Starring: Honor Swinton Byrne, Tilda Swinton, James Spencer Ashworth, Charlie Heaton, Richard Ayoade
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Runtime: 107 mins. Reviewed in Mar 2022
Reviewer: Fr Peter Malone msc
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A continuation of 2019’s The Souvenir, tracing a young director making her graduation film, grieving over the death of her lover, visiting her supportive parents, immersed in her film-making.
As indicated by the title, this is a continuation of The Souvenir (2019), rather than a sequel. The original film divided opinions. It was praised by critics and the intended arthouse audience. It did not appeal to the general public. And the same could be said about Part II.
A yes to this comment by a blogger: You have to pay attention and work things out on your own for the most part. A tall order these days, I know.
The film is written and directed by Joanna Hogg and is based on her experiences of being in film school in the 1980s. Which means that it immerses its audience in this film-study-making world, with attention to detail, to production values and style, to the role of the director, camera crew, performers. And situations can become tense – which might involve some audience members but leaves others detached and just looking on.
In fact, many of the sequences are the equivalent of fly on the wall observation, close, not necessarily interesting in themselves, revealing character and clashes, and something of a desire, perhaps, to fly and observe on another wall.
But, this is all offset by the sequences where the trainee director, Julie (Swinton Byrne, Tilda Swinton’s daughter) visits her parents. She is in mourning, grieving for the death of her lover, Anthony (Burke), the subject of the first film, his alleged work in the foreign office, his drug addiction, his love for Julie, his treatment of her, his death. In fact, Julie’s visit to her parents, the ever-attentive mother, the rather laid-back father, something of a relief after the visits to the film sets.
Julie is present at some filming, taking photos, interested in the French director and inviting her to be the lead in her own graduation film. A great deal of attention and time is given to this film, performance, discussions of motivations, and long clashes with the director of photography.
There are some eccentric personalities, especially the prima donna director Patrick (Ayoade, who appeared in the first film) and some sequences, black-and-white, from the film he was making and wanting to edit.
Ultimately, Julie and her crew and friends, her parents, all arrive at her graduation screening, and the audience is treated to her finished film – an extraordinary fantasy, Julie wandering from sequence to sequence, echoes her life, her search, and then sequences with her mother, and with Anthony himself, still quite ambiguous.
The film ends with the party sequence, the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the camera withdrawing and showing that this is also a film set and performance. And the final ‘Cut!’
12 Random Films…
