Sebastian Schipper's Victoria opens in a muggy night club with Victoria, a young woman who dances alone in the crowded nightclub. After having her fill of drinks and dancing Victoria begins to head home, but when she meets four charming locals, she is immediately swept up by their bravado for fun. Being from Madrid, Victoria is a young woman very much outside of her element in Berlin, and in meeting these four men she feels something she hasn't in a long time, companionship. Striking up a special bond with one of the boys, Sonne, Victoria spends the night hitting the town in Berlin, but soon their night escalates from drunken fun to violence and despair, when the boys convince Victoria to help them with a dangerous favor. Given the impressive technical accomplishments of Victoria, a 140 minute film that is shot with a single take, I was a little concerned that Victoria was a film that used its impressive technical prowess to mask a story that is subpar. Fortunately this couldn't be further from the case, as Victoria is a powerful and unique examination of loneliness. The first half of Victoria is a very loose, carefree narrative that finds this young woman befriend a group of silly but harmless young men. There is a care free aura to this segment, which finds the group wandering the streets of Berlin with drunken glee, subtlety giving off the impression that Victoria herself hasn't quite had this type of connection with people in a long time. Using a more exposition-based scene at the halfway point of the narrative, Sebastian Schipper makes it clear that Victoria is a character who has spent a large part of her life in a form of isolation, spending many hours in front of Piano with little time for any form of companionship whether it be mere friendship or love. The second half of the film couldn't be more of a tonal shift, with the film becoming a gripping and intense heist film that leaves the viewer on the edge of their seat. I was pleasantly surprised by just how much this film affected me emotionally, with Victoria's story being somber, powerful, and ultimately tragic. I particularly liked how the film's narrative returns to the same club after the heist, which at the time is believed to have been a success. In the beginning Victoria danced completely alone in the club but now she dances with Sonne, as Sebastian Schipper visually juxtaposing Victoria's new found hope and companionship she has found, a moment that unfortunately is short lived. Technically the film is impressive, but not only for its ability to use a single take, but more so for how the cinematography is able to deliver impressive compositions that effectively transport the viewer into the emotions of its characters. One of my favorite examples of this takes place at the midway point of the film, where Victoria sits inside the cafe where she works, looking outside at her new-found friends. The film positions the camera from within the cafe, using the glass window as a boundary between Victoria and the four Berlin locals outside, perfectly illustrating her solitude, and desire to not feel alone. Victoria's inability to speak German is another key ingredient into why this film works so well, as it gives the film a unique ability to provide the audience information which its main protagonist isn't privy too, doing so while staying completely in the point-of-view of Victoria, which aids in increasing the tension of the situation in its wild, visceral second half. Intense, touching, and ultimately tragic, Sebastian Schipper Victoria is an impressive technical achievement that manages to provide thrills while also providing emotional resonance in its story of a woman who is seeking some form of connection.
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AuthorLove of all things cinema brought me here. Archives
June 2023
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