Victoria
Shot in a single uninterrupted take, Victoria, a young woman from Madrid meets four local guys outside a nightclub. Sonne and his friends are real Berliners who promise to show her a good time and the real side of the city. But these boys have got themselves into hot water: they owe someone a dangerous favor that needs to be repaid that evening.
As Victoria's flirtation with Sonne begins developing into something more, he convinces her to come along for the ride. As the night rolls on, what started out as a good time, quickly spirals out of control. As dawn approaches, Victoria and Sonne realize: it's all or nothing and they abandon themselves to a heart-stopping journey into the depths of the night.
Winner of the Prize of the Guild of German Art House Cinemas and the Silver Berlin Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution at the Berlin International Film Festival.
"An extraordinary experience, raw and exciting." - Dave Calhoun, Time Out
Running Time
139 mins
Year
2015
Kanopy ID
5694926
Filmmakers
Features
Languages
Subjects
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Comments (29)
Didn't expect a 2 hour single continuous take to be so powerful.
Amazing film, love the symbolism of the stressful, one-shot approach that coincides with the stress of the thriller portions of the film. Well done overall
Incredible in every way: the camera work is innovative and the acting is dynamic and intuitive. However, this film will be difficult for those who are accustomed to formulaic feature films and those who struggle with their intellectual curiosity and development.
Oh, hi Mark!
Hi Raul!
Incredibly; truly a masterpiece of concept and character study. Anyone who's been young and lost and yearning for something more special will understand why a young girl like Victoria might get tangled up in the heat of the moment to experience something with desire. It's quite unbelievable ...Read more
Incredibly; truly a masterpiece of concept and character study. Anyone who's been young and lost and yearning for something more special will understand why a young girl like Victoria might get tangled up in the heat of the moment to experience something with desire. It's quite unbelievable how much the movie achieves... and the form mirrors the content, the mimetic features here are very spot-on. Restless, flawed, nervous--like a real life Berlin night would be. The course of the movie as a thriller is also an exciting move.
Read lessIt's basically a cross between a Richard Linklater film and a Michael Mann film. The first half is long dialogue work and the second half is the thriller portion. Good proof of concept for independent filmmakers.
I am forty minutes in and seriously considering abandoning this movie. Unimpressed, to put it mildly. Starting to look like ¨shot in a single, uninterrupted take¨ just means unedited. On top of that, the needy, clingy, female protagonist is unbearably annoying. The guys to whom she is ...Read more
I am forty minutes in and seriously considering abandoning this movie. Unimpressed, to put it mildly. Starting to look like ¨shot in a single, uninterrupted take¨ just means unedited. On top of that, the needy, clingy, female protagonist is unbearably annoying. The guys to whom she is incomprehensibly attaching herself are deadbeat losers. Don´t know if I can take any more!
Update: the quality dramatically improved after the first forty minutes, which should have been only ten minutes long. Even so, I continued to find the stereotypes rather heavy. Also, this will sound nit-picky, but would a German café really hire a Spanish girl who knows no German and has the responsibility of opening up in the morning? Very implausible, it seems to me. And if she has no interest in learning any German whatsoever, why is she in Berlin rather than, say, London or Paris?
I imagine that what critics raved about in this creation involved complex metaphorical interpretation of what on its surface is a simple low-level crime story. I disagree with the reviewer who ranks Victoria with A bout de souffle. NO WAY!
Read lessI agree .
agree 100%
Berlin is filled with young people who can't speak German and they all work in informal jobs like restaurants. English is the common language. To get a better job, in a large business for example, a foreigner must obtain and present a certificate of competence in the language.
Thanks for clarifying this. I found it somewhat strange. I mean, if she was smart enough to be a concert pianist, then surely she could pick up a smattering of survival Deutsch! ;-)
This is a wonderfully romantic, ambitious film that is a joy to watch, even if it feels just a little long. Do yourself a favor and check this out!
I/2 hour of this piece of crap was all I could take. If I want pointless urban sleaze, I could revisit all the American movies I watched in the early '70s.
It really picks up after the 40 minute mark, the beginning might feel slow but it really helps set up the characters' backgrounds and motivations for decisions made in the later half of the film!
But what did you think?
I've been thinking about this movie a lot. It's memorable. It's flawed because it's experimental. There are some great, spontaneous moments of personality. The actors disappear into their characters in those moments: whether it is someone stepping up to help out, or someone falling from their ...Read more
I've been thinking about this movie a lot. It's memorable. It's flawed because it's experimental. There are some great, spontaneous moments of personality. The actors disappear into their characters in those moments: whether it is someone stepping up to help out, or someone falling from their invincible high-ground. The single tracking shot is not a gimmick--the form of the movie mirrors the content. This is how any young person with desire experiences a night out: the fantasy is always at tension with reality. This is a coming-of-age story. The characters are flawed, just like real people, but they grow in the movie, and that is a sign that this work of art has done something right. (There are some pretty neat logistical moments, too, but also some frustrating ones--occasional shaky camera syndrome and the restraints of recording in a car, but don't let these deter you).
Read lesscharacter growth is good
Beautifully orchestrated. Follow a woman lonely & adrift, aspirations kicked from beneath her, from pique and whimsy, through the rash impulse borne of new feelings of purpose, to the chaos & despair so often the consequence of fairy-tale behavior. Hyper-compressed into the course of ...Read more
Beautifully orchestrated. Follow a woman lonely & adrift, aspirations kicked from beneath her, from pique and whimsy, through the rash impulse borne of new feelings of purpose, to the chaos & despair so often the consequence of fairy-tale behavior. Hyper-compressed into the course of one pre-dawn, but time is often malleable and distorted in this sort of real-life hero's quest, She's left richer for the experience but who's to say how the damage she's incurred will shape her future?
Read lessI COMPLETELY disagree with you here. I liked the movie too. BUt, I think that this movie is a lot more simple than you are describigng. Not to mention, the cinematography* . Buster watched this movie too, which almost never happens. So believe me, it's a very simple movie.
I agree - it IS simple. Anthony performs the sums very succinctly above, "This is how any young person with desire experiences a night out: the fantasy is always at tension with reality." So happens that it was a particularly fateful night for all involved but it's remarkable what can come of ...Read more
I agree - it IS simple. Anthony performs the sums very succinctly above, "This is how any young person with desire experiences a night out: the fantasy is always at tension with reality." So happens that it was a particularly fateful night for all involved but it's remarkable what can come of one night when one has lustily dispensed with caution. It can seem the very essence of innocence in the moment but inspecting our motives under the influence of sobriety may reveal the conflation of innocence and recklessness. It's ambiguous in the movie, and messy. And simple. Life-like!
Read lessI, too, initially wondered why this girl would be hanging around these guys; they feel dangerous early on. But the character/relationship development is very well done & you have to watch this all the way through. I did not see the ending coming! Bravo.
I was very impressed. Wasn't sure if I was going to like it and it does require some patience but it's worth it. The closest American filmmaker who comes close to this style of filmmaking is Linklater. I enjoyed this film and recommend it.
Really first rate. A familiar theme but beautifully acted and directed.
A masterpiece, really? I forced myself to watch the first 21 minutes of this before giving up. The woman caricature has the potential to be interesting but the four men were big zeros. Why would she want to hang out with these obvious losers?
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 struggled with the slight ...Read more
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 struggled with the slight suspension of disbelief required, but it's still a really cool story at the end.
Read lessRonald, 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 ...Read more
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.
Read lessWhat a masterpiece!! They managed to turn a simple love story into a compelling complex one using brilliant technical devices in the service of good acting,script, and direction...Bravo!
Brilliant, gripping, and groundbreaking. A Breathless for the 21st century.