No director pushed the boundaries of the Czechoslovak New Wave further than Věra Chytilová, an uncompromising individualist whose fiercely antiauthoritarian attitude courses through every frame of her work. Though she remains best known for her feminist touchstone DAISIES—a patriarchy-exploding Molotov cocktail that still stuns with its exuberantly experimental visuals and anarchic energy—Chytilová left her mark on a wide variety of genres, defying Soviet censorship as well as conventional cinematic forms over the course of a radically inventive career.
Directed by Věra Chytilová • 1962 • Czechoslovakia
The themes of anarchy and individualism that run through Věra Chytilová’s work begin here, in an almost docu-realist look at women finding freedom and joy amid the rigid conformity of life in a communal factory dormitory.
Directed by Věra Chytilová • 1962 • Czechoslovakia
Starring Marta Kanovská, Julián Chytil, Josef Abrhám
Informed by the director’s experiences working as a fashion model, Věra Chytilová’s remarkably assured graduation film—which she was able to make only by duping state censors with a phony scri...
Directed by Věra Chytilová • 1963 • Czechoslovakia
The debut feature from Věra Chytilová interweaves two stories simultaneously: one a narrative about a frustrated mother (Vera Uzelacová) discontented with the drudgery of housework, the other a quasi documentary about a gymnast (real-life Olympi...
Directed by Věra Chytilová • 1966 • Czechoslovakia
Starring Ivana Karbanová, Jitka Cerhová, Marie Češková
If the entire world is bad, why shouldn’t we be? Adopting this insolent attitude as their guiding philosophy, a pair of hedonistic young women (Ivana Karbanová and Jitka Cerhová), both named...
Directed by Jiří Menzel, Věra Chytilová, Jaromil Jireš, Jan Němec, and Evald Schorm • 1966 • Czechoslovakia
A manifesto of sorts for the Czech New Wave, this five-part anthology shows off the breadth of expression offered by the movement's versatile directors.
Directed by Věra Chytilová • 1970 • Czechoslovakia
Starring Jitka Nováková, Karel Novak, Jan Schmid
Opening with a senses-ravishing, psychedelic vision of Eden, this tantalizing political allegory sets the story of Adam and Eve in a European health spa where a vacationing couple (Jitka Nováková ...
Directed by Věra Chytilová • 1979 • Czechoslovakia
Starring Lukás Bech, Antonín Vanha, Eva Kacírková
One of the unsung masterpieces of Věra Chytilová’s still largely obscure post-sixties career, this stingingly satiric yet deeply human tragicomedy surveys the everyday absurdity of existence in a...
Directed by Věra Chytilová • 1982 • Czechoslovakia
Starring Bolek Polívka, Dagmar Bláhová, Jana Synková
In Věra Chytilová’s biting sex satire, a young college dropout (Bolek Polívka in his first of multiple collaborations with the director) navigates both a new job as a train driver and the amor...
Directed by Věra Chytilová • 1987 • Czechoslovakia
Starring Miroslav Machácek, Tomás Palatý, Stepánka Cervenková
Věra Chytilová’s subversive take on the 1980s teen-horror movie assembles a gaggle of bratty adolescents for a mysterious skiing retreat at a snowbound cabin where they find themselve...
Directed by Věra Chytilová • 1990 • Czechoslovakia
Věra Chytilová employs a mix of photographs, archival footage, and reenactment to tell the story of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, the Czechoslovak politician, sociologist, and philosopher who served as the first elected president of Czechoslovakia fol...
