Directed by:
Sebastian SchipperCinematography:
Sturla Brandth GrøvlenComposer:
Nils FrahmCast:
Laia Costa, Frederick Lau, Franz Rogowski, Burak Yigit, Max Mauff, André Hennicke, Martin Goeres, Ernst Stötzner, Lena Klenke, Adolfo Assor, Philipp Kubitza (more)VOD (1)
Plots(1)
Berlin, 4am. Victoria, a young woman from Madrid, meets Sonne and his three mates outside a club. The local guys promise to show Victoria the real side of the city, but they owe someone a dangerous favour that requires repaying that evening. As Victoria's flirtation with Sonne deepens into something more he convinces her to come along for the ride. And as the night takes on an ever more menacing character, what started out as a good time quickly spirals out of control. (Madman Entertainment)
(more)Reviews (10)
Like Birdman, Victoria fails to convince us that the one-shot approach is anything more than a way to show off (the director likes to boast in interviews that, unlike Iñárritu, he didn’t use “invisible” digital editing and managed to get the whole film down on the third attempt with the actors after ten days of rehearsals). That said, it starts promisingly. Despite the seeming spontaneity, a clear plan and consideration for the viewer can be perceived behind the construction of the plot. All of the main characters are introduced to us during the lively prologue and we can easily remember them thanks to their nicknames. A clever safeguard against occasional slips of the tongue and hesitations is the fact that most of the characters don’t speak their native languages for a large part of the film, so they sometimes have to search for the right expression for a moment. On the roof, potential conflict is indicated by drawing attention to Boxer’s criminal past. In the café, the relationship between Victoria and Sonne is deepened through authentically intimate dialogue, legitimising the girl’s subsequent decision to join in the action to come. When the narrative begins to conform to familiar genre formulas, it loses steam and nearly all of its potential to somehow surprise us. One cliché follows another (the need to find a substitute accomplice, the engine failing to start, the gunshot wound not revealed until long after the impact), the absolute majority of scenes last longer than is necessary, the initially rather likable characters behave increasingly like idiots (which, from a certain moment should clearly be partially explained by the fact that they are under the influence of drugs), and the predictable ending is delayed by a number of unnecessary feints that in no way deepen the characters’ psychology or expand the film’s slight intellectual foundations. Despite the impressive technical execution (the cinematographer rightly gets priority over the director in the closing credits) and the skilful guidance of our attention by alternating between greater and lesser depth of focus, the film is not engaging enough to work as an example of intense “experiential” cinema, nor is it suitably rich in motifs or appropriately specific in the setting or characters (the protagonists barely have enough character traits for a two-and-a-half-hour film) to be taken as a statement about today’s multicultural Berlin or Generation Y. Victoria has bigger ambitions and a bigger budget, but in the end, it’s an admirable failure.
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For a concept involving the authentic night-time doings of a few characters in ordinary locations of Berlin, 140 minutes is a lot. The first half of this film drags a bit in exceedingly trivial scenes and dialogue. But what happens later is all the more surprising and gripping, especially if you know nothing at all about the plot. The troubles come in hints, and we suspect and fear them because the protagonist doesn’t deserve them. This is a very well made, emotive and thoroughly intensifying “one-shot” film with good acting performances.
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(BE2CAN, Lucerna) A very intensive experience, likeable characters, a high degree of credibility and form that leaves you flabbergasted. For me, by far the best of this year’s Be2Can: it wasn’t too brooding, didn’t have any snobbish answer to existential questions, it even had a plot! And it got an applause, wow!
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The amazing dynamic and confident direction by Sebastian Schipper can sure be felt in this movie. When the film starts with the opening scene in the dance club, I was absolutely satisfied. It’s an exact description of the Berlin club scene including music that fits the situation. It’s a small thing, but I really care about the way electronic music is depicted in movies. The thing is that filmmakers often include illogical stuff in their dance club scenes and in that case any semblance of realism is immediately lost for me. Anyways, as much as I liked the music (not only the electronic music in the club, the whole soundtrack is pretty dope), the protagonist Victoria ruined the whole thing. I mean Laia Costa’s portrayal of the character is pretty believable, but you be the judges of this. Victoria is a young and talented girl who has been working as a waitress in Berlin for a couple of months. She lives day to day, she doesn’t have to worry about work too much, she just wants to have fun. She goes clubbing to this joint where all of the sudden she meets a group of people who at first made me think that they were going to drag her somewhere over to the Berlin Wall, rape her and discard her body on a pile of garbage. I mean some girls can be pretty naïve and dance club girls tend to be the most naïve of them all. But she manages to keep up with them. She enjoys an interesting night with them, finds out a couple of personal things about them – it would have messed me up to find out what she did… well and then they rope her into a robbery that they only suggest indirectly. But since she is a young and bored European chick, she decides to help these guys that she has only known for like three hours. The whole thing is so incredibly naïve that I don’t know where to start. But thanks to the phenomenal direction, I give the flick three stars. I would’ve given four, but only if Victoria wasn’t as dumb as a box of rocks.
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"I'm reluctant to rate it with the hackneyed phrase of "form overshadowed content", though it's pretty much the best way to describe it. In any case, the chosen format "in real time" is bold and ambitious, everything is in constant motion, it is made as one uninterrupted shot and through several different moods and genres it can be undeniably engaging, intense and as “Mann-style" captivating in many scenes as anything else. However, when something does happen (and it does more than it is appropriate), then the chosen form is on the contrary the cause of complete alienation and total exclusion from the movie, when you get so bored that you start noticing the smallest technical and production aspects, how they did a sloppy job in some scenes, and you will not pay that much attention to what is (not) happening on the screen. It's just the whole footage follows the sinusoid curve, for some time it is great, while some time it is out of place. Yet at the end of the day, what is the worst thing about this movie is a way too long, unjustified footage, especially the opening hour. As a result, I would be much more interested in watching a documentary showing how this movie was created including its pitfalls rather than watching the movie itself. Still, great job! We cannot deny that it is something that no one has ever tried before in such a scale. And more importantly, this movie is rather a success than a failure.
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This is a triumph of form over content. Hats off to the creativity and all the preparations that had to precede making this movie to make it all come together in one coherent continuous shot. Unfortunately, what makes this movie incredibly underwhelming is the behaviour of characters, who make the most stupid decisions possible just to give some direction to the melodrama. Plus, since the movie makes it so the audience is locked in with these idiots for a full one-hundred and forty minutes, the audience is then fully able to feel the effects of both their incomprehensible actions and the unnecessarily overlong running time more intensely.
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Man, I really wanted to love this film, but it just didn’t happen. I absolutely adore long, unbroken shots, so I expected to be blown away by a movie shot in one continuous take. And while the cinematography is flawless, the story just doesn’t hold up. I get that creating a coherent plot for this kind of format is challenging, but I couldn’t get past the sheer stupidity of the main characters, especially Victoria. I should be rooting for her, but she’s just so frustratingly naive. The whole thing feels implausible and left me unconvinced. However, I have to admit, even though a lot about this film annoyed me, it stuck with me for days afterward. It did leave an impression, which says something. Maybe I’ll give it another go and see if I appreciate it more, but I have a feeling the glaring foolishness of the characters will still be a tough pill to swallow.
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Film as a performance and it's up to you how you take the ending. Unlike the others, I am instead convinced that the one-take method here is closely intertwined with the content, which simply wouldn't work without it. The genius loci of early Berlin, where anything goes, plays one of the main roles here; those who have ever drunkenly and drugged their way through the morning big city will particularly appreciate the immediacy of the first half of the film, which otherwise functions as a notoriously overwrought introduction to the narrative and characters. In a clever move, I find that the non-native speakers communicate with each other in broken English, which paradoxically simplifies their communication with the viewer, which is always limited to cutely futile bare sentences and not burdened with superstructure. Which can generally be applied to the whole film. The problem, paradoxically, arises once the plot gets going, when many imbecilic decisions can no longer be excused by adrenaline, alcohol, and drugs, but instead increase in intensity and, thanks to a narrative in real time, we drink in their consequences throughout. The uncomfortable tension that otherwise makes the whole film a veritable festival of viewer discomfort is thus transformed into a relentless facepalm and gnashing of teeth, as the one-take method is now becoming ossified and continues to lack formal attraction. It's only there, and it's only for one take. Nothing more (nothing less). P.S. For a woman who unsuccessfully went to pee at the beginning of the film, Victoria ended up making it through the next two and a half hours just fine. I had always suspected during my school days that girls go to the bathroom partly out of boredom.
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I probably didn’t get the film’s message, hence the low rating. When I found out it had over 70%, my jaw dropped so low it almost broke my toe. From my point of view, it’s a movie about a stupid girl, who after leaving a nightclub joins four drunk Germans. When they don't gangrape her within the first five minutes, she’s so thrilled that she joins them in a robbery and child kidnapping. The movie would be too short, so the filmmakers shrewdly filled it with pointlessly long scenes in which nothing happens. I don’t see any point in philosophizing about the influence of disco music on the development of characters, so this is the end of my review.
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The film definitely has a good pace and the characters are quite intense, plus it develops maybe a little differently than you expect at first glance. It's a ride, almost in real time, with an interesting camera and interesting editing. However, it didn't manage to engage me in a way that I would outright admire the film.
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