As the week progresses, the film’s reality fractures. Valerie encounters a parade of characters who shift identities: her grandmother transforms into a young vampire seductress; a priest is revealed to be a sadistic charlatan; her father and brother might be the same person; and the line between a neighbor and a witch blurs. Valerie is accused of witchcraft, saved by magical earrings that emit a hypnotic powder, and witnesses the burning of her grandmother at the stake—only to see her grandmother return later, unharmed.
The film is an adaptation of the 1945 surrealist novel of the same name by Vítězslav Nezval. Nezval was a founding member of the Czech surrealist group, and his work was heavily influenced by the French surrealists, particularly André Breton. The novel, written during the dark years of World War II, was an attempt to escape the crushing reality of Nazi occupation by retreating into a mythic, timeless past.
: The choral soundtrack by Luboš Fišer is central to the film’s hypnotic effect. Valerie And Her Week Of Wonders
The film is an adaptation of a 1935 novel of the same name by Vítězslav Nezval, a leading figure of the Czech surrealist movement. Nezval’s novel was a dream-text, unbound by logic, and Jireš approached the adaptation with radical fidelity. Instead of forcing the dream into a conventional story, he let the dream dictate the film’s rhythm. The result is a work that feels more akin to the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch or the poetry of Arthur Rimbaud than to typical horror cinema.
There is a specific quality of light in the films of Jaromil Jireš, particularly in his 1970 masterpiece Valerie and Her Week of Wonders . It is not the sharp clarity of realism, nor the soft blur of nostalgia. It is the pearlescent, trembling glow of a dream held just before waking—or the first dizzying flush of a fever. Based on the 1945 surrealist novel by Vítězslav Nezval, the film stands as one of the crowning achievements of the Czechoslovak New Wave, a movement that used poetic abstraction to explore truths too volatile for literal expression. As the week progresses, the film’s reality fractures
As the film ends with Valerie laughing with her found-family of children, the nightmare fades—but it never fully ends. It lingers in the rustle of lace, the coppery smell of blood, and the distant, tinny melody of a broken music box. It is a masterpiece of the inexplicable, and seventy years later, it remains one of the most daring and unforgettable films ever made.
The key to unlocking Valerie lies in recognizing that the entire narrative is a visual metaphor for puberty. Specifically, the onset of female sexuality and the concurrent loss of childhood innocence. The film is an adaptation of the 1945
It is worth noting that Schallerová went on to lead a normal life, becoming a psychologist, and has spoken about the film with a sense of fondness and professionalism. Yet the ethical ambiguity remains a central part of the film’s legacy. It is a film that forces you to question your own reactions: Do you feel horror? Sympathy? Or something far more troubling?
The film is widely praised for its hauntingly beautiful cinematography and dreamlike production design: