People are voting emotionally.

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

"Valerie and Her Week of Wonders" is much like if you'd told Ingmar Bergman to make a film about sex and puberty right after he finished making "The Seventh Sign"! This Czech movie is that strange...and it's clearly not your typical sort of movie about sexual awakening. I see no evidence of Judy Blume in this film!This movie is one giant string of metaphors involving Valerie and her ascent into adulthood--from her first menstruation to sexual urges to feelings of guilt. It's all very strange and I notice some compare it to "Alice in Wonderland"...though I see it as much more "Seventh Seal" inspired--with Angel of Death-like (and vampire-like) characters, incest, the death of innocence, bisexuality, guilt and more. None of it is said--instead it's all explored through odd symbolism. Overall, it's a film that some will no doubt like but others will be frustrated with. After all, if you're looking for either a skin flick (there is a fair amount of skin but it isn't particularly enjoyable or explicit) or a movie to show your daughter in order to explain sex education, you clearly do NOT want to see the movie. It's really only for those who love artsy films and don't get offended (and hopefully NOT turned on) by seeing an underage actress in such a highly sexually charged film.The cinematography was nice. But as for me, just give me "The Seventh Sign".

I was thinking this movie was going to be a lot like "The Company of Wolves", a movie I love. It turned out pretty differently.The Company of Wolves. Despite having symbolism and much of it being a dream/fantasy of a adolescent girl it also had a storyline and an incredible fairy tale setting.Valerie and her Week of Wonders. From the moment I saw pretty main character Valerie I knew I was in for a visual treat. The only thing in a narrative way that I'm really sure of is that she got her periods for the first time. The rest of the movie looks much like a dream. Fairy tale esque village and woods, fountains, pretty girls in white dresses, vampires, high level of sensuality, kissing, touching (not shying away from things that looked incestuous and lesbianism) even a bit of nudity.The story it didn't make much sense, I think it was after all a dream (and how often does a dream make sense?) and the viewer is free to give its own interpretation to it. Even though I usually like a pretty clear storyline I did like this movie. For some reason whatever Valerie did, experienced or observed it was never boring. I'm sure on a re-watch I'll gain even more from it.

There exists a short but unique list that I cherish; only containing titles that are both incomprehensibly weird and inexplicably fascinating! This particular list exclusively features rare but elite cult gems, such as "Sweet Movie", "In a Glass Cage", "Eraserhead", "I Walk Like a Crazy Horse", "El Topo", "Singapore Sling" and maybe a small handful of others. Only seldom a new addition is made to this list, but if there's one title that truly deserves an honorary ranking, it has got to be "Valerie and her Week of Wonders"! Long ago, when Czechoslovakia was still just one country, writer/director Jaromil Jires fabricated what can arguably be considered as the most surreal and lyrical 'coming of age' movie ever. The narrative feels like a fairy-tale (hence my similar writing style thus far) but the themes are mature, provocative, erotic and controversial. Yet, in spite of the exploitative nature of the subject matter, the film never descends towards the depiction of perversion or even gratuitous sleaze. "Valerie and her Week of Wonders" remains playfully surreal and suggestive from start to finish and the whole film is literally a spitfire of absorbing images, intriguing characters, dreamy music and hypnotizing sets & scenery. The pivot character Valerie is a beautiful and cherubic 13-year-old girl. The events of the film illustrate her first ventures into adolescence. Triggered by her first menstruation – although she believes it's because of a new and magical pair of earrings – Valerie encounters new people and looks differently at people she already knows. Like her grandmother, who's jealous of Valerie's youthful purity, a perpetrator with multiple personalities (including a vampire and a religious zealot) and a geeky boy with more or less the same age and who may or not be her sibling. Suddenly Valerie exclusively witnesses tableaux around her that spark her curiosity in sex even more, varying from arousing to downright macabre. The power of films like "Valerie and her Week of Wonders" lies within the fact that all the imagery and content can be interpreted in various ways, by different viewers, but also by one and the same viewer depending on his/her state of mind. I, for one, don't even daresay that I understood all the things I saw and got confused on more than one occasion. It also doesn't matter too much, as the movie remains visually striking and haunting regardless of interpretation. The male adult protagonist is most frightening, what with his bad dental hygiene and resemblance to Max Schreck's Nosferatu, and also the many folklore rituals generate a strangely uncanny atmosphere. A must for avid cult collectors and offbeat cinema.

Beautiful, disturbing, erotic, dreamlike... These are a few words that can sum up Jaromil Jires' deliriously bizarre fairy tale "Valerie and her Week of Wonders". Just like Richard Blackburn's sinister "Lemora, a Child's Tale of the Supernatural", "Valerie" is a 'coming of age' tale told through a monstrous metaphor: vampires, who prey on the young to drain their innocence. Despite similarities theme-wise, these two films are quite different, and "Valerie" is clearly superior - a film that will definitely haunt you for life, with images so shocking today as they were back in 70's when it was released. It is 'horror' of rare ethereal beauty and poetry, and definitely one of it's kind - perfectly capturing the fear, the curiosity and the pleasure of a little girl's sexual awakening. Jaroslava Schallerová is spellbinding as the title character - a combination of Lewis Caroll's Alice and Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita, and manages to convey both the purity and the sensuality that the role requires. Kudos for her doing such 'depraved' scenes involving incest and lesbianism, that are surely unthinkable today. Helena Anýzová also gives a harrowing performance in the role of the grandmother, and her gradual transition from repressed Catholic old lady to a seductive, sex-crazed vampire is exquisite. Last but not least, Jires' excellent direction and Jan Curik's lush cinematography that highlights the film's "fever dream" tone help create this brilliant work of art that captures the essence of the ethereal and lyricism on celluloid unlike any other.