Wild Flowers (2000) User Reviews

An inspired effort

[SongOfFall · 8/10 · 29 January 2015]

Kytice is a good film; it may suffer from being too literal about interpreting the source material - Karel Jaromír Erben's "Kytice z pověstí národních" ("A bouquet of folk stories"). I even felt some "kindred spirit" with Parajanov's "Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors", especially when fantasy elements were represented not by expensive VFX work, but grotesque, almost surreal scenes.

The film has its atmosphere. The stories worked together as a coherent work. The music was marvelous, and the acting (except for the prince in "Zlatý kolovrat", the weakest performance if you ask me) was good too. It might be a bit more cinematographic - but I'd rather not give the director advice post-factum.

What matters is - Kytice is a good film. Not one of those with life- changing ideas. Not one of those that make you marvel at its scale (1927 "Metropolis" comes to mind). It's just a beautiful and sensual experience, an insight into Czech culture and folk stories, but also the author's unique view.

Dark and grim fairytales

[Gonkiz · 23 September 2001]

This movie is based on Czech ballads from the 19th century, and it shows. There are seven stories told in this movie, and all of them are incredibly beautiful. The film might seem a bit scattered and incoherent the fist twenty minutes, because it does not follow the ordinary storytelling that we are used to in Hollywood productions. Nevertheless, after the first story, the film makes more and more sense. It is SO beautiful. The imagery is so unreal, so exquisite, that I have a hard time describing it. If you get the chance, see it.

Breathtaking

[marijasrndovic · 10/10 · 2 September 2007]

I saw the movie a couple of days ago and found it absolutely amazing. It was at the same time beautiful and dark, laden with symbols, especially when it comes to colours. It actually felt quite primal, with the scenes of burials and weddings, it really reminded me of my own country's customs and legends. Even though it's a different religion, it just gave away a Slavic feeling, and I recommend it to anyone who'd like to get to know the central/eastern European culture. I think the acting was maybe a bit forced, but I also think it couldn't have been done any other way, this isn't a movie to be seen as a story with a plot, action and a glorious happy-end, this just speaks to something a lot deeper inside you. Not to mention the fact that it is all rhymed, which always makes it more difficult for the actors to make it feel completely natural. Besides, there are scenes where there are practically no lines at all, where the acting was amazing (the Noon witch is my favourite example). I'd like for someone to post me on the last story, though. I haven't read the book (I doubt I'll find it here)and I'd like to see if I understood it correctly: the old lady is actually one of the girls (the red-headed), and what she saw in the lake many years ago was her own death at the church...?

A film of visual beauty and dark folk lore.

[NateManD · 10/10 · 5 July 2005]

F.A. Brabec did an amazing job of directing "Kytice" (wildflowers), which is based on the book "the Seven Ballads". I'm not familiar with the novel, but I must say that the seven Czech fairy tales within the film are extremely nightmarish. These are not fairy tales to read to children before bedtime. One tale concerns an underwater spirit, who takes women captive as wives, if they happen to fall in the water. Another has a girl praying for her boyfriend to return from the dead. He returns in soldier uniform and gives her the power to fly every time she denounces her religious faith. The stories teach bizarre moral lessons, and people end up paying for their bad choices. The cinematography is gorgeous, and should be studied by film students everywhere. The movie is dark, but very moving and filled with colorful life. Jakubisko's art direction is amazing. (he helped produce the film along with his wife) The soundtrack is haunting and will stay with you long after the film is over. In fact I ended up buying the soundtrack, and it is excellent. "Kytice" reminds me of Kurasawa's "Dreams", "Big Fish" and "Valerie and her Week of Wonders" all rolled into one bizarre dream. The Czech Republic is a country thats film industry remains undiscovered by western audiences. I have yet to watch a Czech film that I didn't like. For more dark unsettling Czech folk lore also view Jakubisko's "An Ambiguous Report about the end of the World".

A superb dark and beautiful collection of Czech Fairy tales

[gulag · 10/10 · 27 December 2000]

Kytice (The Bouquet or Garland) is an exquisitely beautiful compendium of Czech fairy tales in an mature mode. These is not fairy tales ala Disney. Rather this is 'Marchen', the serious mythopoeic stuff. These are fairy tales with a very dark brooding Eastern European flavour. I happened to fall upon this by accident in Prague in December of 2000. I did not understand the dialogue since I do not speak Czech. But then again I really didn't need to. The images were absolutely stunning. The film is a collection of seven stories loosely bolted together with an over riding theme. Visually I was reminded on "A Company of Wolves" or even "Immoral Tales", the blending of the genuinely erotic with a very dark undercurrent of death and fate were however quite beautiful. The stunning visuals did not need American special effects (and predictability) to convey absolutely unforgettable images. I recommend this with the highest and richest enthusiasm. Hunt this down. On a trip to Europe if need be. And, if you can, bother some distributors to translate this and get it out to the English speaking world.

I won't spoil the plot anymore... you must see it for your self.

Gulag.

Kitsch

[michal.kasparek-2 · 4/10 · 10 February 2001]

I saw this film before two weeks. It's kitsch, boring and totally unintelligible for people, that haven't read the original book. There are many fact mistakes too... actors plays rather poor, you must laugh even in the sad moments. It was a totally waste of time.

just few words

[cinderella1 · 10/10 · 22 January 2011]

I just want to explain (especially to Murushi), that the director does not hate woman and children :o) its's simply so, that the original stories (ballads/folk-tales not fairy tales..) are really cruel and dark.. Director gave these stories a bit modern view, e.g. Vodnik (Waterman) is more a romantic story than a horror story.. He cries in the end so as the girl does. It shows him as a hot-tempered man doing this all in affect and grieving for what he has done. I just try to translate you the original end of this story from the book (if you don't mind - its a clear spoiler :o): Written by K.J.Erben in 1853, according to the old folklore stories in a romanticism style:

"Two things they lie in blood here-

frisson goes through the back:

a child's head without a body

a body without a head"

Please, excuse my bad English :o)), but you see there is no place for sorrow in this story.. I just want to explain, that these stories are dark in their original but Brabec gave them a new and colorful face and maybe changed a bit our view of these stories (which our people knew from the basic school). I know these stories from my mother, she knows it from her mother and so on.. They even knew some of these poems whole by heart according to the book and were telling them to us when we were children :o) My granny's parents and her grand parents were telling these stories in winter time, when there was cold outside (and TV was no invented yet) and they wanted to have some fun :o)

Beautiful... and awful

[murushi · 5/10 · 6 October 2008]

First, the good: the visuals are stunningly beautiful. Great lighting, wonderful use of colour (especially in the 5th segment, The Golden Spinning-Wheel): the fall colours are amazing, everything is gold orange and red, including the girl's "red" hair and red beads in it. Most of the movie's visual palette is built around white or red or the contrast of the two. The soundtrack is beautiful, some melodies are haunting, all sound almost familiar and help bring the movie closer. Some scenes are mildly erotic and very beautifully - and tastefully - shot.

That said, I must move to my second point. The bad and the ugly, all at once.

The stories are morbid, totally gruesome. Does Brabec (the screenplay write/director) hate women and children? I don't believe K. J. Erben (the original book author) did, as I have seen his other fairy tales and they are beautiful. But this!!! Ugh!!! In every single segment either a woman or a child or both get hurt and often end up dead. Men are unaffected.

I would advise anybody to see the movie for its gorgeous images and lighting, and listen to the beautiful soundtrack, but be warned! This is seriously misogynistic.

The Bouquet

[EdgarST · 10/10 · 8 July 2011]

Beautiful compendium of seven Czech tales: in "Kytice" (Wild Flowers/Garland/The Bouquet), three little girls miss their dead mother and make her come back in a very special way; in "Vodnik" (Waterman), a young woman disobeys her mother and falls into a lake, where she is seduced by an amphibious man to whom she bears a child; in "Svatební košile" (Wedding Shirts), a woman begs to the virgin Mary for her soldier husband's return and he does come back as a ghost; in "Polednice" (Noon Witch), a housewife, worried by the crying of her baby, invokes the presence of the terrible witch Coca; in "Zlatý kolovrat" (The Gold Spinning-Wheel), an innocent and beautiful peasant girl who is asked in marriage by a king, is murdered by her ambitious mother and twin sister, to take her place in court; in "Dcerina kletba" (Curse of the Daughter), a young woman is punished for abortion; and in "Štedrý den" (Christmas Day), two girls go out into the dark, frosty forest to solve an enigma, without realizing Death is after a dear one, completing the circle of stories, based in ballads written by Karel Jaromír Erben in 1853. All the tales belong to the mythic and poetic spirit of Romanticism, with elements of fantasy, folklore, fairy tales, eroticism, death and predestination. A highly rewarding cinematic experience.

Incredible

[jethro-21 · 12 January 2001]

Like the guy from Alaska, I just came back from Europe this winter vacation, and in my stay at Prague I saw this movie. I had been seeing movies in all the countries I visited just to get a feel for their cinema (these are all non-subtitled foreign films i couldnt understand a word of), Schule in Germany, MeseAuto in Hungary, Billy Elliot in Austria and this.

This film was extraodinary. The interestin thing is that we never understood any of the other movies and just had to figure things out from the visuals, like watching TV on mute. But this movie had very little dialogue anyway, so it didnt matter. I found myself overwhelmed by the cinematography. It reminded me a lot of Akira Kurosawa's Dreams.

As far as I know, there was a famous poet who wrote 15 short stories, and this film is 7 of them (complete with 7 candles that one by one get blown out before each story). I'm not sure, but I took this to be a little like the movie Seven, where each candle, and thus, each story, represents one of the seven deadly sins. But because there were 15 stories in all, I'm not sure how well this theory holds up.

This is an incredible movie to try to pick apart. THere is so much symbolism and there is no language barrier. If you ever make it to the Czech Republic or Prague, specifically, check this movie out.

Breathtaking Show

[LordHaart · 9/10 · 12 February 2007]

I don't know how could someone dislike a movie like this one. Most important to this movie is not story, but picture and emotions. I was really astonished by this movie and I still think its one of the best Czech movies and its picture is one of the best of all films. In my opinion the best part was The Water Spirit. Its ending with desperate man sitting in the mud and crying over his loss of wife and child is simply breathtaking. These emotions are so deep that everyone must feel it with the Spirit. Also the picture of girl falling from the bridge is fantastic. I think this movie is definitely worth seeing for the feelings inside..

it is a good "movie"

[idaho_d · 10/10 · 4 June 2005]

I think the movie is absolutely great. I got stuck by the camera and stories that every Czech know from the primary school so good. Camera is amazing, somewhat like "Hidden dragon crouching tiger". Next thing which stunned me was a music and I knew I must have the OST. Actors were pretty good, I don't know what the writer of the before comment was awaiting. It is more an epic play made of Erben's verses than a movie. Story is not narrated only by the actor's performance, but also by the mood of scenes (colours, music, costumes). One must think a little more as it isn't an action movie. Though some action can be found there too. With exception of the last story which is incomprehensible without knowing the original poem, remaining parts are simply perfect.

Seven randomly chosen folk ballads in one

[luccinmail · 10/10 · 8 October 2005]

This movie is superb! It is a great way to learn more about Czech and Slavic culture.I strongly recommend to read the book first, to get some idea what it is about. The movie itself gives useful hints how to interpret the ballads in the book. Some hints are really unexpected and may change your interpretation crucially. For instance the portrayal of the water spirit. It is breath-taking! Various bright and dim colors back up the overall mood and create amazing atmosphere. Some horror and/or thriller-like elements are used, making the overall impression stronger. It is not an easy movie at all. The life portrayed in the movie and our present day life have a lot of common features, too.