Tag: Czech new wave

Valerie and Her Week of Wonders

Valerie and Her Week of Wonders is a 1970 movie directed by Jaromil Jires.

Valerie and Her Week of Wonders tells the story of Valerie, a 13-year old who is coming of age. Her development leads to strange events, including her grandmother trading her soul for eternal youth, pursuit by vampires and her eventual unsuccessful burning at the stake. Jires creates a brilliantly strange and dreamy atmosphere that features intriguing lighting and camera decisions. Jaroslava Schallerova gives a comical, aloof performance as Valerie.

THE BEST – Burned at the Stake

This is probably the funniest scene of the movie. Since Valerie has protection from the flames, she taunts her captors – when they demand a confession, she sticks her tongue out at them.

THE WORST – For Most of the Movie, I Had No Clue What Was Happening

I’m not ashamed to admit this.

FOX FORCE FIVE RATING – 3.75/5

Valerie and Her Week of Wonders blends genres to create a dreamy, experimental vision. It’s a strange movie but wildly unique.

The Joke

The Joke is a 1969 Czechoslovakian movie directed by Jaromil Jires.

The Joke tells the story of Ludvik Jahn, a University student who is expelled from the Communist Party after writing a politically incorrect note. Fifteen years later, Ludvik returns to exact revenge on those who voted for his dismissal.

I don’t normally delve into the background of the movies I review – simply because I don’t want to rehash Wikipedia research. However, the context of this movie is important. Released in 1968 during The Prague Spring, The Joke was popular in Czechoslovakian theaters before being banned for twenty years. During this time, Soviet Union troops invaded the country and crushed the uprising.

Jires uses this repressive backdrop to present a parable on the futility of authoritarianism – and in a sense, the folly of individuals opposing such systems.

The overarching theme of The Joke implies that the Communist Party’s rhetoric ultimately proves its own weakness and dysfunction. A joke is a threat to the party’s ideals and treated as treason. Individual thought collides with the collective group-think, which craters the Socialist vision.

In some respects, The Joke lobs these arguments in a heavy-handed manner. Ludvik’s letters to a politically-involved girl he’s chasing are turned into the state. After a sham trial, he’s expelled from his University and the Party. Eventually, he finds himself in the military, followed by a stint in prison and then endures three years in the mines.

He reemerges fifteen years later to gain a measure of revenge on those who derailed his life. Clearly, Ludvik has been scarred but it’s not entirely evident how his personality has changed. He’s a dour, smarmy, cynical, self-professed “skirt chaser” as both a young student and middle-aged man.

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