Projecting on the Iron Curtain

Daisies is produced in a communist country during the period of liberalization known as the Prague Spring.  With an anarchic narrative structure and little plot, jump cuts and visual montages rather than continuity editing, and experiments in color, it is very different from Hollywood films made at the same time.  Could the narrative or stylistic elements of the film be making a political statement? Could the film have something to say about its political context?

A Feminist Farce?

Daisies is the first film we have screened by a female director that focuses on women protagonists. Yet this film is far from an easy film to interpret. Do you see a feminist "message" in the film? Or is this film lampooning such a message? Is this film highlighting and ridiculing sexist views of women? What about the fact that the women protagonists are hardly the paragons of virtue (They have, after all, "gone bad.")? Please enlighten us.

Food, Glorious Food

The two main characters in Daisies are constantly eating or at least playing with food. They have lavish dinners at restaurants, bathe in milk and playfully slice bananas and sausage. This trend culminates in the scene in which they sneak into a feast, indulge their palettes, and engage in a food fight. What is the point of all this food, glorious food? Can you make sense of the use of food in at least some of these scenes?

Crime Never Pays?

 Michel Poiccard is petty criminal who steals cars like some people speed on the highway.  He lies and cheats people close to him, including a girlfriend.  He is dangerous when cornered and has murdered a police officer.  Yet, at the same time, he is young and glamorous, faithful in his way to Patricia, and in the end willing to pay for his crimes. The film follows some of the rules of a film noir or gangster film.  Yet, the film also plays around with those conventions: the police, for example, are incompetent and there is not much tension or excitement in the chase scenes.  So what is going on?   Is this film saying anything about crime and punishment?  Or is it just messing with us?

What's New About the New Wave?

 French New wave auteurs like Godard envisioned their films as a radical re-visioning of the static filmmaking of the French studio system. What experimental ideas or techniques did you notice in Breathless (could you explain in some detail)? How do these experiments change the way we enjoy a film? Are they engaging or annoying? Do they bring meaning to the film? Do they make fun of the whole idea of bringing meaning to film?

Love in the Time of the Beatles

 One interpretation of Breathless is that it is a film about love in the modern world, where lovers know little about each others' past, have trouble communicating, follow their impulsive longings, only to end up betrayed at the end. Is there more to this take on modern romance? Is there something deeper in Michel and Patricia's relationship? Or is there something less? Is love even possible in the shadow of the atomic bomb and the Cold War? (Don't forget that Michel has other girlfriends and Patricia spent the evening -- and might have slept with -- her editor).

I Got You Under My Thumb?

Early Summer is the story of a society in which women are expected to marry before the age of 29, often in arranged marriages negotiated by their family, especially fathers and brothers.  Yet at the same time, Noriko rejects the candidate chosen for her by her boss and family and  -- on the spur of the moment -- agrees to marry a family friend.   What is this movie saying about patriarchal structure, marriage, and women's liberation in the modern Japan of the 1950's?