Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (Valerie a t?den divu)
by Jaromil Jires
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DVD details
Actor: Helena An?zov?, Jan Klus?k, Jaroslava Schallerov?, Jir? Prymek, Petr KoprivaDirector: Jaromil Jires
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: Czech (Original Language); English (Subtitled)
Format: Color, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 73 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-01-13
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Facets
DVD Reviews of Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (Valerie a t?den divu)
DVD Review: This film is totally overrated
Summary: 1 Stars
There are some very pretty scenes in this film, like the scene where Valerie, dressed in white, puts her hands together and stares into the camera. These pseudo-mystical scenes are mesmerizing no doubt, but the majority of the film is a true waste of time. There is also a disturbing element in the fact that the little actress is actually nude in the film from time to time; I'm beginning to wonder if this is why there is a cult following of the film on YouTube. This really creeps me out.
I also did not like all the abuse and killing of animals in this film. Chickens, mostly, and then the poor weasel getting shot by a shotgun. Just really gross. I expect more from an art film than this sort of garbage.
If you want to see a really excellent film that's about young girl's coming of age, combined with Gothic horror and surrealism, then I heartily recommend Neil Jordan's The Company of Wolves, which is based on the stories of Angela Carter. That film is also a dream within a dream, but it actually has a story and a point behind it.
DVD Review: What everyone needs is a good WITCHING!!!!!
Summary: 3 Stars
Well after watching V.A.H.W.O.W. I came out scratching my head???
This is a very well made film and has some fine directing but BABY
throw plot right out the window! We follow the very young but not
naive Valerie in her dream like world through out the film and we the viewer see incest,infacticide and witchcraft. I really cannot explain
this film but say if you love Terry Gilliam and David Lynch than this is
for you. There is some horrific moments in this film like the priest with the NOSFERATU like teeth but this is more Alice in Wonderland than Allison
in Nightmareland. I may need to see this again but will be awhile for I have some catching up to do with some very dear friends.
DVD Review: Shifting dreamscape
Summary: 4 Stars
When I read Nezval's 1930s novel, I was sure it would work well in a visual medium. The book didn't so much narrate a story as align images against each other, creating a series of vivid visual impressions. This movie captures that sense beautifully.
Like the book, this movie offers little in the way of linear story line. Instead, sequences of event show the effect that Valerie's emerging womanhood has on those around her, including men tempted by her young beauty and older women jealous of it. Wantons around her foretell the love life that she'll have some day, and other young beauties reflect her temptation back at her. But, under it all, vampiric beings and shapeshifters carry out rituals with inscrutable purpose.
Part of this movie's quirky charm comes from its low-budget effects, part comes from the fresh-faced Valerie. Another part comes from analogies to a very strange Alice in Wonderland, in which the girl seems more of a spectator to a world with an inner logic that escapes her. If you're willing to trade plot for mystery and magic in a movie, give this one a shot.
-- wiredweird
DVD Review: A Masterpiece!!
Summary: 5 Stars
Czech New Wave at its finest. Surreal, beautiful images, magnificent story, extraordinary sets, captivating characters and a story to get lost in! Highly recommended for anyone who enjoys the art involved in film, fantasy, post-modernism or surrealism!
DVD Review: Edited for American Sensitivities?
Summary: 3 Stars
If you bought a 500 page book with pages missing here and there for a total of 75 pages, you probably would have a hard time following the story. That seemed to be the case with the U.S. version of this movie. I am now set up to be able to watch movies from any region whether NTSC or PAL, and this is one of the first ones I bought from Amazon UK. They listed an 85 minute version; when I ordered it, I received a copy with a different cover and it was only 73 minutes. [The NY Times Movie database also lists the movie at 85 minutes.] If this ratio was accurate, that means that nearly 15% of the movie had been cut to make the 73 minute version. The longest I can find anyone else showing the movie is 77 minutes, and that from several different sources, which would make the U.S. version a version with about 5% cut out. When Amazon UK checked into it further, they found that the 85 minute DVD listing was in error, and without my asking, refunded my money.
Both my wife and I noticed several times when there were obvious cuts in 'Valorie,' such as where two lines of subtitles were on the screen less than 1/2 second. Cutting movies for the U.S. market is fairly common with European movies. The most massive cuts I've seen so far are with 'Crusade: A March Through Time' where the Netherlands version is 138 minutes, the German version is 125 minutes and the U.S. version is only 100 minutes!
My best judgment now is that 'Valorie' in its theatrical run was 85 minutes. Since it was a movie from a Communist country, Czechoslovakia, it wasn't preserved in a proper manner for the twenty-plus years it would take for the country to be freed. Therefore, when it was able to be made into VHS or DVDs, eight minutes were too far deterioted to be used. Four more mintues were questionable, and might have been used in some versions. This was pared down, because of questionable quality, to make the 73 minute DVD that now seems to be the final version. Therefore, it would seem reasonable that many viewers would find the movie chopped up and confusing since it appears that about 15% has been lost from the theatrical version.
To comment on the movie itself, I would say that if you are a person who remembers your dreams and likes to think about them when awake, you'll find this movie familiar material, and you'll probably like it. If you don't remember your dreams, or ignore them because they seem so nonsensical, you probably won't like the movie.
I might add one more thought. If you order regularly from Amazon.com, you should have no trouble ordering movies from their U.K branch. In fact, I live less than 120 miles from Amazon.com world headquarters and I received the DVDs from England faster than from the U.S. Amazon! Just remember if you do order from Europe you need to be able to watch Region 2 DVDs.
Description of Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (Valerie a t?den divu)
"Boldly in the paths of Bergman, Fellini, and Bunuel" - NY TIMES / "Strange, mad, beautiful." - CHICAGO SUN-TIMES / recently toured U.S. arthouses / A horror story with a nest of vampires. A bewitching fairy tale about a young girl's coming of age. VALERIE AND HER WEEK OF WONDERS is a betwitching fairy tale in the tradition of ALICE IN WONDERLAND. Valerie discovers the world is not what it seems after she gets a pair of magical earrings. This haunting portrait of a beautiful girl's emergence into womanhood is a ravishingly beautiful dream film in which horror and sexuality mix with tenderness and innocence.General DVDs
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