Victoria

 

Victoria, an astounding film taken in one shot with no edits or cuts. The main character, Victoria is out for the night in an underground club where she meets 4 lads who are trying to enter the club but are not allowed due to how they are dressed. Victoria is clearly intrigued by the group of boys as when she is outside she starts up a conversation about whether or not it is his car, the story progresses into a darker side as they take part in stealing some money from a bank, the heist.  From this we see a relationship between the characters form, due to the film being film in real time the connection between the characters comes across as organic and natural in its development.

My favourite scene in Victoria is when she plays the piano, she starts of naive and innocent about her skills as if she doesn’t posses the however when she sits down she plays a piece that is fast and angry, all of this taken in one whole shot throughout the film. The piece its self is breathe taking and could be symbolic of her transition in our eyes of a fragile girl to a strong women who has real skill. The piano scene also gives us some background on what she is like, its paints her to look determined as she plays the piano everyday to the maximum but it also shows her as a pessimistic  as she doesn’t believe she is good enough to for fill her dreams.

The saddest part about this film to me is not the characters dying but that Victoria who is clearly a lonely character having a chance at friendship and love but instead ends up with a bag full of money. Although a bag full of money is not a negative it highlights the real world and the way society moves in correspondence to death and money, she has the choice to stay and choose love, but go to prison for the heist but instead she chooses death for the money.

Technically the film is brilliant to be able to record a film in one shot and move to different locations, we travel with them in the car but nothing in the film seems like a filer it is all relevant and needed to create a realistic story line. There are a few blips in the film where we see a boom mic in the reflection of a photo, or the camera man in the window but despite this the fast paced action makes the film look seamless.

All though this is the extreme version of a long continuous shot, it is definitely something i can take on board, to focus on the camera work rather than the editing, obviously i still need to fill in the criteria and hit the different mark bands but from this film i can see how good framing, composition, and acting can create mood, therefore this is the art of films