Movie Review – Victoria

A shot to remember

Victoria could have been one of those typical festival darlings because of the way it was shot but the first success of it is, it just doesn’t end up being only a festival darling but also works as a standalone movie, with or without the employment of the single take. Thanks to the highly entertaining actor, a great premise, which was made believable because we could empathize with the actors and of course a good camera and editing technique. ‘Victoria’ keeps us glued to our seats, in the league of ‘Run Lola Run’ and it’s a miracle that this film works like a fast paced jump cut type of films.

The film opens with Vicotria (Laia Costa) partying in a club solo. Her lively nature is revealed right from the scene one when she makes small talks with the bartender. She can be defined as one happy woman. The scene is an extended one. As I was not aware that it was a single shot film, I was impressed by the long take and was internally appreciating the director to have taken time off and setting the mood of the film. Single shot or not, the club sequence deserves a credit for the way it was made.

Right from scene one, there is a sense of tension. That only gets incremented when she’s called upon by one of the guy in the club and a group of men outside. I was praying that she shouldn’t be kidnapped and raped. The way the film was going, it felt like that, thanks to every other film which made us think so. Anyways the tension was palpable. The film took its own sweet time to establish the relationship between Victoria and the gang. Till the time they go the terrace and one the guys called out, “sister… sister…” to make her stop shouting, the situation was tense. Post that it felt as if she was going to give them needless trouble instead of them giving the trouble. Those moments of uncertainty was beautiful.

Victoria develops feelings for Sonne (Frederick Lau) in the midst of all the chaos. From tension, the mood changes to romantic when they take a bicycle ride to her café. When there is a cue that it was going to be sex scene there, it then jumps into something melancholic, thanks to the Piano. Isn’t it beautiful, how music was employed in a single shot and it needs to be appreciated because of the how difficult it is actually to blend it in cinema. One foot wrong and the entire film would collapse. Plus it gave a kind of ‘Before Sunset’ meeting ‘Whiplash’ feel. Inspiring as well as depressing. As it was a deep conversation involving music, I was moved.

Till this point, the film does a fine job. The difficult and unrealistic part starts post this, where it becomes a heist film. Victoria joins the gang of men including Sonne, Boxer (Franz Rogowski) and Blinker (Burak Yiğit) because Fuß (Max Mauff) for a bank robbery. It’s a scene which shouldn’t have worked but the actors, especially Laia Costa does a fabulous job in making us believe that she really wants to be part of them. May be the music scene too became a precursor for us to understand that she was depressed in life and wants to be of something productive and thus joined them.

The best part of the film was the club scene post that where we don’t get to hear the real music but witness the jubilation of all the characters. But we know for sure that it’s not going to be a happy ending in the end. The tension keeps us on hooks through the club scene where we tend to feel that they are getting overboard.

The chase and the killings in the end, just feels an eventual and unavoidable thing. It largely didn’t work or may be by that time we’re all deeply in love with the characters so we don’t want them to disappear. Anyways the film wasn’t entirely spoilt, thanks to a superb long shot.

Movie Review – Stations of the Cross

Nailed right on the cross

I wanted to start the year with something deep shit, so had chosen ‘Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles’ to watch first but unfortunately I’m at a stage, that to watch a 3.5 hour film at a stretch is a luxury beyond words. Can’t believe I watched ‘Sátántangó’ at a stretch. But that being said, for a brief moment when I got time I was lucky enough to choose a film, which I had no idea of, but again was a deep shit. I’m glad that I was able to open the account of the year with a strong film like this.

Watching these minimalistic artsy films always gives hope, gives a feel that one can become a filmmaker. Consider this film for example, it has fourteen long takes, barring a couple of chapters, the long takes are static, still it effortlessly yields us into the film. Such beautiful frame, so much to study, yet so simple. As a budding filmmaker when you watch a film like this, it gives hope that you too can make a movie with minimal budget, minimal crew and yet could come up with something significant. If not for inspiration, what is art meant for.

Ignorance is a bliss, always, when it comes to films. Watching a film without knowing anything about it gives great joy. This was one such film. Even after watching, as I was not aware of the Stations of the Cross concept, it was a great learning too. Like how a Ten Commandments was made into various films, this was so beautifully adapted into film. Especially loved the chapter ‘Jesus is stripped of his garments’. It was so perfect, in literal sense as well as with biblical reference. Wonder how would it had been who had known the concept, would they have been in awe with it or it’d have been underwhelming.

Maria (Lea van Acken) is a treasure trove. You can’t help but like her, so naïve and innocent. Her pure heart is something people can only dream of. On the other hand, the way she goes about it and how she is pushed into that situation raises a question. Whether she was not given space to grow into a normal child. Of course we tend to empathize with her and hate her mother (Franziska Weisz), another brilliant actor, but it doesn’t happen throughout the movie. At times there are scenes which confuses us, whether it’s a pro or anti christ movie. Largely towards the later, but in the climax when her brother tells her name, I was confused on the way the film was about to go.

The first few chapters are just static shots, you can’t help but admire framing, staging but most importantly acting. For every auteurs who don’t believe in acting, this movie would have been a slap in the face. Without proper actors, it would have been impossible to shoot the movie. But I can’t imagine how the kids were able to bring out the innocence after so much of rehearsal. Generally with each rehearsal the innocence gets lost but the scenes feel as real as possible and the acting is clinical, there is no sense of tiredness or boredom on the screen. May be that’s the mark of great actors.

Generally, when a film ends, there would be certain things which we’d feel like, could have gone in a different way or happened differently but this was a kind of film where I was left expressionless. It was as if I was in a spell and I was expected to accept the happenings. In fact it’s a difficult film to review. You can’t criticize or appreciate enough on the filmmaking, all you can do, is talk about concept but to do that, it must have been part of your culture, which for me was not, so at the end all I can do is be happy and thank god for my few minutes of forgetfulness to have chosen this film and not have waited for ‘Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles’ to happen first.