Victoria

Plot synopsis:
Berlin, 04:00. After having her club time Victoria decides to leave. At the door a man, whom with his three friends are denied entry, asks her about the club. As she leaves the boys get kicked out again. Outside one of the boys introduced himself as Sonne and asks her to join them for a drink. She agrees to join him and Boxer, Blinker, and Fuss. Sonne takes her to buy beer. As they find the clerk sleeping, Sonne decides to walk out slowly with the beer. They then go to a roof where the boys usually hang out. After some chat Victoria leaves saying she has to open her workplace café later at 07:00. Sonne leaves to escort her. At the café she invites him for cocoa. Soon the boys come and pick him up. They leave Victoria, stealing a parked car. They quickly get back to her as Fuss is too drunk. Boxer insists they be four men so he demands Sonne to ask Victoria to join them.She agrees, and drives the car. They meet a gangster who protected Boxer in prison. Now the man demands something for it, asking them to rob a bank. Bocer refuses and promises the man his money. But he asks to hold Victoria. Sonne quickly steps in, telling him theyd do it. They practice the heist and then go for it. Victoria mans the wheel as they go in. She accidentally turned the engine off. Boxer has to hot-wire it again on exit, sending everybody in panic. But they regain control and leave the car near the club where they first met. They go back in there, not denied entry due to tipping much. There Victoria and Sonne find a romantic moment. But soon they all get kicked out for being erratic. The sky has already brighten up. Victoria asks the boys about Fuss, whom theyve all forgotten hes still sleeping in the car. They slowly walk away after seeing police has already found the car.They cant control their panic and soon get chased by the police. Blinker gets shot while Victoria, Sonne and Boxer hides behind a wall and return fire to the police. They retreat to another wall but Boxer gets shot in the leg. As the police advance Sonne and Victoria leave him into an apartment building. On the stairs Sonne threatens a man to give them shelter. The police surrounds the building. Victoria talks the mans wife to borrow their baby. She and Sonne take the baby and gets pass the police. They leave the baby at a store as Victoria promised the mother, then rides on a taxi. They go to Westin hotel where Sonne reveals that he was shot and is now wounded. He tells Victoria to take the money and disappear. Moments later he dies and Victoria controls herself and leaves the hotel.

Tags: tragedy

Review:
So...there comes Victoria, a movie by a experienced director, with (for the most part) unknown faces in the cast, a really small crew and shot in a single take in a night in Berlin.
The tracking shot in the movie isn't only there for effect and a showcase of the cinematographers talent, but a essential part of the films main story, that unfolds around a Spanish girl named Victoria, that meets a bunch of "real Berlin guys", so they call themselves, in the middle of the night.
You experience the story of Victoria in real time, you see live character development for instance.That, the down to earth acting and plot make the movie so incredibly immersive that it becomes something completely new and fresh, which is incredibly rare in recent years.
The acting in this movie is fantastic, the dialogue is actually completely improvised, so that the actors, especially the fantastic Laia Costa and Frederick Lau, become these characters in those 140 minutes and it feels real.
It feels like they are actual existing persons.The cinematography is brilliant, Sturla Brandth Grøvlen does a fantastic job in accompanying the main characters and even if there are some shaky parts, which was expected, its never annoying and the viewer becomes the camera.
Either way: Watch this movie and support movies with original concepts, only like this we will continue to get better movies than the usual dog**** from Hollywood and co.Victoria is a truly exhilarating masterpiece and the first time I felt like watching a new kind of cinema in a long time.
This is the first time ever I am writing a review on the IMDb, I just feel the need to do so because it seems like the movie does not get the attention it deserves, especially on a international level, but in Germany as well.
Pretty soon you become sure, that you are a part of the group and witness the events first hand, thus it is one of the most intensive movie going experiences you can have, I am saying this, as somebody who has seen "Gone Girl", "Rush", "Birdman" all these great intense blockbusters, but this movie really takes it to the next level.
The movie just drags you into the action, that some of it is hard to witness (even though there is no over the top violence or nudity scenes) It has been called the best German movie since "Run Lola Run" and as a matter of fact it is, even better, it does not even need any Nazi or DDR references, all it needs is a solid script with (especially in the getting-to-know-each-other-scenes between Sonne and Victoria) funny dialogue, a really great cast (most notably Frederick Lau and Laia Costa), a great subtle soundtrack and a very capable director who could pull this cinematic masterpiece of.
Victoria would be a really boring movie if just one department failed to do an extraordinary job - the Norwegian DP, the actors, the sound department - every little detail makes or breaks this film.
Other than of course the masterful camera work and direction, there's nothing absolutely spectacular to tell you to look out for-- It's just a solid movie experience that provides a full spectrum of good acting, mystery, action, emotionally driven scenes backed by a great soundtrack.
What follows is a descent into a rather cheesy, Hollywood-style gangster underground that feels totally out of place within the humble, realistic Berlin that the directors have clearly attempted to capture in this single-take film.The problem with "Victoria" is that the film's makers don't seem to know what kind of film they are trying to make: is it a fly-on-the-wall docudrama showing us everyday events with wildly unforeseen circumstances?
Even though we want to get pulled in to the events that are depicted, we are always aware that they just would not happen in the "gritty real life" Berlin that this film attempts to capture.Having said that, this crew has clearly got some great dramatic skills.
Shot in real time, filmed in one continuous take & made all the more believable by excellent performances from its cast, Victoria has that foreboding ambiance that keeps giving off the vibe that something unfortunate is about to happen all the time and even though its single- take gimmick is attention grabbing, it's the story & characters that hold this film together.Victoria covers a couple of hours in the life of its titular character, a young Spanish woman in Berlin who, while leaving a club one early morning, meets four local guys who invite her to hang out with them for a while, to which she agrees.
Although her adventurous night out with them ends on an amicable note, a last-minute favour asked by the guys alters her life forever.Co-written & directed by Sebastian Schipper, the story of Victoria could've been easily told without the filmmakers trying to be ambitious with the camera but that added inventiveness brings an admiration of its own.
The first half establishes the background of the characters as they stroll through Berlin streets & roofs but the next half is one nail-bitingly tense thriller that ups the ante considerably.Its single take lasting 138 minutes might be the combined result of clever editing, seamless switching & careful masking but what impressed me most is the fact that despite it being an impressive technical feat, it never for once overshadows the unfolding drama which remains the centerpiece throughout its runtime.
The actors are highly convincing in their given roles, which only gets better as the plot progresses, and it only helps in further uplifting the story.On an overall scale, Victoria ends on a far better note than where it appeared to be heading during the first act, keeps its main focus on the titular character from beginning to end, and manages to be an emotionally rewarding experience with or without the one-shot gimmick.
I don't want to summarise the plot too much, if at all, because I think this is the sort of movie you should go into a bit clueless - BUT, what can you expect is an amazing, edge-of-your seat thriller, beautiful cinematography, and great acting.Here in the UK we miss out on ever hearing about most European movies like this one, smaller budget with unknown actors.
It gives the feeling of being along for the ride, and personally kept my attention gripped for the entire movie.The titular character Victoria is a complicated girl, and you are given but tidbits of information as the story goes on, never quite a complete picture but a sense of her emotions, and her reasoning for the pertinent decisions she makes throughout the story.
But "Victoria" is missing more than just plot and action: it's missing heart and soul and really ANYTHING appealing for the audience.It's virtually an hour into this film before the "plot" even begins, and the only suspense towards the end was "when will this film be over so I can go home?" Like "Blair Witch," the ending was both inconclusive and unsatisfying.The much-ballyhooed "single-shot production" is also a failed experiment, in my opinion.
But instead, it just seemed like really uninspired - nee - bad - visual work.SO getting the whole movie in one shot is "amazing," but if it didn't make a good movie, what's the point, other than proving you could do it?I realize I'm up against a tidal wave of reviewers who think "Victoria" is amazing in a good way, and not just amazingly awful.
Unlike most movies, there's no fictional filter keeping you distant: an exaggerated make-up, unrealistically clean surfaces in film sets, fake rains, ugly digital insets, cameras precisely zooming and panning from impossible points of view, declaimed lines following one another like a metronome, robotic characters who don't stammer and don't drop their cigarette.
With this film, I admire and respect the effort and style they were going for, and it honestly feels like the film has been done in one shot with the superb editing, timing, and great acting.
It felt as if the director wanted that specific style so the film could "stand out" to other competitors, as if to fool the audience and critics they were watching something different and artistic but really it's a distraction from the weak story-line and characters.
It is not a movie about a Spanish girl living in Berlin, about being estranged in modern modern city life, it is not about Berlin, not about making choices, it is not about life, death, conscience, it is about nothing, nothing other than; the fact that is was shot in one take.It gets five stars in major newspapers, for, as is the case with most films these days; it blows a screen of action and tension, the smoke being a decoy for substance.I remember this space movie with Sandra Bullock, Gravity; that was also supposedly a brilliant movie, since it was made with special techniques.
You only prove yourself wrong, is what you do, and as we say in Holland; you throw in you own windows.I guess the process was exhilarating, which is a good reason to make anything of course.But if you want to watch a movie that is not about itself, and will be dear to you for years to come, because you love the characters, their struggle, their mannerisms, their pain and courage, then don't bother with this.If you want some kind of thriller, then go for it..
This film is a great experiment and has a kind of forward energy but without a sense of a world that it takes place in (suggestion: most modern audiences want energy, action and nods towards humanity but have no time for character development or a genuine sense of empathy?).
And I loved the gimmick of having high school level English the common language of the main characters, who would otherwise be unable to communicate with each other.The drawback of this hyper-realistic, one-shot filming technique is that everything has to happen in real time--including the getting-to-know-you first hour, which is essential to make the improbable things that Victoria does in the second hour believable.
Victoria the kind of pretty nice movie from Europe and i think this movie are challenge for US Writers and Directors because in U.S. movie like this was filmed long time ago.
Perhaps a good idea makes an actor better, and through that, a quality performance.'Victoria' tells the story of a young woman who befriends a group of men after a night of partying in Berlin, only to get very close with one of them and then eventually join them in a wild escapade that will likely change the course of her life — all of this over the course of two hours and twenty minutes, all shot in one take.
The film is also backed by a simple, minimalist score that helps pass the time during certain sequences, but also adds to the level the film is at.Decent story, decent script, fun concept, but great character interaction kept 'Victoria' afloat.
The 138 minute moving play, shot in a single take, is truly an intimate experience.Victoria, a Spanish girl who has recently moved to Berlin, meets some young men on their way out of a club at 4am.
The plot would work fine as a traditional film, but when you add the proximity of the camera and single take aspect, the experience of the characters and the viewer is contiguous.Through 22 set changes, including moving vehicles, chase scenes, dance clubs, intimate moments, piano playing and dialogue, cinematographer Sturla Brandth Grøvlen steadies his camera and places us in the middle of the action.
There's not return possible, no happy ending possible at least in this movie.The first part of the movie is really pleasant, even though we can feel it won't last...Superficial common behaviours played by the actors, which are all really excellent, camera work, soundtrack, everything is just well mastered.In the next half, we enter the dark side of the story, and nothing isn't pleasant anymore.I won't spoil anything, but it's really a sad movie.We can be sorry that it happens like that because the "victims of their stupidity" are not bad people, but again, it's too late.What was done was done, and obviously with all the negative consequences that are related to what was done.In fact, it's a clever movie, we could take a lesson out of it, if we "think" with our heart and not only with our brain.For me, my preferred part was in the coffee-shop, with the Liszt's Mephisto Waltz...That explain everything, or not...
She also backed out of the night a few times so in the end got caught up with the circumstances.The bond they guys have is great along with it being shot continuously as if you were there on a night out on the town.The nightclub scene towards the end was euphoric with the music substituted and captures their raw emotion of what has just happened.Do yourself a favor and watch this film..
The fact that he's filming nearly 140 minutes straight is remarkable in itself, but that he's also accomplishing to make the camera seem like an own acting person, who is part of these events, feels with the characters and sometimes is even "scared", too, is absolutely magnificent and helps by dragging the audience into the movie.
Further I want to consider that Berlin looks gorgeous in the early morning hours.That leads me to my second point, that the film feels so incredible realistic caused by its great acting - especially Laia Costa and Frederick Lau have got a splendid chemistry - and its way of telling an heist-story.
The camera always stays at Laia Costa's character, Victoria, so the viewer is forced setting up a closer emotional relationship to her, what clearly pays off in the third act, when there's a terrific emotional outburst by Laia Costa, who well- deserved won "Best Actress" at the German Film Awards.There's also a great climactic structure in the movie and you won't believe what crazy things can happen in only 2 1/2 hours.
Every character gives another essence to the movie, without that this flick wouldn't have worked so well.After leaving the cinema I still was very excited and that's always a very good sign for me because it shows how the film has infected me.
With a bit of distance I have to admit that "Victoria" might be my favorite film of 2015 and also being one of my Top 10-movies of all time.Thank you, Sebastian Schipper, for bringing your idea to life..
"Victoria" directed by hotshot German director Sebastian Schipper was first viewed in Berlin back in february (2015) at which time I was not in the mood to watch a German film about small time hoods in the worst part of town Neukölln and gave it the ankle early but i had more patience and time on my hands in Miskolc seven months later so I watched the whole picture from beginning to end and was most pleasantly surprised this time around because it was not just the gimmick of shooting it in one continuous take that was important but rather the pace of the film the intrigue of the story and the excellent acting especially by the fresh young Spanish actress Laia Costa and the main German actor Frederick Lau who become accidental lovers in a story that has much more to it than at first meets the eye and finally grips your heartstrings at the end when this at first light hearted comedy turns into a suspenseful bank robbery followed by a desperate chase during which our German hero gets hit by a police bullet but is only wounded and escapes to a hotel room where he expires most tragically in the arms of the naïve Spanish girl who was just along for the ride but got in much deeper than she expected to which is exactly what happened to me in the audience when I realized that this is much more than a gimmick film and got so swept up in the drama that I soon forgot that this was all a single take with no editing cuts just as this review is one single sentence not stopping for punctuation breaks because who needs them anyway if the story is good enough to make breaks superfluous -- right?Alex, Berlin.
Almost reminds me of the film Spring Breakers, just a group of young people so in the moment that the mundane turns in to the obscure, but the long uncut tracking shot and the wonderful natural non- acting feel to the actors gives this movie far more credit.At first the two hour and eighteen minute run time seem like overkill but it only helps to bring you into the notion that Victoria had a long night, because she really, really did.Check it out..
The casts are great, the character development was believable - even though if i were Victoria, i would never done such things - however, the second half of the movie made on the edge until the end.Gave it 9/10..
This is by far the best German movie I have seen in the last 10 years.Even though Berlin night-life is not really my thing, it's easy to be captured by the story-telling and the amazing performances by all actors.The idea of acting is to make it feel real and authentic to the viewer, and this is exactly what this movie does in an incredibly breathtaking way.Most German films I have watched in my life seem to have dialogue that has a staged and and forced notion to it.
Entirely a one-shot film, at least how it seems, starts off from a club where Victoria (Laia Costa), young Spanish woman who works in a cafeteria nearby, is dancing and having a good time.