Valerie And Her Week of Wonders
– Valerie, a Czechoslovakian teenager living with her grandmother, is blossoming into womanhood, but t..
Valerie, a Czechoslovakian teenager living with her grandmother, is blossoming into womanhood, but that transformation proves secondary to the effects she experiences when she puts on a pair of magic earrings. Now seeing the world around her in a different light, Valerie must endure her sexual awakening while attempting to discern reality from fantasy as she encounters lecherous priest Gracian, a vampire-like stranger and otherworldly carnival folk.
16 Oct 1970
Czech
Jaromil Jires
Vítezslav Nezval (novel), Jaromil Jires (screenplay), Ester Krumbachová (screenplay), Jirí Musil (dialogue)
Jaroslava Schallerová, Helena Anýzová, Petr Kopriva, Jirí Prýmek
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?
1 nomination.
Criterion Collection