Pretty Good

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

I will add my voice to Writers_reign and Jason Forestein so that they will not lone voices in the wind.I was expecting better things from this movie since Eclipse has doubled it with The Party and the Guests. This is a thoughtful allegorical critique of how Socialism / Communism has worked in practice instead of how it was supposed to have worked in theory. I now realise the only reason for doing this is because both films are part of the so called Czech New Wave and were short enough to fit onto a single DVD. Where as Party and Guests had a structure and message behind it, Dasies has minimal content and very little to recommend it.I think it is time to burst a few conception bubbles contained in some of the comments here.Firstly, this is not a feminist movie, it is an anti-men film. There is a very big difference. Shame on the men who didn't realise this.Nor is it Anarchy as some people have claimed. Anarchy is a number of people working together to achieve a common objective without the need for an umbrella stricture of administrators to tell them what to do. They know what is required and get on with doing it by themselves. What people usually mean when they use the word Anarchy is chaos. Again there is a very big difference.So far as the cinematography goes, changing colour filters many times mid scene and changing costumes halfway through a kiss is not artistic but the director trying hard to be arty and not pulling it off.As for the period when the film was made. After Stalinism, albeit at a distance, had been lifted, the director did not know what to do with her new found freedom and went around like the angry cavalier who rode off furiously in all directions. Or even more like the proverbial dog with two dicks. A flurry of activity finished up producing something that was sterile. "People don't like freedom, they don't know what to do with it." Those interested enough should see my Satantango review for an explanation of this quote.It seems to me the destructive element of the main characters derived from boredom associated with the minimal real content or purpose in their lives and there is nothing for viewers of the film to respect in this.All in all, this was a very disappointing effort. I can count this amongst the ten most irrelevant films I have seen and it scores only one point from me.

A great little film. Clearly stacked with dadaist and political significance, it is above all a most enjoyable movie. Absolutely impossible to watch without a smile. Not really any particular narrative, it bubbles about here and there, always looking ravishing with our two heroines skipping gaily, hither and thither and culminates in a veritable orgy of food. A banquet, is set up, we assume for some communist party dignitaries. At first the girls are in awe, then toy with it, then play with it, then fight with it and in probably the hardest to watch sequences, make as if to put it all back together again. Certainly an angry film but made with such delight and vigour that it is simply irresistible. Also, although obviously of its time, there are many instances of resonance with today. In one minor moment one of the girls removes her dress and pulls her half slip up over her bra leaving her with a very short semi transparent dress, I see today in the streets of London.

One of the most vibrant and fun art house films you are ever likely to see. Vera Chytilova was merging feminism, nihilism, psychedelic color filters, collage aesthetic, and silent film slapstick into a one of a kind film about two young girls named Marie who decide to self destruct, and be just as wicked as the world. They con men into buying them lunch and ditch them at train stations, get drunk in posh nightclubs, set their beds on fire, and lay siege to whole banquets(this latter bit got the film and the director into a lot of trouble with the Soviet Czech government for "wasting food"). Anyway this is an energetic and vibrant film as you're likely to find anywhere, and unlike so many great euro art films, this is as fun to watch as it is think about afterwords. I've shown this movie to a lot of people and I've never had a complaint, it clocks in at just over an hour, so if you've got the time, go for it. It's a one of kind experience(in fact the worst part of this movie is the cover).

I seem to be a lone dissenting voice in a chorus of approval. So be it. Whilst it seems clear that there is a strong satirical element at work here I have to confess that my knowledge of the political situation in what used to be called Czechoslovakia is non-existent so that all the barbs eluded me. On the other hand I had little problem with either Closely Observed Trains or The Firemen's Ball, both the work of Czech filmmakers and both satirical attacks on the political situation that prevailed at the time they were made. When I say I had no problem I don't wish to imply that I understood the satire but I do mean that the respective directors had included a sufficient 'entertainment' element to make their films accessible to a non-Czech audience, something which Vera Chytilova has failed to do here - or at least as far as I am concerned. I rented this film on the strength of the favourable reviews I had read and I take no pleasure in disagreeing with the majority but, alas, I can find little if anything to praise.