I'm been off and on trying to track down this film, and finally I was in the right place at the right time and talked to the right person who quite literally handed me the film. Here's what I thought of the whole shebang.
Title - Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (1970)
Director - Jaromil Jires
Country - Czechoslovakia
A visual treat for the senses, Jaromil Jires' film is chock full of dreamy imagery presented in a fairy-tale atmosphere full of sexual wonderment and hierarchical confusion that is so compelling it will stay with you long after despite the film's fairly short running time. Based on the surrealist novel Valerie a tyden divu, the film is the exploration of a young woman named Valerie who has just entered puberty and notices that suddenly, along with the help of a pair of a supposedly magical pair of earrings, that everything and everyone she thought she knew are suddenly so very strange and frightening...and yet also very compelling.
Despite its surrealist origins and underpinnings, Jires has built a solid foundation of allegorical imagery that is so consistant it makes the film feel highly focused as to what it is trying to express. This is in spite of the fact that the allegories attached to the symbols are constantly shifting and changing both with and against Valerie's prevailing mindset creating a constent situation in which Valerie's perception of things ebbs and flows as she takes in more information from this new and at times disturbing world of adulthood. This transition from childhood into adulthood and the confusion that sometimes surrounds it is the core of the film and although the imagery shifts quite often, the film takes great pains to explore as much of Valerie's psyche as it can.
But it's not only Valerie's psyche that is explored, but the very foundation of trust that can be undermined and the confusion that can often result as children grow older. This is expressed not only through Valerie, but her relatives and the people that she has long considered trustworthy. Vampiric figures are featured heavily in Valerie's world as once trusted friends, relatives and clergymen seemingly become inhuman monsters preying on others in ways that are sexual or quite often revolve around simple controlling power struggles. Not only is Valerie awakening sexually, but the reactions to her awakening are often disturbing as she suddenly finds herself the subject of wanton, leering and unwanted sexual advances. Her reactions in turn cause her to become blamed for the actions of others despite her obvious innocent nature.
The hypocrisy of people's reaction towards Valerie is another large theme heavily explored and considering the political climate of a '60s era Czech Republic it's not hard to see the political parallels inherent in the film's messages. Expressing social outrage through art is common and burying it deep within the context of a fairy tale is a time honored tradition. The political and religious leaders in Valerie are common sources of distrust and ever changing alliances as they devilishly slide with ease from being a source of comfort to be a great source of terror.
Despite the heavy nature of the symbolism contained within the film, it still manages to stay focused on the continuing exploration of Valerie's strange new world. Despite all the terrifying changes and people, there are also constant sources of great comfort as Valerie begins to accept her maturing body and mindset. She blissfully wanders through the countryside enjoying the sensual touch of nature as she seemingly begins to feel a strong connection with it as her body grows fertile. Although her body is ripe and often the object of lust, the beauty of the world around her lets her know that it's all perfectly natural and a normal state of being.
The film is beautifully shot and almost every scene seems like a carefully crafted painting. Although this is quite often due to numerous exacting set designs on part of the film's creators, the natural surroundings of the countryside feature heavily both symbolically and literally as sources of great beauty and are used to great effect. Although the film has heavy sexual overtones and explores a great many aspects of Valerie's burgeoning sexuality, it never seems crude or forced and seems almost innocent in a way. Overall it's a very rich visually sumptuous delight whose images will stick in your head for years to come.
