Audience Member
Vera Chytilova experiments with images and sound on an incomprehensible retelling of the story of Adam and Eve. Is one of those movies that, I guess, fall under the category "not for everybody". I don't reject exmperimention in movies but sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. The experiment fails here. We saw the fruit but couldn't taste it!
Rated 2.5/5 Stars •
Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars
02/04/23
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Audience Member
Vera Chytylova's "Fruit of Paradise" is a fascinating little number. It is fascinating in terms of style, on one hand, starting from the silent film references to the superb camerawork and it is fascinating on how it manages to engage given with a vague plot and a dadaist-like structure.
I would chat more about it, but I'd be missing the point: it is a film you either give yourself into, or leave as it is.
Overall, my two cents: 4/5.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
01/18/23
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Audience Member
To those few familiar with <i>The Deserter and the Nomads</i> (1968) and <i>Birds, Orphans and Fools</i> (1969), two of cinema's best films of all times directed by Juraj Jakubisko, Chytilová's most exponentially bizarre film in her career is a magnificent effort of surreal proportions and mindblowing allegories about the state of mankind.
The whole show opens with an extreme sensory overload of distinct colors, juxtaposed backgrounds of nature and experimental sounds featuring Adam and Eve walking nude through a "Garden of Eden", while a choir cites the first chapters of the book of Genesis. Once the fruit has been consumed by both, the "truth has been revealed" and the film then mutates into a depiction of the fall of man's innocence as Eve ventures into an otherwordly journey full of selfless idiots which carry no real relevance to the plot other than accentuating the seemingly Divine condemnation to which Eve has been subject to. The bond between Josef (Adam) and Eva (Eve) has now become earthly physical, and is interrupted by Robert (the Devil), who is now represented here as an assassin of women that imprints the number <b>6</b> into their victims.
Step by step, all landscapes and settings begin to audiovisually constitute a psychedelic kaleidoscope of symbolic hapax legomena capable of putting the nerve-altering and hallucinogenic drugs trade to bankruptcy. A love triangle is formed between Josef, Eva and Robert, the latter trying hard to conquer Eva's hearts with earthly pleasures. Her transformation into a devilish being brings her down to a world of perdition, Divine oblivion and deception, almost reaching the bottom, but she realizes the true identity of Josef and, in an attempt to come back to her roots, attempts to get back to Josef. Nevertheless, the return to the metaphysical realm of Eden is now impossible to reach as long as we retain a mortal condition.
That is, anyway, my very humble interpretation of the film, because just like auteurs in the level of Jodorowsky, Parajanov, Terayama and Jakubisko, the soul dictates what the mind cannot, feeling the blanks left by the limitations of the rationale. Truly one of the most unique and marvelous achievements of the Czech New Wave, and another close addition to my now Top 142 films of all time, <i>Fruit of Paradise</i> is a temptation impossible to resist, impenetrable to the mind, seductive to the soul, forming an impossible love triangle similar to the one depicted in the film, but all the more impossible to forget. Damn that chain of impossibilities!
99/100
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
01/22/23
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Audience Member
A true Gem.. i'm surprised that such a surreal beauty is not well recognized..
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
02/14/23
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Audience Member
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(DVD) (First Viewing, 2nd Chytilová film)
Gone is the giddy anarchy of DAISIES (SEDMIKRASKY) as Czech New Wave icon Vera Chytilová opts for a more formal but equally audacious and experimental approach with FRUIT OF PARADISE, the film which followed several years later. Using the Biblical story of Adam and Eve as a reference point, Chytilová sets up an elaborate, symbol-laden allegory dealing with temptation, infidelity, and, I fully expect, political commentary and general subversiveness that went completely over my head.
But even if the film itself seems deliberately obscure and overly cryptic, the amazing use of color and texture keeps the entire film in this kind of perpetual dream state that is fascinating to witness. The score, which incorporates everything from grand operatic choral work to the atonal is also quite amazing in its own right. Thankfully the image and audio quality of Facet's recent DVD release is excellent, but this seems to be a film meant to be seen on the big screen where the images and the sounds can achieve a kind of overpowering, hypnotic power over the viewer.
I don't think that many will be able to buy into Chytilová's vision, and long stretches are deathly dull, but as a major fan of DAISES, I'm glad to finally have the opportunity to see it.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
02/11/23
Full Review
Audience Member
A modern retelling of the Garden of Eden. Vera Chytilová again utilizes very unusual and interesting techniques, and veers away from a straightforward narrative, but this one doesn't have the same fun, freewheeling spirit as Daisies. Instead it gets bogged down with almost Maya Deren-esque imagery, and the threads it follows are rarely as engaging as they could be. I liked some parts (especially the wild intro) but it needs more oomph.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
01/17/23
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