Touch of Evil intro? Pah! Birdman? Meh! Victoria dares to go
where they failed and contain the entire run time of the film in one single,
unedited shot. Conceived by director Sebastien Schipper, this is
exhilarating and immersive cinema as the real hero, cinematographer Sturla
Brandth Grovlen, puts us directly into the action.
Briefly, the film takes place between 4.30am and 7am in
Berlin, charting the encounter between Victoria and Sonne and his three friends
at a club. Before she knows it, she’s allowed herself to fall in with them and
gets dragged into their botched bank robbery for a local mobster.
So far, so what?!
Victoria’s raison d’etre lies in Schipper’s desire to film
the entire escapade in real time and in one 140-minute take. The plot takes us
from the club, to the block of flats where Sonne lives, to the café Victoria
works in, to an underground car park for the meet with the mobster, and then to
the bank robbery… I will say no more: you get the gist.
Grovlen and his single camera is always at the heart of
action, immersing us in the group’s actions and interactions, making the
audience feel like it’s a mute member of the gang. Indeed, in the end titles, Grovlen gets top billing, ahead of the hard-working cast.
The cast knew their cues, but some of the dialogue and
action is improvised. There was only the budget for three takes, and what the
audience sees is the final take, so the performances are fresh, vital and real.
Again, given the immersive nature of the film, you forget you are watching
‘performances’.
There’s no getting away from the fact that nobody would be
raving about this film were it not for its technical ambition and
accomplishment, but it is impressive stuff, especially on the big screen (don’t
wait to watch it at home).
Score: 8/10
Victoria is set for
release on 29 April 2016.
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