Those lucky enough to be in London this week have the chance to see not one, not two, but THREE rare and precious horror classics on the big screen: the Czech surrealist dark fantasy Valerie And Her Week Of Wonders, from 1970, as a double-bill with 1972’s Morgiana, both at the Muse Cafe, as well as a live scoring of Hitchcock‘s Psycho with a 40 PIECE ORCHESTRA!
Valerie And Her Week Of Wonders, from director Jaromil Jires, is a gem of a pearl of a treasure of the Czech New Wave. It is a poetic, subconscious allegory for a young woman’s first awakening into desire, leaving innocence behind. It’s vague; it’s poetic; it’s abstract; it’s colorful, and confusing, and really, really good.
Nobody can do surrealism like the Czechs, so make sure to Czech it out! (i’m really, really sorry about that).
Valerie And Her Week Of Wonders imdb
To follow, as part of a double bill, is Morgiana, another veiled exploration of emerging female sexuality, this one bathed in blood, mayhem and murder.
I’ve not yet had the fortune of seeing Morgiana, but some keywords on imdb are murder, suicide, wig, and grande dame guignol, not to mention a neon lit Dark Comedy tag, to give us an idea of what’s likely to occur. Sounds like something you wouldn’t want to miss. Comes complete with a mouthwatering gothic lysergic soundtrack from Lubos Fiser.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gk0M7Bw_lbo
Valerie And Her Week Of Wonders and Morgiana are both playing at Muse Gallery: 269 Portobello Rd, W11 1LR. Tue Mar 3, 7pm.
Muse Gallery FB
@muse_gallery
themuseat269.com
Psycho With Live Soundtrack
You all know Psycho, right? The second most famous movie that becomes another movie, right behind Full Metal Jacket?
You don’t know Psycho like this!
On Wed. March 4, London’s Dominion Theater, will screen Hitchcock’s opus, with a 40 piece orchestra playing the bone grinding, jarring iconic string soundtrack by Bernard Hermann live!
Here’s your chance to peel back 6 decades of ennui and experience, and really feel the uncomfortability and menace the audiences must have experience the first time they saw this macabre masterpiece.
To this day, the soundtrack remains one of the most iconic and chilling in movie history, standing alongside Penderecki’s Threnody For The Victims Of Hiroshima, used to soul blasting effect in Kubrick’s The Shining. The chance to see it performed live with a full orchestra simply can’t be passed up.
Dominion Theatre, 268–269 Tottenham Court Road, W1T 7AQ. Wed Mar 4, 7.30pm. £26–£61
Dominion Theater FB
@DominionTheater
dominiontheater.com
For those of us not lucky enough to live in the capitol, I encourage you to seek out these films and watch them. Let’s have a virtual pizza party! Isn’t that what the internet is for, to bring us closer together, allowing us to share the weirdest, wildest, most wonderful art around?
Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (Valerie a týden divu)
If anyone ends up seeing these for the first time this week, or if you’re already a fan, let us know in the comments!
For more horror and music news, the supernatural and high weirdness, follow @for3stpunk on Twitter.
