The Souvenir Film Review

Joanna Hogg’s The Souvenir is a semi-autobiographical film about a young filmmaker who gets caught up in a fraught relationship with a charming older man.

Hogg shoots The Souvenir perfectly. It’s a visual delight of soft dreary colours and a grainy film texture.

Also, Interestingly, the apartment Julie lives in is actually a full reconstruction of Hogg’s apartment, and the views seen through the windows are old photos that Hogg had taken back in the 80s. Filmmaking doesn’t really get much more personal than that.

Furthermore, Hogg represents this with the use of close-ups and mirrors. There is a wall-length mirror that occupies Julie’s apartment, and it acts as a device that reflects the characters back to themselves unflinchingly. Then, when the mirror is broken, it distorts them and splinters their reflections.

On the other hand, to counteract this intimacy with the personal past, Hogg also shoots many moments from afar and in one particularly striking scene in Venice, we see the action from the reflection of a small mirror in a vast room, the complete antithesis of the mirror that occupies Julie’s apartment, yet it tells the same truth.

And while it’s a gorgeous film to behold, I did find The Souvenir to be just a little too slow in its unfolding of the plot; sure, it had a lot to say about class, relationships, gaslighting and art, but it said them all a little too slow for me. Which I was rather surprised about as I do love a slow-burn film where characters and mood take centre stage.

“Stop inviting me to torture you,”

The casting in this film is spot on; Honor Swinton Byrne becomes enmeshed with Julie, and Tom Burke plays Antony with the right balance of pretension and charm that is soon replaced with utter deplorability. Tilda Swinton as Julie’s Mother (who is also Swinton Byrne’s real Mother), who dances on the line between maternal love and being overbearing, and Richard Ayoade’s cameo as a patronising filmmaker and friend of Anthony is rather amusing.

While I struggled with the film due to its pacing I will definitely be watching The Souvenir Part II as I am intrigued to see where Julie’s story is heading. But above all else I loved the cinematography and casting (as I’ve mentioned earlier in this review) and to be honest that is enough for me.