Otherwise, The Fruit of Paradise, based on the legend of Adam and Eve, was an allegorical portrait of male/female relations presented in images of remarkable beauty and unconventional narrative with a heavy use of improvisational acting and stylized production techniques. She reworked the story as a metaphor of subversion. {niftybox background=#afdeb2, width=360px} After Daisies Chytilová did not receive local state funding, causing her to be temporarily banned from filmmaking and had to wait over three years before a Belgian company called Elisabeth Films supported the costs of production. Another critical success, The Fruit of Paradise played at the 1970 Cannes Film Festival. {/niftybox}

After the Soviet invasion of Prague in 1968, such excesses were not encouraged and Chytilová (as aforementioned) found herself unable to work. Other prominent New Wave directors Milos Forman, Ivan Passer, and Jan Nemec went into exile with Forman carving out a successful career in Hollywood. In 1976, she wrote an open letter to President Gustav Husák, discussing the meanings of her films and her beliefs in socialism. She was surprisingly reinstated, returning with a lively parable of sexual relations with Hra o jablko (The Apple Game, 1976), starring Dagmar Bláhová and fellow director Jirí Menzel who respectively play a country midwife who is seduced by a philandering doctor. The Apple Game resembles a more conventional film narrative, but it still reflects a pointed depiction of male-female relationships. Instead of being produced at the main facilities in Barrandov, the film was relegated to the smaller Kratky Studios, usually used for animation and shorts. In 1977, The Apple Game was shown at Cannes, but then withdrawn from competition at Berlin and refused a screening at the London Film Festival. Later, however, it was actively promoted and entered into the New York and Chicago International Film Festivals and won a Silver Hugo at the latter. The unusually abrasive moral tale of dehumanized relationships Panelstory (Prefab Story, 1981) continued in the same vein as The Apple Game. Chytilova renewed her collaboration with Krumbachová for a comic portrayal of a middle-aged Don Juan in Faunovo velmi pozdní odpoledne (The Very Late Afternoon of a Faun, 1983). In later years she derived much of her inspiration from theatre, directing a film version of the mime play Sasek a královna (The Jester and the Queen, 1987), and working with the avant-garde theatre group Sklep (The Cellar) on Kopytem sem, kopytem tam (Tainted Horseplay / Snowball Reaction / A Hoof Here, A Hoof There, 1988). A retrospective of her films was shown on French television in 1989, but she still did not receive similar recognition from the English-speaking world until after the Berlin wall came down and the break-up of the Eastern Bloc.

{niftybox background=#afdeb2, width=360px} In a characteristically humorous and double-edged accolade, fellow Czech new Wave director and 'enfant terrible' Jan Nemec (probably most famous for The Party and the Guests (1966) and for shooting spontaneous documentary footage when the Russian Tanks rolled into Prague to curb a possible revolution there) said in 2001 that he believed Vera wasn't a female director or a feminist because she was really a man. Perhaps that is exactly why she has managed to begin and maintain a long career, by behaving uncompromisingly and persuasively in what was and still is a male dominated industry. {/niftybox}

In 2002 Vera was celebrated with a retrospective all over the UK. When she visited London for the beginning of the Prague on Film Festival in the spring of that year, I had a chance to talk and get some inside information on her career and philosophy to publish in an online publication I was writing for at the time.

Also in attendance with Vera was Dasha Blahova, who starred in her commercially successful, yet controversial comeback film The Apple Game.

CL: Vera, how do you feel about having a retrospective in London?

VC: It's not just in London; it's in the United Kingdom. It feels quite normal as I have retrospectives all over the world.

CL: Why has it taken so long for Prague to be featured in a season like this, considering there have been so many films about or set in Prague?

VC: It took London that long to make it happen.

CL: Even though you started making films in the late 1950's, most people remember your first success as being Daisies. What are your recollections of the film, particularly it being well received?

VC: Daisies as well as most of my other films was made despite the protests of the authorities. We were trying for almost half of the year to get the permission to shoot this film, so eventually they let us do it.

CL: Were there any influences in the making of Daisies, particularly in the formal approach?

VC: In the cinematography, Daisies is not comparable with anything else. This film was created with thanks to, and because of, our team, which was in fact ideal. The camera was done by my husband (Jaroslav Kucera), and the artistic design was done by Esther Krumbochova. {niftybox background=#afdeb2, width=360px} This film was my first project in color and we wanted the color to have its function, not really a description. The authorities were under the impression that it was a film about the Czech youth. What we wanted to make was an existential film and to use it as a protest against the destruction of the country. What was interesting was that the western part of the world perceived this film as being against all conventions. So it's clear that it depends from what angle you perceive the film. {/niftybox}

So from one point you can see the things as liberating. We thought that the creativity as well as destruction was two sides of the same coin because people who are not capable of creation get their kicks from destruction. And at the same time there was some kind of protestations against the political rehabilitations that took place at the time the film was made, which is present in the film's final scene. The film was laughing at them, ridiculing them, and I think they understood that. Therefore, the film wasn't shown in Cinemas.

CL: Aside from the political perceptions, were the Surrealists or animators an influence on you?

VC: Definitely there was an influence in the direction of the actors from puppets. It was highly, highly stylized in order to create a psychological approach to acting. But as part of that they were perceived on a psychological level. It's very difficult to make the viewer accept the idea of the form and not be taken by the story.

CL: Your next film Fruit of Paradise mixes allegory with the avant-garde, and also Ester Krumbochova was involved in the making of the film. Her presence in the mise-en-scene was very evident. What was it like working with her?