#761: JIREŠ, Jaromil: Valerie And Her Week Of Wonders (1970)

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JIREŠ, Jaromil (Czechoslovakia)
Valerie And Her Week Of Wonders [1970]
Spine #761
Blu-ray


A girl on the verge of womanhood finds herself in a sensual fantasyland of vampires, witchcraft, and other threats in this eerie and mystical movie daydream. Valerie and Her Week of Wonders serves up an endlessly looping, nonlinear fairy tale, set in a quasi-medieval landscape. Ravishingly shot, enchantingly scored, and spilling over with surreal fancies, this enticing phantasmagoria from director Jaromil Jireš is among the most beautiful oddities of the Czechoslovak New Wave.

76 minutes
Color
Monaural
in Czech
1:37:1 aspect ratio
Criterion Release 2015
Director/Writers


Based on the novel by Vítezslav Nezval.
Dialogue by Jiri Musil.
Jireš was 35 when he directed Valerie and her Week of Wonders.

Other Jireš films in the Collection:

Eclipse Series 32: The Joke (1969)

The Film

A

Film Rating (0-60):

60

The Extras

The Booklet

Twelve-page wraparound featuring an essay by critic Jana Prikryl.

Commentary

None.

Three early shorts

By director Jireš: Uncle (1959), Footprints (1960), and The Hall of Lost Footsteps (1960).

Interview

With Czechoslovak film scholar Peter Hames.

Interviews

From 2006 with actors Schallerová and Klusák.

Alternate

2007 psych-folk soundtrack to the film by the Valerie Project, with a new video piece on the music’s origins.

Extras Rating (0-40):

39

60 + 39 =

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