Victoria

The desired fantasy of a night out is that everything will flow perfectly, like a single tracking shot. The reality is that there are always inevitable lulls, highs and lows, periods of time when time goes fast and when it drags. Regular films imitate this reality through editing, chopping everything up so that it is accurate to how we remember experiencing events, not how we actually experience them. Quite paradoxical to purpose of editing a film, editing makes the reality of the film skewed from reality, or from the raw stream of consciousness through which we filter reality. The single tracking shot, unedited, is thus the most accurate portrayal of a collection of events occurring as they really would. This film thrives in that it gets character growth right in such a short window. It does so because the real circumstances allow for it to happen (the plot works, whether you like it or not), detached from any imitative editing--if the film were edited, it would become a memory of the event, but instead it is the event!

Yeah Ronald, I agree you should give it a second chance! There's a really pivotal scene further in with a piano that alludes a bit more to what her motivation for joining in with such a rowdy group of strangers might be. The first time I watched the film I also struggle with the slight suspension of disbelief required, but it's still a really cool story at the end.

Ronald, I urge you to give Victoria a second chance. There are hints to several themes in the first 20 minutes, even in the first 5 minutes, that play out much later in the film. These include taking chances, innocence vs responsibility, celebration vs mourning, and most importantly, human connection.

As for the boys being losers, of course they are. They're drunk kids with no money. But Victoria sees something else. From the start of the film, there are subtle visual clues (pulling her hair back to cool off her neck, perceptively looking around the room) that she has been dancing for a while and while having a good time, still hoping to meet some friends or at least someone to flirt with (as we later learn she recently relocated to Berlin). She goes for one last shot and offers to buy the bartender a drink as a final grasp at connection, but he turns her down. She leaves the club not dissatisfied but still open to new possibilities, a disposition she probably experiences often as a traveler. Now to the audience, of course the boys are rowdy and ridiculous. But to anyone who has been in this situation, man or woman or whatever, we know that Victoria sees the potential in them; they are an electrical storm illuminating the world and maybe causing a little bit of damage in the process. The fact that its Fuß's birthday is a sign that she sees new opportunities in them - a clean slate, or at least a reason to celebrate. Yes they are destructive and disrespectful, but Victoria tolerates them because even though she sees through their bullshit, she still yearns to make a connection.

I'll stop there because that's about the 20 minute mark, but I do urge you to continue. In the next scene it becomes more clear to the audience who these people are and what they're about. This film took me places I never expected and I am kicking myself for just getting around to it now, 3 years later.