Valerie and her Week of Wonders DVD, 1970

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MovieMail's Review

Michael Brooke reviews the sublimely surreal Valerie and Her Week of Wonders.

One of the last films made during the great talent-blossom known as the Czechoslovak New Wave, Valerie... is a complete one-off. This bizarre cross between Alice in Wonderland, Lolita and Nosferatu was based on a novel by one of the founders of Czech Surrealism that in turn was inspired by an obsession with Gothic literature, and the result is just as headily hallucinatory as it sounds. 13-year-old Valerie’s first period triggers dreams spanning the sacred and the profane, and her subsequent investigations uncover long-buried family secrets and the most intimate truths about herself as she stands trembling on the threshold of adulthood. It’s visually and musically ravishing, crammed to bursting with Freudian and folkloric symbols, and Schallerová’s central performance gives the film considerable emotional charge. Small wonder that Angela Carter loved it: its influence on The Company of Wolves couldn’t be clearer.

Michael Brooke on 14th August 2008
View all 106 of Michael Brooke's reviews

Film Information

Director - Jaromil Jires

Produced - 1970

Main Language - Czech with English subtitles

Countries & Regions - European Film, Eastern European Film

Cast - Jaroslova Schallerova

DVD Details

Certificate:	15	Publisher:	Second Run	Region:	0
Length:	73 mins	Aspect:	1.33:1	Cat No:	SECONDRUN035
Format:	DVD Colour	Subtitles:	English

DVD Extras

New digital transfer with restored picture and sound
Interview with Valerie star Jaroslava Schallerov
New interview/introduction by film historian Michael Brooke
Booklet essay by Peter Hames.

Film Description

Elements of horror, fairy-tale, folklore, surrealism and Freudian symbolism combine in this poem on celluloid, in which love, fear, sex and religion merge into one fantastical world in the mind of an adolescent girl. Oneiric and ethereal, the film shows the heroine in a disorienting dream, seduced by priests, vampires, men and women alike.