Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (1970)
(Valerie a týden divu)
Country: CZ
Technical: Eastmancolor 73m
Director: Jaromil Jires
Cast: Jaroslava Schallerová, Helena Anýzová, Petr Kopriva
Synopsis:
As she experiences her first period, Valerie begins to imagine that her grandmother is in league with her late father, the bishop, who is in fact a vampire known as 'the weasel', and that her suitor is in reality her brother by the local gamekeeper.
Review:
Infused with erotic fascination and horror, this adaptation of a 1930s surrealist novel, itself inspired by Lewis Carroll's Alice and other fairytales, was more or less the last gasp of subversiveness that came out of Czechoslovakia during the 60s. In colour and mise en scène it may well have inspired Wojciech Has's The Hourglass Sanatorium, but it is far more succinct, sensuous, and easy to follow. With hindsight, some of the outdoor shots call to mind the cinema of David Hamilton, or a Flake commercial even, but given the appalling weather that plagued production, the results are nothing short of ravishing, packaged in the transgressive playfulness typical of the genre.
(Valerie a týden divu)
Country: CZ
Technical: Eastmancolor 73m
Director: Jaromil Jires
Cast: Jaroslava Schallerová, Helena Anýzová, Petr Kopriva
Synopsis:
As she experiences her first period, Valerie begins to imagine that her grandmother is in league with her late father, the bishop, who is in fact a vampire known as 'the weasel', and that her suitor is in reality her brother by the local gamekeeper.
Review:
Infused with erotic fascination and horror, this adaptation of a 1930s surrealist novel, itself inspired by Lewis Carroll's Alice and other fairytales, was more or less the last gasp of subversiveness that came out of Czechoslovakia during the 60s. In colour and mise en scène it may well have inspired Wojciech Has's The Hourglass Sanatorium, but it is far more succinct, sensuous, and easy to follow. With hindsight, some of the outdoor shots call to mind the cinema of David Hamilton, or a Flake commercial even, but given the appalling weather that plagued production, the results are nothing short of ravishing, packaged in the transgressive playfulness typical of the genre.
(Valerie a týden divu)
Country: CZ
Technical: Eastmancolor 73m
Director: Jaromil Jires
Cast: Jaroslava Schallerová, Helena Anýzová, Petr Kopriva
Synopsis:
As she experiences her first period, Valerie begins to imagine that her grandmother is in league with her late father, the bishop, who is in fact a vampire known as 'the weasel', and that her suitor is in reality her brother by the local gamekeeper.
Review:
Infused with erotic fascination and horror, this adaptation of a 1930s surrealist novel, itself inspired by Lewis Carroll's Alice and other fairytales, was more or less the last gasp of subversiveness that came out of Czechoslovakia during the 60s. In colour and mise en scène it may well have inspired Wojciech Has's The Hourglass Sanatorium, but it is far more succinct, sensuous, and easy to follow. With hindsight, some of the outdoor shots call to mind the cinema of David Hamilton, or a Flake commercial even, but given the appalling weather that plagued production, the results are nothing short of ravishing, packaged in the transgressive playfulness typical of the genre.