Daises - Context, Narrative, Auteur

Question 1

Social Context

Answer 1

Double standards for young women in society and their impact (or lack thereof)

Feminism in the behaviour and the varying levels of conformity of the Maries

Fear of nuclear war

Question 2

Political Context

Answer 2

Brutal, violent, patriarchal, oppressive communist regime.

Question 3

Industrial Context

Answer 3

Hated by authorities and after Soviet reinvasion in 1968 Chytilova was banned from working for 6 years

Question 4

Auteur

Answer 4

Using surrealism to subvert communist realism

Subversive, feminist filmmaker

Themes of time and death linked to nihilism and existentialism

Worked with Jaroslav Kucera (husband and cinematographer) and Ester Krumbachova (set design, script)

Question 5

Narrative- Characters
(Traditional / Expected vs Experimental)

Answer 5

Traditional Narrative: characters that grow and develop in response to narrative events.
Daisies
Change at the end from bad to ‘good’, behave worse throughout.

Traditional Narrative
Characters with a clearly defined role and establish a clear relationship with audience.
Daisies
Lack of narrative- therefore lack of role, possiblity to idenfiy with/ understand Maries, however lack of names mentioned in film takes away from this.

Question 6

Narrative
(Traditional / Expected vs Experimental)

Answer 6

Traditional Narrative
Logical sense of cause and effect
Daisies
Possible inciting incident ‘the world has gone bad’
Seemingly random events
Traditional Narrative
Sense of stability and continuity in physical world of the film
Daisies
Little continuity- same conversation continues through multiple locations
changing outfits
Traditional Narrative
A clear sense of narrative resolution
Daisies
Some narrative resolution, ends with them ‘dying’ however having multiple endings makes it unclear as to what happens