THE OPINION OF THE “WORLD” – TO SEE
Joanna Hogg’s images take the time to delve into the root of events, in this case that of evil. And his art of the cut vividly tells how a character, damaged by a toxic relationship, tries to burn the stages of healing. The Souvenir. Part I & Part II, the fourth feature film by the British filmmaker and photographer, opens the black box of the romance between a young director, Julie (Honor Swinton Byrne), and her lover, Anthony (Tom Burke), a dandy hiding his trauma behind a certain arrogance. The first part of the diptych takes the form of a “topographic survey” of the ups and downs of the couple, Julie’s vocation as a filmmaker being hampered by the chaos of her intimate life; the second part follows the rise to the surface of the heroine, who makes her heartache the subject of her first feature film.
If the story cannot be described as autobiographical, it is inspired by the experience of Joanna Hogg, born in 1960
If the story cannot be described as autobiographical, it is inspired by the experience of Joanna Hogg, born in 1960, who discovers herself while revealing her cinema, largely unknown in France – her previous feature films should make the subject of a retrospective in theaters during the year. The haunting charm of The Souvenir depends as much on the device as on the quality of interpretation of the young actress, who is none other than the daughter of Tilda Swinton – the latter playing her mother, loving and always at a safe distance. Friend of Tilda Swinton, Joanna Hogg had also directed the British actress in her graduation short film, Caprice (1986), a tribute to Hollywood musicals.
The sincerity of Honor Swinton Byrne seduces. Her character is an angel, capable of burning her wings: from a well-to-do background, the young girl looks for herself and assumes her weaknesses in front of her teachers. The definitive words of her lover – of the type “You will always be lost” – do not help him to forge a breastplate. In front of him, she looks like a little girl. An upside-down class defector, so to speak, Julie nonetheless finds a place for herself among her filmmaker friends, young people who are turbulent, endearing, drinking until dawn, whom she welcomes into her beautiful apartment with cream walls.
dizzying set
This wealthy life sounds odd, as do the young woman’s chic and ageless outfits. We almost come to stampede, until the second part “rewinds” the story to give us the quintessence. Freed from the burden of her ex, the young filmmaker shoots the film of her previous life, with a duo of actors playing Julie and her former lover. The director frees herself while Joanna Hogg scrutinizes, in a way – even if everything is fictionalized – the ghost of the filmmaker she was in her early days.
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