Victoria movie poster

Victoria, shot as one stunning single continuous take has been the technical filmmaking highlight of my year. And it's not some trick "single take", such as Birdman, this is a real, continuous shot (though a couple of liberties were taken with the soundtrack to edit out director's instructions, crew noise and pesky bystander interference(!)).

Directed by Sebastian Schipper and photographed by Sturla Brandth Grøvlen, the film is perhaps not perfect, but there has been little this year to compare to the breathtaking virtuosity on display, and surprisingly, incredibly, all in service of the story.

We follow Victoria, a Spanish student in Berlin who befriends and spends the her late night and early morning with a group of Berlin natives out to celebrate their friends birthday. While the film spends a great amount of time letting us befriend these characters and get a sense of their camaraderie, it is needless to say that the film does not stay in this Before Sunrise mode for this duration as an unexpected phone call redirects the characters energies towards something dangerous.

Check it out if you get the chance.

Here's my poster for this great movie:

Sebastian Schipper