Film Review: Victoria

A few months back, I was stood in the Tyneside Cinema foyer accompanied by two things: a pair of idiots (who, for the purposes of this introduction, count as one thing), and a large promotional stand for Sebasian Schipper’s Victoria.  One idiot asked the other “have they made a film about Victoria Beckham?” to which the other simply shrugged, acknowledging the possibility, and therefore suggesting that they didn’t think this was a ridiculous idea.

That largely irrelevant paragraph highlights the only major problem with Victoria and that’s the largely innocuous title, which suggests a period drama rather than an experimental German thriller.  Schipper’s remarkable film is constructed as one uninterrupted shot, lasting 2 hours and 18 minutes.  Long takes are nothing new; Spectre, Children Of Men, Snake Eyes and Touch Of Evil feature some of the best examples.  Films constructed as ‘one shot’ are really nothing new either: Hitchcock’s Rope is effectively one shot, despite the technical limitations of the time (reels of film lasting about 10 minutes necessitated hidden edits), with the macabre touch of the camera showing the point of view of a corpse.  More recently Alexander Sokurov’s Russian Ark provides a 96-minute one-take history lesson contained within St. Petersburg’s Hermitage museum, and Inarritu’s brilliant Oscar winner Birdman was constructed from several long takes, although hidden edits were required for time lapses and the essential weirdness of some scenes.

While those films are impressive, they are either contained within one location, or broken up by edits, which would allow those pesky actors to review their lines or take a breather.  No such luck with Victoria.  Stylistically, this is probably closer to Gaspar Noe’s real-time-in-reverse Irreversible, which uses a shaky, hand-held, God’s POV approach.  While Victoria is less likely to give you nightmares, the long take is both its biggest selling point, and a potential albatross around Schipper’s neck, and the necks of his cast.

Filming in an uninterrupted shot surely presents several challenges, but the biggest of these, dramatically speaking, is the absence of time lapse edits. These would normally allow the audience to absorb details of character relationships, make assumptions about what’s gone on in the meantime (i.e. they have a date, cut to a month later and they’re living together).  Victoria takes its time to build relationships between Laia Costa’s eponymous heroine, a Spanish girl new to Berlin, and the group of four local guys she meets, particularly between her and Sonne (Frederick Lau).  This takes approximately 40 minutes of screen time and while the film never feels particularly long, I did at times wonder where it was all going.  However with hindsight, this slow build is essential for what happens later: if the relationship and attraction between Victoria and Sonne & co is not fully established for the audience, it would be much harder to accept her willingness to go along with them to commit a crime.

The technical ambition of Victoria is simply staggering.  While it is relatively simple in scope; a few Berlin streets, rooftops, cars, and a hotel room, the planning, rehearsal, and sheer concentration required to pull it off is nothing short of amazing.  This would count for nothing if the film didn’t work, though, so it’s pleasing that Schipper has pulled off both a technical marvel and an engaging story to boot.  Victoria herself is down to earth, a little naïve, and eminently likeable.  We buy into her relationship with Sonne and just buy into her willingness to help his group with some seriously shady dealings.

The film at times wears its influences on its sleeve, despite the originality of the concept.  While probably influenced by Gaspar Noe’s hand held style, there are nods to American indies like Richard Linklater or Larry Clark, whose willingness to let the characters breathe often pays dividends.  European breakouts such as La Haine and Run Lola Run (understandable since it starred schipper) also come to mind, particularly the former, with Vincent Cassel’s manic energy recalled by Franz Rogowski’s ne’er do well character, Boxer.

If I have to complain, and I don’t but I will anyway, it’s that the near-constant switching between English and German is a little distracting, but it made sense that a Spanish girl in Germany would try to use a widely spoken language to get by.  So even if you’re not a fan of subtitled films (get over it, will you!), Victoria is well worth a look: at times exhilarating, emotional, exhausting and deeply suspenseful.  Hardcore film fans will marvel at the achievement, and for everyone else it’s a couple of hours well spent in the company of a cool character and a great plot.  Definitely not Victoria Beckham, then.