THE SOUVENIR
UK, 2019, 120 minutes, Colour.
Honor Swinton Byrne, Tom Burke, Tilda Swinton, Frankie Wilson, Hannah Ashby Ward, Barbara Pierson, James Dodds, Dick Fontaine, Steve Gough.
Directed by Joanna Hogg.
The souvenir is a British film aimed at the arthouse audience, certainly not aimed at the multiplex audience. And, response will certainly depend on mood and attention, some appreciation of the themes and performances, perhaps some impatience with the pace, and lack of empathy with some of the characters.
Writer-director, Joanna Hogg, has made several acclaimed arthouse features. This is a film about a young woman who has ambitions to write and direct films. She is Julie, played, in her first film although she appeared as a child with her mother in I Am Love. Her mother is Tilda Swinton who appears here in a pivotal role as Julie’s mother.
Julie has interviews with film boards, academic supervisors, mixes with fellow students, becomes involved with a young man, Anthony, who works in the Foreign Office. (These aspects of the synopsis may actually make The Souvenir more exciting and involving than it is.)
At times Julie is a dreamer, thinking of the central character of her film, from Sunderland in England’s north, quite different from her own rather comfortable London background. At times, she is more realistic in her interactions.
However, the central focus, apart from the making of the film, is on her relationship with Anthony. He is played by Tom Burke (who was persuasive as Cormorant Strike in the television versions of the detective thrillers by Robert K..Galbraith/ J.R.Rowling). Many in the audience will wonder at Julie’s falling in love with him but also her continuing to live with him, his ambiguous attitudes and activities, references to his Foreign Office work and his absences, his sometimes harsh behaviour towards her, his drug dependence.
So, this is a two-hour portrait of Julie, turning 25, trying to find her path in life, coming to terms with relationships, all in a very British setting.
And, as with the James Bond films and some of the superhero films, there is a final announcement at the end of the credits that The Souvenir 2 is coming. To be welcomed by fans – but, perhaps, rather ominous for others.
1. The title? Memories? Range of souvenirs?
2. The British story, London settings, the north of England? The city, flats, school, restaurants? Interiors? The countryside? The film sets? The musical score?
3. Julie story, her age, relationship with her parents, her mother’s visit and care, the conversations and meals with her mother and father? The study, ambitions, filmmaking? The scenario for the story about Tony, his origins, the north? The scenes of putting her screenplay to the board? With her friends, fellow students? The meal with Patrick and his wife, his curiosity and advice? Her relationship with Tony, the scenes together, her love for him, his work in the foreign office, drug dependency, his absences? Her welcoming him back, forgiveness? The visits to each as parents? The meals? His stealing her possessions? Buying drugs? Julie always taking him back? The news of his death, its effect? Her continuing to make the film, the 18th century souvenir? The into cutting of the scene of the landscape in the trees?
4. The parents, the bonds between them, with their children, Julie’s parents and the meals, talk about study? Her mother, the news of Tony’s death: “the worst�? Tony’s parents and their concern about him?
5. Tony, his background, age, the Foreign Office, his manner, meeting Julie, they’re living together, the apartment, the intimacy, space on the bed…? Yet his distance? Critique of her work and the academics? His absences, stealing, the drugs, his death?
6. The academic background, the lecturers and supervisors, interviews, advice?
7. The filming of scenes, Julie and her direction, the fashion shoot, the finale and the film, in the studio, her looking at the scenery? Themes of filmmaking, storytelling, craft, true stories?
8. The overall impact of the film, for an arthouse audience? Not for the general public?
