Victoria

[kevinknapman]

Released tomorrow, I caught this back in October at the London Film Festival.
A 140 min film shot in one long continuous take with no cuts. Doing for real what Birdman pretended to do last year.
A young Spanish woman Victoria (Laia Costa) staying in Berlin meets Sonne (Frederick Lau) and his friends in a nightclub and agrees to hang out with them. What initially feels like the start of a love story soon takes a sharp turn into darker, more dangerous territory.
A technically thrilling and audacious piece of filmmaking, Victoria is the kind of film that doesn't get made very often and with good reason. Only the most foolhardy of directors would attempt such an undertaking, considering the many things that could go wrong at any moment and ruin the whole project. Luckily Sebastian Shipper is such a director. Crucially he was also the producer, so didn't have anyone to tell him it couldn't be done.
The finished film was captured on it's third take and is a real 'lightning in a bottle' experience.
Credit should also go to cinematographer Sturla Brandth Grovlen, who films late night/early morning Berlin in evocative style, no small feat considering the restrictive filming conditions. The two excellent and likeable performances from Costa and Lau also make you really care about these characters as the film progresses. 
Victoria is a gripping thriller and a breathtakingly impressive achievement.