S1E5 - Valerie & Her Week of Wonders (1970) + Fellini's Juliet of the Spirits (1965)

Sex vampires! Demonic possession! The burning of heretics! Sexual awakenings! Polecats! They're all right here in a pair of full color fantasias from Europe. First, young Valerie (Jaroslava Schallerová) finds her journey into womanhood fraught with grotesque vampires, pervy priests and vicious polecats in the Czech new wave weirdness of Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (1970). Then, Italian maestro Federico Fellini explores similar themes in Juliet of the Spirits (1965) where his wife and muse Giulietta Masina is thrust into a dreamlike world by suspicions of her husband's infidelity. As in our first film, we've got the burning of witches, demonic possession, and creepy nuns, but it's Fellini so there's also a tree house with a sex elevator and plenty of circus weirdness all set to a jaunty Nino Rota score. Philena Franklin and Cory Sklar are here to recommend the weed and Bob Calhoun brings us all down by talking about the Soviet tanks rolling into Prague. Valerie and Her Week of Wonders in streaming on Criterion Channel and Juliet of the Spirits is streaming on HBOMax and Criterion. Weed is at your dispensary in participating states.