There's a slight chill in the air, paths are strewn with conkers and, as if it couldn't be made any more official, Starbucks are hawking the "pumpkin spice" lattes. Ladies and gentlemen, summer has left the building. Welcome to autumn.
Which seems like as good a time as any to look back at what has undoubtedly been the film of the summer here in Berlin: Sebastian Schipper's rough diamond Victoria.
The film had its debut back in February at this year's Berlinale, and generated a healthy amount of buzz before its general release in June. Since then, it has dominated cinemas across the city and was a mainstay of the city's various open air screens, with showings with cast members and the director in particular selling out fast. At parties this summer Victoria was a reliable smalltalk fallback option - "habt ihr den schon gesehen?" proving a useful icebreaker on many occasions. (And if you haven't caught it yet, it's not too late; the film is still showing at multiple venues across the city).
As with so many great films, the less you know going in, the better. The elevator pitch could be summed up as: Spanish girl meets Berlin boys, adrenalin-fuelled hi-jinx ensue. The titular Victoria (Laia Costa) is a newcomer to the city from Madrid, and speaks no German. At the end of a night in an underground techno club (just in case you needed reminding what city you are in), she runs into a band of four "real Berliner" guys, led by Sonne (Frederick Lau), who has the gift of the gab and just enough bad boy charm. There's banter, some definite sparks, an invitation, but then an old debt resurfaces, a favour is asked, and the night takes what a sense of British understatement demands I call "a turn".
The one thing that is perhaps harder to have avoided beforehand is the talk of the film's USP: it was filmed in one long continuous take, a method that the filmmakers repeated three times before getting one they were happy with, and which picked them up the Silver Bear for cinematography at the Berlinale. A similar technique could be seen in this year's Oscar winner Birdman, but in Victoria, the effect is not at all stylised and much rawer. Just as the trailer promises, this is a film that grabs you and doesn't let you go. And yet there's more to it than that. Both the acting and writing lend the film an unexpected emotional heft, probably best demonstrated in a scene between the two leads in a cafe, which also provides a brief breather from the action. From there on out the film rarely lets up, and I spent the best part of one particularly fraught scene with my hand clamped over my mouth.
The film also works well though as a statement on where the ever-changing, ever-growing city is currently at. 'New Berlin', in the form of Victoria, who like many has fled the economic crisis in her Southern European home to make a better life and a fresh start in Berlin, collides with 'Old Berlin': four guys born just after the fall of the wall, who came of age during the capital's "poor but sexy" phase. It's a film set in a a city that delivers on the hedonistic thrills it promises, but just as capable of slapping you in the face with reality, and despite criticism from some quarters of the implausibility of the plot, the film reflects this to some extent.
After cleaning up at the German Film Awards earlier this year, where it won in six of the seven major categories it was nominated in, the film was recently shown at the Toronto International Film Festival to very favourable reviews. The UK premiere follows at the London Film Festival on October 16. Somewhat unfortunately, given the high mix of German and English dialogue, it is not eligible as Germany's entry for Best Foreign Film at next year's Oscar's, but safe to say, it's unlikely to be the last you hear of Victoria.
No comments:
Post a Comment