Review of Fruit of Paradise (1970) by Edgar C — 07 Jul 2014

To those few familiar with The Deserter and the Nomads (1968) and Birds, Orphans and Fools (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 6 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, Fruit of Paradise 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.