The Anarchic Cinema of Věra Chytilová
- Fruit of Paradise
- Ovoce stromů rajských jíme
- Czechoslovakia/Belgium1970
- Věra Chytilová
- 99 DCP
- NR
Screening Dates
- September 19, 2020 8:20
- September 21, 2020 8:40
- September 23, 2020 6:15
“Entrancing … Luridly subversive … It’s impossible to summarize and hard to resist.”
Michael Atkinson, LA Weekly
A highly stylized Adam-and-Eve allegory set at a Central European spa, the ravishing Fruit of Paradise rivals Daisies as Věra Chytilová’s most innovative and audacious work. Eva, on holiday with her disinterested husband Joseph, finds herself falling under the spell of Robert, an alluring but menacing stranger. The film reunites most of the creative team responsible for the avant-garde razzle-dazzle of Daisies, including cinematographer Jaroslav Kučera and screenwriter Ester Krumbachová. The arresting score is by composer Zdeněk Liška. Novelist and critic Josef Škvorecký, remarking on this operatic work’s crime-novel structure, biblical quotations, and complex musical and colour compositions, described Fruit of Paradise as “an independent objet d’art … everything fits into a bizarre and astounding unity.” The post-Prague Spring political clampdown left Chytilová unable to make another film for seven years.
“Wild, extravagant … Intoxicating on a sensual level.”
Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader
