Film Series
The Anarchic Cinema of Věra Chytilová
The most radical—both stylistically and politically—director to emerge from the Czechoslovak New Wave, Věra Chytilová (1929–2014) is primarily known to audiences outside the Czech Republic for her famously banned, anarcho-feminist blitzkrieg Daisies. Far from a one-hit wonder, however, Chytilová left behind a rich body of rarely screened, genre-spanning works—avant-garde, comedy, horror, and beyond—all infused with her defiantly anti-patriarchal worldview and freewheeling visual style. Her films are open calls to rebellion from a fierce individualist who once said, “If there’s something you don’t like, don’t keep to the rules—break them.” A longtime professor at Prague’s legendary FAMU film school, her work is presented alongside a selection of films by a new generation of filmmakers mentored by Chytilová.
Co-presented with the Czech Film Fund
The stunning opening shot in Chytilová’s career-long war against patriarchal oppression.
A 74-year-old Věra Chytilová reflects candidly on her life and career.
Chytilová’s senses-ravishing take on the story of Adam and Eve set in a European health spa.
A bourgeois family implodes in spectacular fashion in this subversive melodrama.
The most radical film of the Czechoslovak New Wave is a gleeful vision of smash-it-all rebellion.
Chytilová’s expressionistic tale of political and sexual gamesmanship in a medieval castle.
This satire of everyday existence is an unsung masterpiece of Chytilová’s post-60s career.
Chytilová’s subversively gonzo take on the 80s teen horror movie.
Chytilová lampoons early 1990s capitalistic zeal with gleeful bad taste.
Chytilová caustic comedy mercilessly skewers male vanity and gives women the last laugh.
Chytilová’s bold, feminist take on the battle of the sexes farce set in a maternity ward.
A fearless exposé of the stigma surrounding sexual assault that gives voice to survivors.
A biting portrait of quarter-life anxiety for anyone who’s dreamed of starting over.
Chytilová hits toxic masculinity where it hurts.
These early shorts by Chytilová are freewheeling odes to anarchy and feminist rebellion.
Chytilová’s whiplash-inducing portrait of a society in the throes of a mass emotional breakdown.