A tale of amour fou and artistic aspiration set in 1980s London, The Souvenir feels like a whispered confidence wrapped in mystery. Julie, a film student, is dating Anthony—or is she? Neither are what they first appear to be, and that upends our expectations. Ostensibly another tale of a smart woman making a foolish choice, it’s also a memory piece, viewed through the perspective of maturity. The tone is one of nostalgia, both sad and joyous to behold. UK/USA, 2019, 120 minutes, rated R for some sex, nudity, language
POST FILM DISCUSSION with Kristi Zea, acclaimed Nyack producer, director and production designer.
Winner of the Grande Jury Prize, Sundance Film Festival
Best Film of 2019, Sight & Sound Magazine
Top Ten films of 2019, Film Comment
“Tilda Swinton’s daughter, Honor Swinton Byrne, makes her dazzling debut (alongside Tilda, playing her on-screen mother) in Joanna Hogg’s exquisite cine-memoir of a doomed love affair from her film-school days.” – Leah Greenblatt, Entertainment Weekly
“One of my favorite movies of the year so far.” (NYTimes Critic’s Pick) – A. O. Scott, The New York Times
“British writer-director Joanna Hogg’s semi-autobiographical The Souvenir is a stunning piece of work. It’s a movie about the science and the art of moviemaking; a profile of a complicated mother-daughter dynamic, and a devastatingly effective, docudrama-style examination of a romance that turns into a horror show. Virtually every frame of this film is strikingly effective.” – Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times
“That naturalistic feeling, of a life that’s being passionately and painfully lived, is what makes this movie so extraordinary. Hogg is not a sensationalistic filmmaker, but rather someone who can convey tremendous amounts of emotion through total tranquility on-screen. While The Souvenir may be many American viewers’ first engagement with her, it won’t be their last.” – David Sims, The Atlantic
“. . . a fairly smashing debut, a performance so genuine, detailed and lived-in that Swinton Byrne may have the film world begging her to reconsider her plans to study psychology and neuroscience.” – Jocelyn Noveck, AP
“Hogg builds her elliptical love story like a memory palace: immersive, impressionist moments arranged only in the most loosely linear way. But the story casts a spell, and Swinton Byrne is a milky, beguiling presence; it’s almost as if you’re watching her become a person in real time. – Leah Greenblatt, Entertainment Weekly
“A cinematic memoir of once-in-a-decade emotional precision and ambition, Joanna Hogg’s The Souvenir does many things so exquisitely, it’s hard to know where to begin.” – Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out
“Achingly well-observed in its study of a young artist inspired, derailed and finally strengthened by a toxic relationship, it is at once the coming-of-age story of many women and a specific creative manifesto for one of modern British cinema’s most singular writer-directors.” – Guy Lodge, Variety
