Fruit of Paradise

Věra Chytilová’s little-seen masterwork is the companion piece to Daisies, a dazzlingly complex, formally rigorous allegory of Adam and Eve that poses an eternal question—“Can one live with the truth?”—then refuses to answer it. In the Garden of Eden of an Eastern European spa, Eva hands an apple to her husband, Joseph, but he prefers ogling the other female guests. Cue a handsome new arrival, who offers Eva a few new Satanic pleasures along with that apple, plus enough murderous intentions to cause the death of them all. Chytilová’s color schemes and juxtapositions brought the art of montage to new heights, and Fruit of Paradise’s mad expressionism and vibrant symbolism earned it comparisons to Federico Fellini’s Satyricon and to the films of Sergei Paradjanov. A rare, inventive union of allegory, feminism, and the avant-garde, Fruit of Paradise defies all interpretations, yet suggests new ones in every frame.