Film
The Souvenir (15)
Dir. Joanna Hogg, UK, 2019, 120 mins.
Cast. Honor Swinton Byrne, Tom Burke, Tilda Swinton.
Honor Swinton Byrne gives a star making performance in Joanna Hogg’s exquisite semi-autobiographical drama about a struggling young film student who gets knocked off her creative path after she becomes romantically involved with a complicated and untrustworthy man. In 1980s London, against a backdrop of ascendant Thatcherism and IRA violence, Julie embarks on her first serious love affair with the mysterious Anthony. She’s trying to develop a documentary project set in working-class Sunderland, a community at odds with her own moneyed background, and also based around a boy called Tony. Despite the concerns of her mother (Tilda Swinton, starring alongside her real-life daughter) and friends, she slips ever deeper into a turbulent relationship with Anthony, finding it increasingly hard to discern fact from fiction. A gorgeous film of great power and unforgettable imagery, the film is a magnificent self-portrait of creative awakening and of an awkward, diffident, yet passionate young woman investigating her place in the world.
We are also hosting a Reclaim the Frame screening of The Souvenir on Thursday 19 September at 7.30pm. This will be followed by a Q&A hosted by Bird’s Eye View’s Director-at-large, Mia Bays. Click here for more information.
Cast. Honor Swinton Byrne, Tom Burke, Tilda Swinton.
Honor Swinton Byrne gives a star making performance in Joanna Hogg’s exquisite semi-autobiographical drama about a struggling young film student who gets knocked off her creative path after she becomes romantically involved with a complicated and untrustworthy man. In 1980s London, against a backdrop of ascendant Thatcherism and IRA violence, Julie embarks on her first serious love affair with the mysterious Anthony. She’s trying to develop a documentary project set in working-class Sunderland, a community at odds with her own moneyed background, and also based around a boy called Tony. Despite the concerns of her mother (Tilda Swinton, starring alongside her real-life daughter) and friends, she slips ever deeper into a turbulent relationship with Anthony, finding it increasingly hard to discern fact from fiction. A gorgeous film of great power and unforgettable imagery, the film is a magnificent self-portrait of creative awakening and of an awkward, diffident, yet passionate young woman investigating her place in the world.
We are also hosting a Reclaim the Frame screening of The Souvenir on Thursday 19 September at 7.30pm. This will be followed by a Q&A hosted by Bird’s Eye View’s Director-at-large, Mia Bays. Click here for more information.