Part of Teenage Wasteland
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.
“Jireš’ dark fantasy was always out of step with the sharper and more political films of the Czech New Wave canon. But in the 45 [now 55] years since its release, VALERIE AND HER WEEK OF WONDERS has transcended that context. Now it enjoys a richly deserved place in the international canon of timeless coming-of-age stories.” —Judy Berman, The Dissolve “Virtually every shot is a knockout…. If you aren’t too anxious about decoding what all this means, you’re likely to be entranced.” —Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader
