"Director: V ra Chytilová"

• Traps | DVD | (23/03/2015) from £12.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  From the great Czech filmmaker Věra Chytilová renowned director of Daisies and Fruits of Paradise comes a controversial and disturbing satire of violence violation and veterinary practice. Traps is a feminist black comedy about a vet who after being raped by two men uses her particular expertise to take her revenge. Oscillating between tragedy comedy and the grotesque the film is an analysis of morality power and twisted masculine attitudes in contemporary society. Chytilová is a filmmaker with a reputation as both provocateur and philosopher - and Traps is an angry funny socio-critical film about thuggery impotence and sterilising the ruling classes. This provocative feature is presented for the first time ever in the UK. Special Features: All new Anamorphic Digital Transfer Booklet Essay

• Something Different / A Bagful Of Fleas - Two Films By Vera Chytilova | DVD | (29/02/2016) from £11.99   |  Saving you £1.00 (8.34%)   |  RRP £12.99

  For Vera Chytilová, documentary and fiction were two equally adventurous processes. Something Different follows two women one strand as a documentary of a gymnast in gruelling training (real life Olympic gold-medallist Eva Bosáková), whilst the second is the fiction of a discontented housewife (Věra Uzelacová). In A Bagful of Fleas, young factory girls defying imposed rules are played by non-professionals and the film shot in a free-wheeling cinéma vérité style. These two terrific early works introduce themes evident across Chytilová's career: a female viewpoint in a world dominated by men, the expectations and strictures of female gender roles, and a strong critique of her society. Combining formalism with anarchy and spiked with rebellious humour, her films broke strictures of genre and ideology to chart a new path for Czechoslovak cinema. Available for the first time, the DVD presents these films from superb new high-definition digital transfers of the brand new restorations of the films by the Czech National Film Archive, and II Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna and also includes a booklet featuring a new essay on Chytilová and these films by Czech cinema expert Peter Hames.

• Daisies (Semikrásky) | DVD | (01/06/2009) from £14.49   |  Saving you £-1.50 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Vera Chytilov'''s classic of surrealist cinema comes to Second Run DVD in an all-new digital transfer with improved picture and sound. A satirical wild and irreverent story of teenage rebellion. Two young women rebel against a degenerate and oppressive society attacking symbols of wealth and bourgeois culture. A riotous punk-rock poem of a film that is both hilarious and mind-warpingly innovative Daisies was banned in native Czechoslovakia and director Vera Chytilov'' was forbidden to work until 1975.

• Fruit of Paradise (Ovoce strom rajských jíme) | DVD | (13/04/2015) from £14.49   |  Saving you £-1.50 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  The late, great Czech filmmaker V ra Chytilová, followed the success of her ground-breaking exercise in anarchic cinema DAISIES (1966) with the even more extraordinary FRUIT OF PARADISE. An experimental, densely symbolic retelling of the Adam and Eve story, Chytilová utilizes every cinematic tool to create a ravishing tapestry of ideas, textures, and visual tropes. Cementing Chytilová s reputation as cine-anarchist, FRUIT OF PARADISE was condemned by the authorities, banned from export and the funds withheld from Chytilová so that she would be powerless to realise her vehicles of nihilism . Unseen for many years outside of its native Czechoslovakia the film is a cornerstone of the Czech New Wave and remains a stunning tour-de-force of colour, technique and formalism. Released for the first time ever in the UK, the FRUIT OF PARADISE is presented from a new HD digital transfer with restored picture and sound, and also includes a new HD restoration of V ra Chytilová s renowned 1961 short film CEILING (Strop) - plus an accompanying Booklet featuring a new essay by author, Czech cinema expert and film programmer Peter Hames Chytilová's film is as visually stunning and thrillingly experimental as her previous work DAISIES All Movie Guide Luridly subversive... impossible to summarize and hard to resist Village Voice Chytilova's wild, extravagant, and ravishing romp... intoxicating on a sensual level Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader An audacious combination of allegorical narrative and the avant-garde... a brilliantly executed aesthetic exercise. It is formalism at its most beautiful Daniel Bird, Central Europe Review. Extras: All new HD digital transfer + short film Ceiling (Strop) Special Features: Booklet essay by Peter Hames