American Cinematographer - November 2015 - 20

Production Slate

Single-Take Heist
By Patricia Thomson

"One city, one night, one take" is the tagline for Victoria,
which sums up the stunning tour de force by German director Sebastian Schipper and Norwegian cinematographer Sturla Brandth
Grøvlen, DFF. While this isn't the first one-take film - 2002's Russian
Ark (AC Jan. '03) holds that honor - it is the first to bring such harddriving, spontaneous energy to this high-wire act.
Consider the magnitude: Two hours and 18 minutes of handheld camera, 22 locations, more than 150 extras managed by six
assistant directors, seven actors followed sequentially by three sound
teams, and the whole enterprise timed to end with the morning light.
We first meet Victoria's title character (Laia Costa) dancing by
herself in an underground club. She's a vivacious newcomer from
Madrid, open to making friends, and is soon adopted by a quartet of
rowdy rogues who say they'll show her the "real" Berlin. The first
hour follows them from nightclub to city streets to a rooftop hangout
to the coffee bar where Victoria works. She and the friendliest of the
bunch, Sonne (Frederick Lau), hit it off, but their flirtation is interrupted by his ex-con pal (Franz Rogowski), who has promised a
"favor" to the man who was his protector in jail (André Hennicke).
Victoria is sucked into duty as a driver for the ensuing bank robbery,
and the second half of the film follows them as they take the money
and run. This hour has several dramatic set pieces - in the getaway
car, celebrating at a nightclub, a police foot-chase, a hostage-taking
- as well as more intimate moments.
When Schipper got in touch with Grøvlen about the project,
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November 2015

"I was intrigued, and a little skeptical," says the cinematographer,
who'd met Schipper a year earlier while shooting Anders Morgenthaler's The 11th Hour, in which Schipper acted alongside Kim
Basinger.
Potential funders were even more skeptical. To inspire confidence, the Victoria cast and crew shot a one-take 10-minute short.
That calling card got them their funding, and it was also useful for
finding the right approach to Victoria's camera movement. "Sturla
was already on top of his game, but I told him, 'You can't shoot
Victoria like this - you can't anticipate actions,'" says Schipper.
Instead, the director suggested he think like a war photographer. "I
was to react to things happening around me, rather than have a
preconceived idea of where to look or what's [in] the frame," says
Grøvlen. "It was important to have the energy of 'being in the now'
coming through the lens, rather than trying to create a specific
shot."
When the four weeks of rehearsals began, there was no
script - just a 12-page treatment that was meant to be fleshed out
with the actors. The story was broken into 10 segments, which the
filmmakers immediately began rehearsing on camera with a full
crew. "In that process, we learned the language of the film,"
Grøvlen says. "The actors would improvise the theme, Sebastian
would correct them, and the story would develop. I learned the
rhythms of the actors, which helped me to read their body language
in order to move with them. I was very tapped into their energy;
when they were stressed, I got stressed, or when they were having
a quiet moment, I could relax. It went hand in hand, with their
energy coloring my work."
➣

American Cinematographer

Victoria images courtesy of Adopt Films. Photo of Sturla Brandth Grøvlen, DFF by Roxy Reiss.

A newcomer from Madrid, the titular character (Laia Costa) endures an adventurous and harrowing Berlin night in the feature Victoria.

American Cinematographer - November 2015

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