Film Road to Halloween: Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (1970)

The road to Halloween is paved with good films. Wherein we countdown to the spirited season with a hundred doses of horror. 29 days to go.

Have you ever watched a film and have no idea what in the world you just watched? Valerie and Her Week of Wonders is one of those films. Directed by Jaromil Jireš, one of the most influential directors of the Czech New Wave, Valerie has almost all the characteristics of this film movement that began in the early 60s.

A mix of the French New Wave and the Italian Neorealism, the Czech New Wave characterized itself for the use of improvised dialogue, unprofessional actors, and wicked humor. This movement was a result of political turmoil in the country and how it affected the society, particularly the younger generation. Some directors, like the well-known Miloš Forman, relied on a more direct approach when telling a story in film. Other directors, like Věra Chytilová and Jireš, used a very different approach to the narrative; they used Surrealism to tell their stories or adaptations.

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Valerie is adapted from a novel of the same name by avant-garde Czech writer Vitězslav Nezval. He is also known as the founder of the Surrealist movement in Czechoslovakia during the 1930s. It is no coincidence Jireš decided to narrate the film that way, in part to honor Nezval’s influence on the movement. Surrealism is a cultural movement that, among other things, is heavily recognized for its use of dreamlike imagery.

When watching this film, you notice quickly this trait, not only because of the absurdity of it all, but because of how the film is presented. The cinematography is almost solely responsible of creating this “out of this reality” atmosphere, because of hot it plays with lightning above all. There are various instances where the lightning behind the characters give them this sort of aura that makes them look angelical or godly. There are places where the absence or low use of light indicate the place is not a trustworthy place, like the parish house.

As for plot… I don’t know where to begin to be honest. The surrealism is so real, ironically, that is very difficult to tell you what this film is about without losing everyone’s attention in the process. You might’ve noticed that I mentioned the “absurdity of it all” in last paragraph, and this is because the film is a mix of absurdity with a little bit of reasoning.

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In essence, Valerie is a film that tells the story of this 13 years old girl that learns she’s gotten her first period and has now become “a woman” to society’s eyes. During the process of this whole week, Valerie discovers that society and family change the way they look at you and treat you once you reach this milestone of every girl’s life. I think this fairly summarizes the film’s preamble. Oh, did I mention there are vampires, magic pearls, characters that die and resurrect a few times, creepy priests, among other things? This is a crazy ride!

Jireš chose to adapt one of the most bizarre novels of the Surrealist Movement in Czechoslovakia and I can see why. This story, in all its weirdness, is a fascinating one to tell with the language of cinema. Cinema gives you some tools that theater or even TV, as very close siblings, can’t give you. In theater you don’t have the advantage of changing scenery so quickly, nor can use editing to pace and play with the narrative and how it’s told.

In TV you don’t have the same artistic freedom (something that has drastically change with time) as with film, especially in a time where art was heavily censored in some parts of Europe, including Czechoslovakia. Nevertheless, Jireš managed successfully to use cinema’s favorite traits (editing and cinematography) to move the narrative of this story that by reading it only, it could never come as close.

There are lots of people that consider this film as a fantasy film (they’re right), but almost never consider it a horror film, which is shocking if you ask me. Considering who the protagonist is and how the story is from her point of view only, it begs to question if many of these people that don’t consider it a horror film are not women. If you try to put yourself, man or woman, in the shoes of Valerie, this film is hell for you.

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Valerie is experiencing for the first time something that almost every girl in their life will experience, but the circumstances of each girl are unique to them. Even though we can see Valerie taking the news so lightly at the beginning of the film, we don’t know the anxiety such event could bring her. It is why everything that happens in this film makes so much sense when looking it through her lenses.

Although the structure of the film is so confusing, like most of the characters’ actions, you have to consider that this film is a collection of dreams Valerie goes through after learning she has “become a woman”. There are at least seven moments where we see Valerie sleeping, and there are seven days in a week, therefore I believe everything that happens after she goes to sleep is a dream. This explains why there are some characters that die in one sequence but appear alive in another.

Of course, Jireš plays with our minds by giving us an apparent linear sequence of events, but in reality what we’re watching is a sequential dream recollection. Even the cuts use don’t suggest change of day, you have to be very attentive to notice that we have changed from one day to another. It took me at least three watches, two of them in consecutive days, to notice such a small detail.

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There are various moments in this film that are genuinely very scary when looked through anyone’s eyes. One of those moments goes to her room to catch some sleep midway through the film. She is beginning to change to her nightgown when Gracián, a priest staying at her house, enters her room unannounced. Then he insinuates something that only a predator could do and while beginning to take his robe off, in the most disturbing way possible, he tries to rape Valerie. Fortunately, Valerie’s magical earrings save her from such a horrible moment. If this is not an indicative of what girls and women alike have to go through in life, because, ugh, men, then I don’t know what is.

Another moment, that involves Gracián too, is when Valerie is accused publicly by him (obviously) of being a witch. This was because she denied him access to her body when he tried to rape her. Of course, with his influence over the people, Gracián managed to send Valerie to burn at the stake. Again, Valerie is saved by her magical earrings, but the whole sequence when she’s burning is very scary. From her acting to the people watching, plus the fact that the cinematography captures so elegantly the flames’ power, the scene is pure horror.

Besides Gracián, there are other characters in the film that are also bad with Valerie, like her grandmother Elsa, and the Constable, aka the Bishop, aka the Polecat, aka Richard, aka her father, aka not her father, because, why not? Only characters that seem to sympathize with Valerie, probably because they’re victims of the Constable too, are Orlík and Hedvika. Many of these characters represent something important in Valerie’s life, like parental figures and fears she could have.

What I appreciate the most is the acting of this cast. Because they had to endure the fact that most of these scenes were literally written the same day or the day before shooting it. Lots of improvisation was made and is barely noticed in their work. Obviously the MVP here is Jaroslava Schallerová, who plays Valerie. She was selected out of 1,500 girls and I don’t think any other girl could’ve done what she did so convincingly.

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Valerie and Her Week of Wonders prove to be a challenge for me because it’s one of the few times that I’ve watched a film which narrative structure is not so easy to follow. I have watched Memento (Nolan, 2000), The Tree of Life (Malick, 2011), and recently The End of Evangelion (Anno & Tsurumaki, 1997), and I can assure you this is the most confusing film I’ve watched yet.

Nevertheless, it’s a good watch and worthy of your time whether you like this kind of films or not. There are elements that are worth enough to guarantee a view, like the cinematography, the editing, and the production design. There’s also a historical value, since it’s one of the most important films of the Czech New Wave.

Then there’s the fun of trying to decipher the puzzle this film is. Although the most common interpretation is the one I explained in the plot summary, like every work of art, Valerie is open to any interpretation. Hell, we could have our own week of wonders by sitting with some friends trying to decide what this film means to each. If that’s not enough to guarantee a watch, well, at least you can watch for the vampires…