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Valerie and Her Week of Wonders



A girl on the verge of womanhood finds herself in a sensual fantasyland of vampires, witchcraft, and other threats in this eerie and mystical movie daydream. Valerie and Her Week of Wonders serves up an endlessly looping, nonlinear fairy tale, set in a quasi-medieval landscape. Ravishingly shot, enchantingly scored, and spilling over with surreal fancies, this enticing phantasmagoria from director Jaromil Jireš is among the most beautiful oddities of the Czechoslovak New Wave.

SPECIAL FEATURES

• New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• Three early shorts by director Jaromil Jireš: Uncle (1959), Footprints (1960), and The Hall of Lost Steps (1960)
• New interview with Czechoslovak film scholar Peter Hames
• Interviews from 2006 with actors Jaroslava Schallerová and Jan Klusák
• Alternate 2007 psych-folk soundtrack to the film by the Valerie Project, and a new video piece on the music's origins
• New English subtitle translation
• PLUS: An essay by critic Jana Prikryl

So happy to see the Valerie Project soundtrack included and synched (the cover to which would have made an infinitely better cover for this too)

I'm sure it's just an error, but as of now only able to order on Amazon

If this isn't tickling the top spot of my favourite releases of 2015 by the end of the year, I'll be shocked. It would have been nice to have the extras Daniel Bird put together for the German DVD included too (which included a Bird/Hames commentary and an interview with the late, great Trish Keenan - clip here), but I can't really fault the package as it is. Thank you Criterion!

I'd only bought the Second Run DVD last week but now off to Amazon Marketplace it goes. I haven't even watched the disc yet and will hold off till I get this Blu-Ray. Should be something special to see this film for the first time and in 4K.

Considering a lot of us had to make do with the Facets DVD before Second Run's release saved us, you're one lucky duck indeed!

I never saw the Facets, but the old Redemption DVD had just about the worst source print of any film made in my lifetime. The jump-cuts (from splices) got so pervasive at one point that I was convinced that it was an eccentric editing strategy.

Fantastic news!

If you can believe it, Facets was worse than Redemption.

DVD Beaver comparison

Tremendous movie, a real hallucinogenic experience that requires many revisits to absorb & its images still percolate the mind long after the film finishes. Shame that the cover artwork doesn't stand up to the design used on the terrific Second Run release, but I'm thrilled to see this in its new 4k restoration. The Czech new wave era is an absolute gold mine, I hope that Criterion offer us more BR titles from this fascinating artistic movement.

Here's a page on The Valerie Project, with attached live performance video.

Does anybody recall whether this was one of the films announced for the three Czech New Wave Eclipse sets? I seem to recall that it was, but can't remember exactly. If it was, then I don't know if that's good news (the films slated for those sets can be upgraded to the main line) or bad news (those other two sets are never going to happen).

zedz wrote:Does anybody recall whether this was one of the films announced for the three Czech New Wave Eclipse sets? I seem to recall that it was, but can't remember exactly. If it was, then I don't know if that's good news (the films slated for those sets can be upgraded to the main line) or bad news (those other two sets are never going to happen).

They should throw the rest of the titles into one box and make it a Mecha-Eclipse

The most hard-to-find title from those (sadly) unreleased eclipse sets is Jires' KRIK (THE CRY). This film does not appear to be available even in Czech Rep. Or from France (through Malavidia). It was on YouTube until recently sans subs (off of Czech TV) but this film like Schorm's films will have to wait for a Chytilova-like revival.

Today by sheer coincidence I was driving and listening to the of Montreal track "St. Exquisite's Confessions," which name-checks Valerie & Her Week of Wonders in the lyrics. This in turn reminded me I needed to check Criterion's website to see what the June titles were, as the time this happened was right around the time they post them, and when I looked, they had announced it! Maybe I willed it into existence. Regardless, I am very happy--I'll join the crowd that found the Facets DVD release of an unusually miserable quality, and I love this film.

Raymond Marble wrote:Today by sheer coincidence I was driving and listening to the of Montreal track "St. Exquisite's Confessions," which name-checks Valerie & Her Week of Wonders in the lyrics. This in turn reminded me I needed to check Criterion's website to see what the June titles were, as the time this happened was right around the time they post them, and when I looked, they had announced it! Maybe I willed it into existence. Regardless, I am very happy--I'll join the crowd that found the Facets DVD release of an unusually miserable quality, and I love this film.

Funny, I did the opposite and celebrated the announcement by blasting that track!

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So I bought the German Bildstörung DVD of Valerie and I swear I read it had a commentary with Peter Hames. Does a version with any commentary exist or did I just dream this up?

I don't have that DVD, but that's my understanding too.

theflirtydozen wrote:So I bought the German Bildstörung DVD of Valerie and I swear I read it had a commentary with Peter Hames. Does a version with any commentary exist or did I just dream this up?

Yes, I have the same version along with the limited edition Blu-Ray of 'Daisies' which has a slipcase, soundtrack and a commentary with Daniel Bird and (I think) Pater Hames. So possibly there was a similar limited edition of Valerie which had a commentary which wasn't included with the standard version.

This?

kindaikun wrote:So possibly there was a similar limited edition of Valerie which had a commentary which wasn't included with the standard version.

This appears to be the case. The only place I found that still has the special edition is the label's website. However, I can't manage to select a shipping address anywhere outside Germany. Perhaps if someone has dealt with this before and could help, they could PM me?

It's also available on Amazon.de and Ebay (though more expensive).

theflirtydozen wrote: This appears to be the case. The only place I found that still has the special edition is the label's website. However, I can't manage to select a shipping address anywhere outside Germany. Perhaps if someone has dealt with this before and could help, they could PM me?

I'm not sure about the label's website but it's is available to ship internationally from Amazon.de (although you have to search Valerie - Eine Woche voller Wunder (Special Edition) [2 DVDs]) and the seller mySWOOOP® GmbH it for €45 and ships internationally. Remember though, that despite the commentary being in English, there are not English subtitles for the main feature (at least this is the case for the standard version which I own).