Vera Chytilova - Ovoce stromu rajskych jime aka Fruit of Paradise (1970)

"The Fruit of Paradise" is a breathtaking experimental film from Vera Chytilova. Well known for her surreal feminist comedy "Daisies" (1966), Chytlova uses many of the same hallucinatory camera tricks for "The Fruit of Paradise". The film's first 15 minutes is highly psychedelic as it tells the story of creation. There are layers of image on top of image with fast camera cuts. Then it breaks out into a song about Adam & Eve, which is hauntingly catchy. Then the story of Adam and Eve goes to a modern setting. The devil is portrayed as creepy man of middle age; a persistent stalker and serial killer of women. Eva and her boyfriend go on vacation to a health spa, where they encounter temptation. The devil gets Eva to eat the forbidden fruit. Then the film becomes very comical throughout, as the Devil chases adorable Eva everywhere she goes.









Věra Chytilová's Ovoce stromů rajských jíme (Fruit of Paradise, 1969) is an audacious combination of allegorical narrative and the avant-garde. Above all, it plays with the idea of searching for "truth" and questions our ability to accept it. It is a reflection on the nature of the film itself, as well as a personal testament of its reputedly "cynical" director's commitment to "telling the truth." It is a vivid testimony to the role of the "avant-garde" in 1960s Czechoslovak cinema.

However, montage is more or less dispensed with, in favour of a plethora of visual associations and mental juxtapositions that are orchestrated through a succession of semi-improvised "happenings." As Peter Hames has acknowledged, it boldly defies any "realistic" interpretation, yet encourages "active interpretation," demanding that the viewer construct his or her own meaning.

Like its precursor Sedmikrásky (Daisies, 1966), it is thoroughly "post-modernist" in the sense of the playfulness implied by the term. Yet, contrary to the opinion of its state sponsor, Chytilová's reckless playfulness doesn't invite nihilism. Ovoce stromů rajských jíme may be more obscure than Sedmikrásky, but it remains a resoundingly "mainstream avant-garde" film, a brilliantly executed aesthetic exercise. It is formalism at its most beautiful. (Daniel Bird, kinoeye)











Fruta del paraíso
Una comuna libertaria en la campiña checa, una Eva devenida de la original y la mítica manzana, como eterno objeto del deseo. Personajes oscuros, casados con la extravagancia, y un caos que desafía el orden establecido y la lógica cartesiana.

Una adaptación experimental y densamente simbólica de la historia de Adán y Eva, Fruta del paraíso comienza antes de "la Caída", con Josef y Eva desnudos vagando a través de un Edén representado por medio de de imágenes superpuestas de color rojo y marrón, y las hojas amarillas y flora sobre los dos en un parque. Un coro canta los primeros pasajes del Génesis. El paso al mundo caído está marcado por el coro cantando: "Dime la verdad", con creciente intensidad. Un vestido nuevo, Josef y Eva (ahora interpretados por Karel Novak y Nováková Jitka) se encuentran en un banco del parque. La película se centra en Eva partir de este momento, mientras explora su nuevo ambiente, que se asemeja a una especie de balneario lleno de idiotas complacientes, y se obsesiona con un asesino en serie llamado Robert (Jan Schmid). Este nuevo mundo de la "verdad" y de ojos abiertos se muestra utilizando una paleta de colores alternativamente sensuales y apagados. Cuando Eva descubre la identidad de Robert, ella se siente liberada de su yo anterior, alienada de Josef (actualmente un mujeriego), y desesperada por volver a su estado de inocencia. Pero esto es imposible. Cuando Eva intenta volver a subir por encima del muro al Edén, una vez más, repitiendo: "Dime la verdad," ya no puede comunicarse con Josef...







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