THE SOUVENIR
THIRD-DEGREE
BYRNE
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the way we were
In her latest fi lm The Souvenir, director Joanna Hogg has drawn on the life-changing impact of a pivotal relationship she was involved in almost 40 years ago. She tells
Katie Goh how her own personal story morphed into the tale that ended up on screen
W hen British director Joanna Hogg arrived at fi lm school in the early 80s, she entered into a relationship that would change the trajectory of her personal and creative life. So much so that nearly four decades later, Hogg has revisited these formative memories in her latest – and best – fi lm. The Souvenir follows Julie, a fi ctional version of Hogg, played by Tilda Swinton’s daughter, Honor Swinton Byrne in her fi rst acting role. As a privileged young woman entering fi lm school, Julie meets Anthony (Tom Burke), a mysterious, troubled man. The result is a swooning romance with bite; a self-aware confessional and a brilliant, carefully confessional and a brilliant, carefully crafted hard look in the mirror.
‘It came partially from my memory of ‘It came partially from my memory of a relationship I had in the early 1980s a relationship I had in the early 1980s but what it has become is something else but what it has become is something else entirely,’ explains Hogg. ‘It was quite entirely,’ explains Hogg. ‘It was quite a painful process – facing the young a painful process – facing the young woman who I thought I was at that woman who I thought I was at that time. I don’t even know if it accurately time. I don’t even know if it accurately portrays the thing that happened to me. portrays the thing that happened to me. But that was the starting point and then, when other collaborators came on board, it became something entirely new.’
The new direction beyond Hogg’s memories largely came from the casting of fi rst-timer Swinton Byrne as Julie, the fi lm’s lynchpin and perhaps its biggest challenge. ‘Honor came on board quite late in the process,’ she explains. ‘I spent many months interviewing young women to play that part. I met young actresses, I stopped people in the street, I talked to friends about people they knew. It became quite a desperate search. I think what I wasn’t fi nding was someone who could believably be a young woman at that time – an analogue young woman!’ Putting a Super 8 camera into Swinton Byrne’s hands was as far as Hogg went in preparing her young star for her fi rst role. ‘Really the only thing I didn’t do was tell her the story of The Souvenir because I wanted her to live the story through the shooting of it. I’m not even sure she knew it was about a relationship. She discovered that as we shot the
fi lm. She just knew that she was playing someone who was interested in fi lm but beyond that it was a discovery, including the ending.’
The Souvenir also makes use of fi lm Hogg shot as a young fi lmmaker. ‘We weren’t able to shoot the entire fi lm on celluloid because of budgetary constraints so I decided to use that to my advantage and tell the story with these different textures. I suppose the idea was that Julie’s creative life is expressed in fi lm and at the start of The Souvenir, before she meets Anthony, she’s in the texture of fi lm and the looseness of shooting on handheld. And then when she meets Anthony, it closes down a little bit and we’re shooting on digital. But throughout the fi lm, there’s a play between digital and fi lm – very much refl ecting Julie’s state of mind. We’re using 60mm and Super 8 that I shot in the using 60mm and Super 8 that I shot in the 80s. That was very exciting to use some of these materials that have been sitting of these materials that have been sitting in a drawer somewhere all those years.’
In The Souvenir, Julie’s arrival at fi lm school forces her to wrestle with her own school forces her to wrestle with her own exposure to privilege and the question of exposure to privilege and the question of whether artists can tell stories removed whether artists can tell stories removed from their own lived experiences. Has from their own lived experiences. Has Hogg herself reached a conclusion on Hogg herself reached a conclusion on that question? ‘I don’t know if I’ve come that question? ‘I don’t know if I’ve come to a conclusion,’ says Hogg after a pause. to a conclusion,’ says Hogg after a pause. ‘But I don’t believe that you can only tell ‘But I don’t believe that you can only tell stories from what you know. It encourages stories from what you know. It encourages me to think the opposite in a way. As artists, you should be allowed to tell stories you want to tell and not just from your own experience. Otherwise what have you got to say?’ The Souvenir part two has already fi nished fi lming and Hogg is gleeful when asked what she can say about it. ‘It’s the same story but jumping forward. It’s something else entirely but also a continuation.’ And have the reactions to part one shaped part two? ‘Well I haven’t read any of them,’ Hogg laughs. ‘I didn’t want to be limited by interpretation. I never want to limit possibilities.’
The Souvenir is out now. See review, page 62.
1 Sep–31 Oct 2019 THE LIST 19