Victoria

Dir: Sebastian Schipper

2015

*****

I sat down to watch Sebastian Schipper's Victoria without knowing anything about it and I'm so glad I did. It is the sort of film I always wanted to make when I was in film school, so as much as I enjoyed watching it, I couldn't help but feel jealous but also as excited as I'm sure the crew felt. Victoria is a pretty high-octane adventure, no surprising really when you realize the whole film, all two hours and twenty minutes of it, is all one take. There was only a very vague script in place, so most of what is said is improvised but I'm not sure what the cast didn't have to remember regarding script came as much relief to them, considering the choreography they had to remember. Victoria is almost like a dance or an Opera, one that uses an entire city as its stage. What Sebastian Schipper, cinematographer Sturla Brandth Grovlen and the cast and crew achieve is astonishing, breathtaking and absolutely staggering. Aleksandr Sokurov's spectacular 2002 film Russian Ark was the film to be shot in one single take and as impressive as it was, it was only an hour and thirty-nine minutes long, was filmed in a confined space and it took four attempts to get right, one more than Victoria. Although it is one take, the film is cleverly divided into chapters with music often drowning out silence or unimportant dialogue. I can't get my head round how complicated this would be to get right but Sebastian Schipper never loses focus or forgets that a film has to have structure. This is a technical achievement the likes the world of cinema has never seen before but it is far more than just a cheap gimmick. There are many scenes that will make the viewer sit up straight, lead you in one direction before tugging you the other way. Every emotion you can think of is stirred up, one minute the film is a romance, the next it is a full on crime thriller, continually entertaining and never predictable. Laia Costa probably has it toughest as she is the only actor to be in the entirety of the film and is both the lead actor and the audience's protagonist, acting as our eyes and ears, but thanks to her plethora of emotion and her ability to switch them at break-neck speed, and her obvious energy, she is perfect in the lead role. Dazzling isn't a word I use often but it doesn't seem to quite cover it. Humble is a word that fits though, as Sebastian Schipper gives credit where it is well and truly due and gives cinematographer Sturla Brandth Grovlen top billing in the credits. In many respects you could say that Victoria is neo-dogme, it certainly breaks many of the rules of its predecessor but betters pretty much all dogme films put together. Certainly one of the best of 2015, probably one of the best of the decade.