Dir: Sebastian Schipper

Starring: Laia Costa, Frederick Lau, Franz Rogowski

2h 18min. Cert 15

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Victoria is a German film that came highly recommended to me by several friends, and after watching it I can see why. Sebastian Schipper’s one-shot film might remind you of Hitchcock’s Rope or Iñárritu‘s Oscar-winner Birdman, but there’s a big difference. Where Rope and Birdman fooled audiences with clever editing and camera trickery, Victoria is the real deal.

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Any fan of the first season of True Detective will remember that shot, a tense six minute long-take weaving through buildings and gardens. And most would agree that it was impressive enough. But Victoria is an unbelievable two hours and eighteen minutes of uncut action. Technically, it’s a masterpiece. And I’m ashamed not to have seen it sooner.

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But the one-shot format does have its problems. The biggest being that at points it can ruin immersion. The cameraman becomes an unseen character, and so often I find myself admiring the cinematography or thinking about the cameraman stuffed in the middle seat of a car, trying not to accidentally ram the camera into one of the actors’ faces as they pan left*. It takes me out of the story.

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But I don’t think there’s any way around this, it’s a catch 22 of cinema in general. An impressive shot always takes me out of the film as I start to wonder how they achieved it, but boring shots are boring. You can’t win. Another limitation of one-shot films is that they have to be set in real-time, which can be limiting in terms of plot and character-development. But Victoria takes this limitation and makes it work to its advantage.

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Victoria is a film that everyone should watch, especially those interested in cinematography or world-cinema. The acting, as far as I could tell**, was great. Laia Costa and Frederick Lau were both brilliant and believable. Whilst nothing new in terms of plot, the film does take some unexpected turns. At the start I thought it was going in a completely different direction as I waited for shit to start hitting the fan. Of course you can bet that those fan blades will be coated in fruity brown at some point, but it wasn’t in the way I thought.

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At points it reminded me of This is England, with points where melancholy piano overrides all dialogue and diegetic sound. And at another time it made me think of Children of Men, namely the staircase scene, which is another famous long-take. But Victoria is its own thing, it’s safe to say I’ve never seen anything like it. If there’s a making-of out there I’d imagine it would be at least as interesting as the actual film was.

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My only real criticism, other than the generic pitfalls of one-shot films, is that it goes on too long. Some scenes drag a little, and it could probably be about half an hour shorter and still achieve the same thing. But every extra minute does make it more impressive. The rehearsals must have been crazy. It’s sort of like theatre, but with less jazz-hands. And it’s actually good.

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Sadly there’s not really anything funny to point out. It’s that good of a film. Actually, I guess there was one little thing. There’s a lot of saliva. Seriously. A lot. I think I saw every main character spewing dribble onto their chin at some point or other. Not a criticism, just an observation. Something to look out for when you watch it I guess. Maybe you could even make it into a fun drinking game. Spot the spit and do a shot.

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Saliva aside, if you like films, then go watch Victoria. It’s a bit long but it’s a truly impressive technical feat unlike anything you’ll have ever seen before. Fuck Birdman. Cos Victoria did it better.

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Rating: 4 / 5

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Also The Revenant was mediocre. There. I said it.

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*The cameraman didn’t do this, not even once. And they were billed before anyone else in the credits, including the director, which I think was well deserved.

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**Sometimes I have a hard time telling if actors speaking other languages are good or not. Maybe it’s because of the difference in tone and cadence in the language, or probably because I spend my time staring at the subtitles.