Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (1970)

Inspired by fairytales such as Alice in Wonderland and Little Red Riding Hood, is a surreal tale in which love, fear, sex and religion merge into one fantastic world.

Director:

Jaromil Jires

Writers:

Vítezslav Nezval (novel), Jaromil Jires (screenplay)

Stars:

Jaroslava Schallerová, Helena Anýzová, Petr Kopriva

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview:
Jaroslava Schallerová	...	Valerie
Helena Anýzová	...	Babicka / Elsa / Matka / Rusovláska
Petr Kopriva	...	Orlík
Jirí Prýmek	...	Tchor-konstábl
Jan Klusák	...	Gracián
Libuse Komancová	...	Sluzka-novicka
Karel Engel	...	Kocí Ondrej
Alena Stojáková	...	Hedvika
Otto Hradecký	...	Statkár
Martin Wielgus	...	Tchor-father
Jirina Machalická	...	Kvetinárka
Michaela Klocová	...	Sluzka
Zdenka Kovárová	...	Sluzka
Bedriska Chalupská	...	Sluzka
Robert Nezval	...	Muzikant

Storyline

A thief awakens Valerie, just 13, taking earrings left to her by her mother. By morning, the earrings have been returned, Valerie's first period has begun, and a troupe and a missionary have arrived in her 19th century town. The thief is Orick; he reports to a cloaked constable who may also be the missionary. Attention to sexuality is everywhere: Valerie's grandmother's puritanical nature, the missionary's sermon to the town's virgins, the parish priest's attempt to seduce Valerie, and lusty adults at play. Valerie's nascent sexuality puts her in great danger. Can she navigate the passage from innocence to experience, a route teaming with vampires, a murderer, and an obscure family tree?

---

Plot Keywords:

innocence | coming of age | incest | older man younger woman relationship | grandmother granddaughter relationship | 

---

Genres:

Adventure | Drama | Fantasy | Horror

---

Certificate:

Not Rated

Did You Know?

Trivia

This film is part of the Criterion Collection, spine #761.

---

Goofs

Several times throughout the movie people are picking up musical instruments and music is heard as if they are playing them but the fingerings don't match up with the notes, or sometimes no hand manipulation is done at all, just the appearance of playing the instrument. In one case, Eaglet is playing the flute and plays it horizontally when it is the vertical kind.

---

Quotes

[subtitled version]
Grandmother: Hedvika is marrying
Valerie: Poor Hedvika

---

Connections

Referenced in Growing Pains: Puberty in Horror Films (2014)

---

Soundtracks

Dobrou noc, má plavovlásko
Music by Lubos Fiser
Performed by Josef Abrhám

User Reviews

Curious and evocative

In the 1960s British TV screened a good number of European Fairy tales like 'The Singing Ringing Tree' for children (probably because they were cheap product). They were often strange and grotesque evoking a real sense of the uncanny nature of pre-sanitised fairy tales. Valerie and Her Weeks of Wonders is made in this vein. Redemption may market the film as a 'virgin comes into sexuality' 70s softcore film, but it offers something more than this. There is an enormous amount of care taken in the film's visual composition and the music. Standing on the border between horror and fairy tale it brings out the latent combination of erotic desire, aggression and fantasy that links the two genres. At times the film borders on the sublime with its evocation of dreamlike imagery. Centred around Valerie's quest to discover the identity of her parents they are revealed to be duplicitous shape changers - at one moment a handsome man or woman and the next a hideous vampire beast. Eschewing the rules of Hollywood linearity and character continuity this film re-creates subjective space and affords us a welcome space in which to dream.

Details

Country:

Czechoslovakia

Language:

Czech

Release Date:

16 October 1970 (Czechoslovakia)

Also Known As:

Valerie and Her Week of Wonders

Filming Locations:

Barrandov Studios, Prague, Czech Republic

Company Credits

Production Co:

Filmové studio Barrandov

Technical Specs

Runtime:

77 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1