maiming demands to the waiter. The sequence has no dialogue, only music as the camera switches from the performers to the girls’ mischief. The scenes alternate stark monochromes, from red, yellow, green, magenta as the girls prove to be disturbances and distractions, annoying the guests. They drink from someone else’s cup, messes with the nearby table, and gets up on platforms, all done with a smile before they are kicked out, unceremoniously removed, dancing and grabbing at tables on their way out.

Sequences in Daisies don’t care enough to make sense, disobeying narrative conventions. Marie I pushes at a pendulum, and the ticking initiates a sequence of flowers, and their two girls sunbathing in front of a panel of wood, synced to the beat. Marie I removes the flower crown from Marie II’s head, and we are immediately thrown into a new setting where the girls are yet on another date with an older man. They tease and mock to uncomfortable extremes, ordering more than he can afford, until he’s carried off by the trains in tears. The girls wave from the platform, in tears until they burst out laughing. The film cuts to where it wants to be, just like how the girls come and go whenever they please.

As the movie progresses, the girls continue to chase after the next sensation with complete disregard for others. A man confesses to Marie II, and she strips down but ignores him, only to ask for food. Nothing is off-limits; they steal, lie and set things on fire with glee, and proclaims that everybody does it, and that nobody notices. Back in their room, they cut up phallic foods while a man confesses over Marie II on the phone, not that it matters to her. They go on more dates, and return to loitering around in their room with walls completely covered in numbers and names of men they associate with. 

However, not all is fun and games. With mild conflict sprinkled throughout the movie, the pitfalls of hedonism bleed through as their fervor flare up and fizzle out in-between excursions. Marie I walks in on Marie II’s failed suicide attempt, the girls seem bored and restless in their bedrooms before they are drawn to the outside world again and again. There’s a point where they profess their dislikes over drinks, the dislike usually short lived as they continue their misadventures with the other. In between their antics, they are restless and aimless without any clear goals besides instant gratification. They philosophize about life and death in their bathtub, questioning linguistic meaning and wondering if they actually exist. Their existential crisis only escalates when they’re ignored by a farmer whose work ethic they fail to understand and a group of biking men riding by. Unsure of what to do with themselves, they continue their chase of sensation and pleasure. 

The girls don’t display any remorse until the very end after sneaking into a room with a prepared feast. Indulging in their last, grand misadventure, their hedonistic lifestyle comes to an abrupt end, but the film retains its mocking tone, dedicating the movie to “those who get upset over a trampled bed of lettuce”.

Made within the context of Czech New Wave, the film provokes against expectations of how women should behave, and faced censorship from socialist Czechoslovakia. The film is provocative even by modern standards, a tale of two girls’ misadventures chasing after the next fun thing. The formal elements challenge conventional film-making as well, taking glee in its medium through the variety of colors it employs at will. The editing is collage-like, with slapstick sound effects, fully embracing its mischief and childish nature. Maries’ actions are synced cartoonishly to vibrant sound effects, putting animated artifice to reality in an unapologetic, surrealist tale of short-lived hedonism. Though the film comes off as ostentatious and provoking, it is still considerate of its subject matter, like how hedonism, fast and detached, only lasts so long.