"It's nothing, only a man hanging."
— Orlík
Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (the original title is Valerie A Týden Divů — "Valerie and a Week of Wonders") is a Surrealist Czech New Wave horror/fantasy film from 1970, directed by Jaromil Jireš and based on the novel of the same name by Vitezslav Nezval. The plot, as far as can be discerned, concerns young teenage Valerie, who lives with her severely prim grandmother. Her earrings are stolen one night and then returned the next day, after which a strange and sometimes disturbing phantasmagoria commences.
This Cult Classic has garnered an alternative soundtrack courtesy of the band The Valerie Project who perform their score over the film at screenings, and has been referenced by other artists including of Montreal and Broadcast.
Valerie and Her Tropes of Wonders:
- Adults Are Useless: Consistently, Valerie's only protector is Orlík. All the adult authority figures are, at best, weak and at worst, utterly corrupt.
- Adaptational Sexuality: In the film Valerie and Hedvika are heavily hinted to be bisexual, the novel portrays them as totally straight, even when they share a bed. In the novel Orlík confesses to Valerie that he was raped by Tchoř, but there is no mention of that in the movie.
- Age Lift: Although usually when a screen adaptation deals with sex scenes, underage characters tend to be aged up, however Valerie is 17 in the novel (just like Orlík) and 13 in the film.
- All Just a Dream: It's not super obvious, but given the film's surrealist nature and the fact that it starts and ends with Valerie sleeping, you can safely assume that the film is a Valerie's dream.
- Animal Theme Naming: Tchoř ("Polecat") and Orlík ("Eaglet").
- Archnemesis Dad: Tchoř enslaves, tortures and harasses his offspring.
- Big Bad: Tchor the Polecat, the vampire who keeps trying to steal Valerie's youth.
- Brother–Sister Incest: Orlík is in love with Valerie, who admires but rejects him until she kisses him in the final scene.
- Burn the Witch!: Gracián tries to have Valerie burned to death, lying that she seduced him.
- Character Name and the Noun Phrase
- Coming of Age Story: That blatantly starts with Valerie's menarche.
- Corrupt Church: The film shows an uncomfortable size of corrupt churchmen and nuns.
- Damsel in Distress: Valerie on several occasions. One some occasions she escapes using a magic pearl, alternately she is rescued by her brother.
- Dance Party Ending: That's not even the weirdest thing about it.
- Distressed Dude: Orlík is rescued three times by his sister.
- Dysfunctional Family: Valerie and Orlík are constantly under threat from their older relatives.
- Ethereal White Dress: Many girls (including Valerie) wear it.
- Evil Makes You Ugly: Mostly played straight with Tchoř (though he sometimes turns into his younger self/Valerie's father) and Babicka (becoming a vampire grants them crooked teeth). Inverted when they consume blood of Hedvika, Valerie or chicken as their blood rejuvenates them (for some limited time). Ironically enough, as a vampire Babicka looks much less like a corpse than when she is a human.
- Evil Old Folks: Babicka and Tchoř want to drain the youth of Valerie and Orlík.
- Exploring the Evil Lair: Tchoř takes Valerie into his underground room, where she proceeds to touch everything.
- Flower Motifs: The daisy with Valerie's blood sprinkled on it.
- Gainax Ending: Was it all a dream? Is Babicka dead? And Valerie's parents? The ending is ambiguous at best.
- The Hecate Sisters: Valerie fills the Maiden role, Valerie's mother is the Matron and Babicka is the Crone. Alternatively, all the characters played by Helena Anýžová can be used as an example: rejuvenated Elsa (Maiden), Valerie's mother (Matron) and Babicka (Crone).
- Heroic Bastard: Orlík and Valerie too, since she is the daughter of a bishop and a young nun.
- Luke, I Am Your Father: "Her father was the Bishop." "I was the Bishop!"
- Meaningful Name: Valerie means "brave", Tchoř turns into a weasel and Orlík guards and watches over his sister.
- Merciful Minion: Beginning with returning her earrings, Orlík constantly and furtively disobeys Tchoř in favour of protecting Valerie.
- Only One Name: There's no character with a known last name.
- Orphan's Ordeal: Valerie. Orlík suffers from the reverse.
- Our Vampires Are Different: Vampires transform into weasels and have a taste for chicken blood. Tchoř appears as a bald, white-faced monster with pointed ears. Also, they do not seem to care about avoiding sunlight (except Tchoř).
- Parental Abandonment: Valerie's mother died long time ago, and since her father was a bishop she never met him.
- Sex Is Evil, and I Am Horny: Babicka and Gracián are straight examples of this. Babicka is introduced as a rather conservative and religious matriarch, howerer Tchoř reveals her lust and masochism to Valerie, shattering her aforementioned image. Gracián is a priest, so celibacy is pretty much expected from him. In the first scene he appears two villagers are having sex. He covers the sight of a young nun so she wouldn't see that, looking quite displeased as well. But he himself has no problem having sex with Babicka or even Valerie. Some time later he publically executes Valerie under a pretence that she is a witch, who seduced him.
- Shapeshifter Mode Lock: Tchoř is trapped in his polecat/weasel form by Valerie's magic pearl. A farmer shoots the polecat.
- Unexplained Recovery: Gracián, Tchoř and Babicka all die and later mysteriously reappear alive.
- Wandering Minstrel: Orlík is often carrying a lute, playing or singing to Valerie. He is also seen with a guitar on his back and playing a flute.
