Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (1979)

When watching Valerie and Her Week of Wonders something that immediately gets in the way of appreciating the movie to its fullest, is the 13 year old actor playing Valerie being nude. As an American audience this is very uncomfortable and unsettling, but when looking into Czech cultural norms being naked is more accepted in more circumstances. It is common for people of any sex to only wear underwear in public parks and in addition sleeping completely naked is the routine. More examples of Czech’s attitude for nudity here. This difference in culture is still causing tension between the Czech Republic and Poland, as near their borders the difference in changing room customs is making the Polish uncomfortable. This clash is both an issue in everyday life and in art. This poses the issue, what should be acceptable and where should the line be drawn in art when different cultural norms are involved. In Valerie and Her Week of Wonders, she is naked when she’s about to sleep, which is how Czech people exist. Yet as Americans that is not okay to have filmed, because she is a minor. Do our standards cancel out the morality and unproblematic Czech standard of the movie? I believe not, when given cultural context the scenes where Valerie is actually naked is less worrisome. Also in the movie the camerawork doesn’t reveal her chest when she is being sexually assaulted, it’s only before that moment when she is about to sleep. Her nakedness is only sexualized when a pedophile is introduced into the situation. It is a fictional example of what we worry about when Jaroslava Schallerová (Valerie’s actor) is filmed naked. We are uncomfortable with what happens to the art once put out into the world. Though, not to say I agree with Valerie’s actor being actually 13. I do still find the use of a 13 year old actor to act out sexual assault scenes, clothed or not, still wrong and sad to watch. Morally that crosses a line for me and I wish they had an older actor.

When coming to the actual movie as a whole there is so much to notice and talk about. A place to start is the juxtaposition of Valerie and her grandmother, Elsa. Moreover the juxtaposition of old Elsa and young vampire Elsa. First off Valerie is at the start of her womanhood as she heads into puberty which is the entire cusp of this movie. While Elsa is at the end of life, old, seemingly joyless and unwanted. When she tries to have sexual affairs she ends up being rejected and is sexually repressed in her old age. This all changes when she gives up Valerie for her youth. Once she has her youth back she gets everything she had been missing as an old woman. A driving force of the plot is the depressing repression ageism brings to Elsa and her desire to escape it. Ageism by no surprise is rooted in misogyny and exists in a way that puts old women and young girls against each other sometimes. Valerie and Her Week of Wonders is a fantastical version of this issue that effects womanhood, for both young and old. This is expressed through vampirism and the use of the makeup and actors. Vampires is something I will get to later, but the use of the same actor but just with different makeup is so meaningful. When I was watching this film, when vampire Elsa showed up on screen, I was like, holy shit I’m in love with this red headed vampire, then when it clicked she was the same person (I was first disappointed because that means she was a vampire I was against morally) I wondered why is it now that she is young and colorful I am not immediately against her when she comes on screen. The contrast creates the question of how older women are treated shows visually how it sucks the joy and beauty of young women hood out of them.

This idea of girlhood and womanhood all come together in this fantastical world through vampires. A young girl like Valerie just coming into her teenage years, would most likely not be concerned with preserving her youth or “vampires”, but when older women, like Elsa are coerced by the Constable and repression of old age, sacrificing Valerie for her youth it does become an issue Valerie must think about. Valerie has to face the enforced “horror” of becoming an older woman because of the past “horror” her family’s women before her had to face. This film is dealing with issues caused by patriarchy and by using vampires, creatures well known for their sexiness and youth, it represents what ageism causes women of any age to fear. This also ties into the importance of religion throughout this entire movie. The main point about the religion I would like to point out now, is the roles women play in “religious womanhood” as they are young they should become mothers and once they are older they are less useful, they become pushed aside for the younger more beautiful girls. They are a horror if they don’t have kids or just when they become old. This just adds another layer to the religious and vampirism used in this film.

Each shot of this movie is so meticulously put together. Each has more to unwrap than the last. That and the story and the symbolism are all too much to easily and timely put together in one unifying blog. From lesbianism curing vampirism, the use of pearls and Valerie’s pearl earrings, to the use of color, the importance of the costumes, the soundtrack, the reuse of actors, and just the story line itself. These all would take such a dedicated amount of time to look into, which would be so interesting, but not all in one night. So as much as I love Valerie and Her Week of Wonders, it’s too wild to sort out completely.