Valerie's Week of Wonders

Czechoslovakia, 1970
Original title: Valerie a týden divu
Director: Jaromil Jires
Starring: Jaroslava Schallerová, Helena Anýzová, Petr Kopriva
IMDB: 7.2

The late 60s / early 70s were the golden age for tripped out, weird and experimental movies. LSD had recently hit the scene, taking music and art to a whole new cosmic level of artistic freedom and creativity. Unfortunately it was not to last, as reality set in and commercialism took over.

Avant-garde films from this period are unique both for their style and for their groundbreaking disregard for convention, and this film is a prime example. Additionally, it was made in Czechoslovakia - which for me at least, makes it quite an obscurity.

The film starts off with godawful opening titles, interspersed with soft-focus mini-vignettes of a beautiful young girl that made me think I was watching something from the studios of David Hamilton. Mind you, maybe the whole soft-focus thing was not then the soft-porn cliche it has become today.

In any case, soon enough the movie proper starts and we're thrown directly into Bat Country as a series of seemingly random and inexplicable events occurs. At this stage I'm wondering if the movie has any semblance of linear narrative whatsoever, or whether I should be looking for clues that its all a dream ... or something.

And in fact, I think that's probably the point. The movie plays like a pubescent girl's dream. People morph into other people, locations abruptly change, things don't necessarily make sense, there's lots of sex going on, and sometimes there are monsters.

Yeah... that about sums it up.

Valerie is played by precocious 14 year-old Jaroslava Schallerova, playing a young sexpot that would probably attract controversy were it made today. While the sex and nudity factor is mostly implied, there is no shortage of visual and contextual innuendo - with Valerie having a noticable penchant for eating erotically, peekaboo glances, lesbian tendencies and a patent disregard for incest. Obviously, this may make some people uncomfortable given the age of the actress.

While the main theme of the movie seems to be the coming of age of a young woman, undoubtedly there are more symbolic messages to be discovered that a casual first viewing will miss (and may also be lost a little in translation). I look forward to what a second viewing will uncover.

In summary, the film is a dreamlike, raunchy Alice in Wonderland on acid. It's sometimes slow, sometimes weird, often sexy, and almost always puzzling - but certainly an interesting and unique film with stunning imagery. Give it a chance and it will grow on you - especially if you like artistic, creative films that are a bit different.

Rating: 8/10

Screenshots - click to enlarge

Trailer