2007's Viva winking cautionary tale
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Neon panache radiates.
Important to Viva's sensory effect as style-attentiveness was, though, the saucy narrative scored substantial points through clever plot-craft. Anna Biller, as forsaken and frustrated "Barbie," dipped a bared toe into the Sexual Revolution, only to be swirled into its swinging maelstrom of drugs, modeling, delicious licentiousness, and hidden personal costs.
Some scenes may prompt in viewers wishes they could be transported to the '70s, though other moments make audiences thankful time-machine conveyance isn't available.
With impressive flair, Anna sported multiple hats in the construction -- writer, director, and set / costume designer -- as well as starring actor. She also composed, choreographed, and edited (talents she'd cultivated through four previous short films).
During a post-screening interview, Anna was asked why she had decided to make the film."I wanted to do a realistic story about a woman who's a scapegoat of the sexual revolution," she responded. "[Someone] who endures everything in the name of being liberated. She's just going with the flow, and it's such a dangerous and demonic world of predators out there, and she's completely unprotected. I thought it was very funny and also a very real kind of story."
Anna claims a BA in art from UCLA and an MFA in art and film from CalArts. While the impressive Viva was her first feature, audiences already knew her from the afore-cited short films and stage musicals. Her work has been shown at international festivals and in art spaces.
Awards Anna received for Viva included Best Style in a film at the Moscow Film Festival (Vogue magazine) and Best Director, Atlanta Underground Film Festival. (Viva's more than 30 other festival selections included the B Movie, Trash, and Underground Film Festival, the Transylvania International Film Festival, and the San Antonio Underground Film Festival.)
Like the mini-skirted era Anna affectionately sculpted, Viva looked stunning while flirting with fleshly perils.
During a post-screening interview, Anna was asked why she had decided to make the film."I wanted to do a realistic story about a woman who's a scapegoat of the sexual revolution," she responded. "[Someone] who endures everything in the name of being liberated. She's just going with the flow, and it's such a dangerous and demonic world of predators out there, and she's completely unprotected. I thought it was very funny and also a very real kind of story."
Anna claims a BA in art from UCLA and an MFA in art and film from CalArts. While the impressive Viva was her first feature, audiences already knew her from the afore-cited short films and stage musicals. Her work has been shown at international festivals and in art spaces.
Awards Anna received for Viva included Best Style in a film at the Moscow Film Festival (Vogue magazine) and Best Director, Atlanta Underground Film Festival. (Viva's more than 30 other festival selections included the B Movie, Trash, and Underground Film Festival, the Transylvania International Film Festival, and the San Antonio Underground Film Festival.)
Like the mini-skirted era Anna affectionately sculpted, Viva looked stunning while flirting with fleshly perils.
The auteur's subsequent films included 2016's The Love Witch, and 2026 effort The Face of Horror. She became an Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences member in 2019, and published first novel Bluebeard's Story (Verso) in 2023.
Viva trailer
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