MovieChat Forums > Sedmikrásky (1966) Discussion > Feminist?

Feminist?

posted 16 years ago by swell
15 replies | jump to latest

So I'm wondering... I just saw this film and I thought it was absolutely ANTI-feminist. Does anyone have valid reasons why it would considered feminist?

[–] futuristxen 16 years ago

Hmmm...I thought it was wicked empowering. They were making fun of the whole system that a woman needs a man for anything but pranks. The way the two of them had sort of fashioned their lives I thought was pretty inspiring. And then the way it ended I thought was in condemnation of the way that the patriarchy conducts itself in the face such dissidence.

Why did you think it was anti-feminist?

[–] katie_0305 15 years ago

I thought the director was making a statement about the role of Women in the communist Society and in films at that time.
Marie 1 and 2 are interchangable, they don't have their own identities and when they begin to act up the Maries stop exsisting and become invisable.
I don' think it's a feminist film but it has femanist themes.

[–] 15 years ago

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[–] thebigheat 15 years ago

lol i thought it had nothing to do with women

[–] bbarner 12 years ago

There's some discussion of Daisies here:

http://www.criterion.com/current/posts/2269-eclipse-series-32-pearls-of-the-czech-new-wave

according to which the film maker did not intent to make a feminist film, per se.

[–] Trippetta10 11 years ago

The Criterion essay had a Western bias. There were some feminist elements in this film but it seemed more anti-Communism (a system where nearly everyone as interchangeable or even invisible) than anti-patriarchy.

[–] timlin-4 12 years ago

Well when your a feminist everything is either feminists or anti-feminist isn't it?

[–] bradme 11 years ago

Something can certainly be feminist without intending it, and the opposite is true as well. I'd say that when it comes to Daisies we're presented with two women who constantly deny the need for men in their lives and prefer to embrace absolute freedom.

[–] PussyCrusher_Principal 10 years ago

The one scene I'd say is unmistakably feminist (small 'f' - not necessarily about equal rights or anything that was going on in the sixties, but about female freedom in general...non-dogmatic) is the scene where they cut the phallic symbols with scissors.

One interesting part, insofar as feminism is concerned, is in their using of the old men for what they can get out of them, then discarding them. 20 years later, in the age of Madonna, this would be considered "empowering" for women (controlling their own sexuality and using it to further their lives, and not letting others define exactly what feminism means to the individual), but if this was the intention in Daisies, it's definitely a concept ahead of it's time.

"It is hard to be a man of peace. It would be so pleasant to kill Mr. Weddle." - Massai, 'Apache'

[–] 10 years ago

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[–] 10 years ago

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[–] josephnatescott 8 years ago

The director, asked if she is a "feminist" and whether that affects her filmmaking, answered: "Is your newspaper a serious one? You ask pointless and primitive questions.... I'm an enemy of stupidity and simple-mindedness in both men and women...." Brava.

[–] joshua_carpino 7 years ago

don't sully this film by calling it feminist.

[–] 7 years ago

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[–] rnmboon (376) a year ago

Who cares? It's an entertaining, funny and colorful film. If there was a message then it isn't going to prevent a viewer from enjoying this film.