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Title: Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (Valerie a t (2004) |
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Review of Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (Valerie a týden divu)
- "Boldly in the paths of Bergman, Fellini, and Bunuel" - NY TIMES / "Strange, mad, beautiful…" - CHICAGO SUN-TIMES / recently toured U.S. arthouses / A horror story with a nest of vampires. A bewitching fairy tale about a young girl’s coming of age. VALERIE AND HER WEEK OF WONDERS is a betwitching fairy tale in the tradition of ALICE IN WONDERLAND. Valerie discovers the world is not what it seems after she gets a pair of magical earrings. This haunting portrait of a beautiful girl’s emergence into womanhood is a ravishingly beautiful dream film in which horror and sexuality mix with tenderness and innocence.
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Comments for Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (Valerie a t
- Posted on 2008-04-05
A Masterpiece!!
Czech New Wave at its finest. Surreal, beautiful images, magnificent story, extraordinary sets, captivating characters and a story to get lost in! Highly recommended for anyone who enjoys the art involved in film, fantasy, post-modernism or surrealism!
Score: 5
- Posted on 2008-01-30
Edited for American Sensitivities?
I haven't seen this movie; I was going to buy it here until I noticed that this version is 74 minutes, while all the European versions are 77 minutes. That would suggest that about 4% of the movie has been cut for the American market. [Amazon.ca (Canada) doesn't give a length, so it may or may not be the full version.] There are a couple of unclothed scenes, one where a priest touches Valorie's bosom, and another where she prays before before getting into bed. I'd guess these are edited out of this version.
Score: 3
- Posted on 2007-07-14
"Good Night, My Brunette" ~ Nosferatu Meets Little Red Riding Hood
Note: Czech with English subtitles.
I would like to make two things perfectly clear at the beginning of this review. First of all, I do not claim to understand this film. Secondly, I will make no attempt whatsoever to explain the storyline. Well, maybe just a little.
The '70 film from the Czech Republic `Valerie and Her Week of Wonders' which was written and directed by Jaromil Jires is quite possibly the strangest, most incomprehensible film I've ever watched. It consists of a most unlikely mixture of nostalagic musical interludes displaying childhood memories of purity and innocence; a white room where the sound of a music box adored with a spinning ballerina fills the room, beautiful, blossoming flowers fill the pathway outside the house where just beyond a brightly colored forests of amber leaves dominate the landscape.
However childhood is coming to an end for the absolutely enchanting Valerie (Jaroslava Shallerova), the process of becoming a woman has begun during a brief stroll in the yard. Now the veil of naïvete has been lifted from her eyes and visions of another kind now begin to appear and beckon in stark and horrifying juxtaposition to the world she used to know. Depraved priests and vampire-like missionaries compete for her affections while overzealous flagellants pursue the young man of her desire. To further confuse and entice poor Valerie, an intermittent band of blonde haired muses in peasant dresses roam the forest exchanging amorous embraces soon awaken a strange fascination within her.
`Valerie and Her Week of Wonders' is visually stunning to the point of intoxication, yet totally incoherent in storyline. While the viewer is transfixed by the presence of the lovely Jaroslava one is left to feel captive to an onslaught of vampirism, voyeurism, sadomasochism, lesbianism and depravity. Truly the most voyeuristic film I've ever watched. This one is definitely for a very select, artistically oriented audience, file it away in your DVD case next to Fellini's `Satyricon'.
Score: 3 - Posted on 2007-03-23
come on!
Man, get a clue you people! This so-called "anti-catholic" film was released in the 1970s (during a period of intense social repression in Czechoslovakia) not because it was too "weird" for the censors, but because the original writer of the novel, Vitezslav Nezval, was one of the most celebrated communist poets of the 20th century. He was an upper ranking bureaucrat in the Ministry of Information during the Communist seizure of power in 1948, and in the 1950s became the personal secretary of Vaclav Kopecky, the most powerful (and feared) communist in Stalinist Czechoslovakia. Why do you assume that a good piece of artwork from a communist country must necessarily be anti-communist, or that artwork made by communists must necessarily be garbage propaganda? Get a history book. At any rate this has nothing to do with the film itself, which was released under a brutal political regime in the 1970s, and just happens to be excellent.
Score: 5 - Posted on 2007-01-30
Good surrealistic film, with some reservations
This 1970 film from Czechoslovakia is a surrealistic movie that deals with a teenage girl bizarre dreams after reaching puberty. The film is certainly imaginative, has very strong visuals, is submerged in lovely central European folklore and is shot in luscious color. But what bothered me a little was something else: the constant mockery of the Catholic Church. Here one must say that the Catholic Church was not the most oppressive institution in Czechoslovakia in 1970. Rather, this was the time of the communist repression after the breakup of the Prague Spring. So, in light of this, these shots against a potential enemy of the communist regime seem a bit politically opportunistic, and gives a somewhat bad taste to an otherwise fine film.
Score: 3