Trailer
Plot summary
Valerie is thirteen and lives with her grandmother Elsa. A thief slips into her room while she sleeps and takes the earrings her mother left her; in the morning he gives them back, which angers the masked Constable. The thief is Orlík, and he writes to Valerie that the Constable is his uncle, that he killed Orlík's parents, and that he means to have the earrings. Elsa explains that the jewelry had belonged to her daughter, who entered a convent, and that the Constable once owned both the earrings and their house. Word reaches the town that clergy and a traveling troupe are due. At the wedding of her neighbor Hedvika, Valerie spots the Constable among the guests, and Elsa appears to recognize him. Orlík asks to see her at the church that evening.
Cast
- Petr Koprivaas Orlík
- Jirí Prýmekas Tchor-konstábl
- Jan Klusákas Gracián
- Libuse Komancováas Sluzka-novicka
- Karel Engelas Kocí Ondrej
- Alena Stojákováas Hedvika
- Otto Hradeckýas Statkár
- Martin Wielgusas Tchor-father
- Jirina Machalickáas Kvetinárka
- Michaela Klocováas Sluzka
Show all 20 cast
- Zdenka Kovárováas Sluzka
- Bedriska Chalupskáas Sluzka
- Robert Nezvalas Muzikant
- Slávka Špankováas Valerie (voice) (uncredited)
- Eva Olmerováas Handmaid-Madame (uncredited)
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (1970)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Ester Krumbachová's screenplay was set to be directed by her husband Jan Němec, but after the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968 he was fired from Barrandov film studio and barred from directing. The project passed to Jaromil Jireš, whose 1969 film The Joke had been banned by communist authorities.
- Jaroslava Schallerová won the leading role of Valerie from 1,500 girls who auditioned for the part, and she was 13 years old when the film was shot.
- Many writers have pointed to similarities with English writer Angela Carter, who saw the film during its release in England; her screenplay for Neil Jordan's The Company of Wolves (1984) bears a direct or indirect influence from it.
- In 2006, members of New Weird America acts Espers, Fern Knight, Fursaxa and others formed The Valerie Project, which performed its own alternative score live in unison with the film from 2006 to 2008.
- Molly Santana's second album, Molly and Her Week of Wonders (2025), takes both its title and its aesthetics from the film.
