Joanna Hogg

THE ETERNAL DAUGHTER: consumed by mom

by
Photo caption: Tilda Swinton in THE ETERNAL DAUGHTER. Courtesy of A24.

The Eternal Daughter begins with the filmmaker Julie (Tilda Swinton) bringing her elderly mother (also Tilsa Swinton) for a getaway at an Welsh country hotel. It’s an enormous, sinister-looking edifice, a Victorian building of Gothic design. When the building creaks and goes bump in the night, mysterious figures appear at windows and there’s knocking from supposedly unoccupied rooms, The Eternal Daughter has all of the trappings of a haunted house movie.

Mom and daughter appear to be the only visitors, although hotel staff insists otherwise. They are at the mercy of the hotel’s receptionist/manager/server (Carly-Sophia Davies), who, to a hilarious extent, could not be any more disinterested in her guests’ happiness ,comfort or approval.

Julie’s experience at the hotel is one of persistent dissatisfaction. She wants to work, but the only WiFi signal is three floors above their room, and she has sporadic cell phone service only in one special spot outside. Her requests to get the room they actually reserved and the expected amenities are stonewalled by the receptionist.

Her hot button, however, is that she doesn’t feel that she is bringing her mother any happiness. It turns out that this trip is a birthday treat for her mother, who had stayed in this house as a child during WW II. The mother is serene and uncomplaining, except to object to Julie “fussing” over her. Julie has microplanned every detail, down to lighting the candle on the mom’s birthday cake, but Julie doesn’t think she is doing anything right.

What’s going on in this slow burn? It turns out that writer-director Joanna Hogg isn’t taking us to a haunted house or to a comedy of manners in a bad hotel. This is a psychological drama. Julie is haunted, alright, but it’s by her relationship with her mother, which she’s having a very hard time figuring out.

Joanna Hogg is a veteran director who got the chance to become an auteur at age 59, beginning in 2019 with The Souvenir and The Souvenir Part II in 2021.The Eternal Daughter is the third of these highly personal, apparently autographical films, with the Julie character as Hogg’s alter ego. In those films, Julie was played by Honor Swinton Byrne (Tilda Swinton’s real life daughter) and Swinton played Julie’s mom.

All three films are personal, as in specific and decidedly NOT universal. Although I am generally not a fan of naval-gazing, Hogg’s genius as a filmmaker is such that The Eternal Daughter and its siblings, slow burns all, are mesmerizing.

THE SOUVENIR PART II: her emotional recovery

by
Photo caption: Honor Swinton Byrne in THE SOUVENIR PART II. Courtesy of A24.

In The Souvenir Part II, writer-director Joanna Hogg continues the autobiographical story from her The Souvenir, where the young filmmaker Julie (Honor Swinton Byrne) has been devastated by the sudden death of her lover, which reveals that he was NOTHING that he had seemed to be. Part II follows Julie’s emotional recovery.

Grieving and shattered, Julie is consumed by investigating, Who WAS he, REALLY? The central question in this story is whether she be able to process the loss and get on with her life. And then, as she moves on, will she get to make her movie?

I called The Souvenir “certainly…the most profoundly sad film of the year”. Part II is more relaxed and sometimes even funny (and less challenging to watch than the first film).

Hogg is a remarkably gifted filmmaker. Making use of static shots, and glimpsing characters through doorways and in mirrors, she frames each shot exquisitely. The most economical of storytellers, Hogg relies on a MINIMUM of exposition ithrough dialogue,and lets the audience pick up the story through the telling visual hints.

Honor Swinton Byrne’s quiet but powerful performance as Julie is exceptional. Her scene in a pub where Julie begins to connect with a sympathetic and supportive film editor (Joe Alwyn) is one of the year’s best.

Julie’s mom is played by Swinton Byrne’s mother, Tilda Swinton, who is flawless. Richard Ayoade shines as Julie’s most talented and temperamental classmate.

You don’t need to have first watched The Souvenir to appreciate The Souvenir Part II. Part II is playing in theaters, but won’t be for long.

THE SOUVENIR: amplification by stillness

by
Honor Swinton Byrne and Tom Burke in THE SOUVENIR

The slow-burn romantic tragedy The Souvenir is a study of a bad romantic choice, exacerbated by co-dependence.

In the 1980s Thatcher Era UK, Julie (Honor Swinton Byrne) is a 24-year-old Ken Loach wannabe trying to make her first socially aware film. She’s from a middle class background and has a set of artsy friends. She meets Anthony (Tom Burke), who affects the chalk-stripe pinstripe suits and the bored drawl of the upper classes, and says that he works at the Foreign Office. She is intrigued.

It’s an unusual courtship. He takes her to a stupefyingly posh tearoom. They visit an art gallery and deconstruct the Fragonard painting The Souvenir. But are these dates? Kinda dates? She lets him crash at her place. All of this precedes any physical intimacy or hint of passion. He wants her, but never pushes the pace. They do become lovers, and it turns out that he is not as he seemed. (Kudos to the trailer below for NOT spoiling Anthony’s biggest secret.)

This is a remarkable piece of filmmaking. Writer-director Joanna Hogg frames each shot exquisitely, and lets the characters’ feelings unspool before us. This is a movie with lots of stillness, and the stillness serves to amplify the emotional power.

This is the first feature film performance as an adult for Honor Swinton Byrne, the daughter of Tilda Swinton. Byrne is superb as Julie, whom we care about because she is so genuine and vulnerable. This is also the first time I’ve seen Tom Burke, and he is excellent as a quirky guy who might really appeal to some woman, but who can’t escape his fatal flaw. Tilda Swinton appears in the supporting role as Julie’s protective mom, and nails the character.

Joanna Hogg, just like her Julie, was a young British filmmaker in the 1980s, and this story seems searingly personal. I don’t know to what extent it is autobiographical, but the heartbreak is so powerfully vivid, that I hope Hogg didn’t have to endure it in real life. There’s a sequel already in post-production.

The Souvenir is universally acclaimed by critics and has a Metacritic score of 92. I admired the film and the filmmaking, but was not engrossed; most viewers will find the deliberate pace makes The Souvenir a challenging watch for one hour and 59 minutes. It certainly is the most profoundly sad film of the year. It can be streamed on Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.