Ovoce stromu rajských jíme (1970)

User Rating:

6.8/10   

Director:

Vera Chytilová

Writers:

Vera Chytilová (dialogue)
Ester Krumbachová (writer)

Release Date:

31 July 1970 (Czechoslovakia)

Genre:

Drama

Plot Keywords:

Couple | Filter | Fruit | Leaf | Snake

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Karel Novak	...	Josef
Jitka Novákova	...	Eva
Jan Schmid	...	Robert

Also Known As:

De vruchten van het paradijs (Belgium: Flemish title)
Fruit of Paradise
Le fruit de paradis (Belgium: French title)

Runtime:

99 min

Country:

Czechoslovakia | Belgium

Language:

Czech

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Elisabeth Films

Something You Haven't Seen Before

Vera Chytilova's Fruit Of Paradise, is a lost masterpiece of a film. Lost because Chytilova was not permitted to make any films for decades, after her first film Daisies(another gem), was censored and banned by the Soviet/Czech government. These films show us a new language in cinema, that never got to develop. Her use of sound alone in this film puts her on par with Godard and Leone, her use of color is unlike anything I have ever seen(the first 10 minutes in Eden are a luminous collage of images, patterns, and live actors), and her sense of story(arguably her least accessible trait) is like Bunuel or Svankmajor(her fellow Czech), albeit with a distinctly feminist, whimsicle, slapstick bent.

The story is an allegory of Adam and Eve, in a modern(made in 60's) Health Retreat. The action involves our heroin wandering the grounds where she becomes obsessed with a mysterious man in red, who may or may not be a killer. What follows is a fragmented story of awakening, it's pains and pleasures, but don't look more literally than that, like Lynch's Inland Empire, it's best to view this film topologically(on the surface), as an aesthetic object like a painting, rather than a cinematic tool for conveying a "message". Not that you cant or shouldn't get anything more out of this film, than a lesson in the expansive possibilities of film-making itself, but you get out of it, what you put into it. If you want to just watch the pretty colors, it's got that, if you want to argue about "ontological freedom and meaning", you could use this film as a trampoline, but that role rests here on the viewer.

Chytilova's film's however cannot be accurately described by text, they have to be viewed, listened to puzzled over, drank with(a glass or two of wine), and then viewed again. If your looking for a novel experience in a sea of modern cinematic redundancy, the Fruit Of Paradise, is the food for you. If you want to watch realistic characters, exchange in pseudo-naturalistic dialoge about modern issues of social import, "Crash" can be found at your local blockbuster, if you've watched Maya Deren, Luis Bunuel, or Kenneth Anger, and said, why can't there be more films like this; then Netflix, steal, beg, borrow,(or try your local library), but find this film. That goes double for Chytilova's first film Daisies, which is as adventurous as this, but is more slapstick to this films baroque; basically a lot more fun.