The Souvenir is one of the top five movies of 2019. Here's my analysis of the film's clever structure, marking a departure from director Joanna Hogg's previous work, and why it's one of the best movies of the year. The Souvenir (2019)
Directed by Joanna Hogg
Starring Honor Swinton-Byrne, Tom Burke, Tilda Swinton, Richard Ayoade
#TheSouvenir #BestMovies2019
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Joanna Hogg’s film The Souvenir follows Julie, a young woman swept into a relationship with an older man, Anthony. They visit the Wallace Collection and look at a favourite painting of his; they argue over art; they make love and go on holiday. But something is different here; Anthony is an addict, and his habit pushes him to do more and more things that put Julie at risk. Finally, she breaks off their relationship. Anthony seeks help and recovers, they rekindle their romance; he relapses, and dies of an overdose in the toilets at the Wallace Collection.
Drawing heavily on Hogg’s own experiences with a previous partner, The Souvenir communicates a story about a toxic relationship while also mercilessly examining Hogg’s substantial privilege and the nature of self-reflexive art-about-artists. It’s a rich and beautiful film. It also marks a stark departure from Hogg’s previous, very contained work. Her first three features each concern a single location which the characters barely leave- a villa in Tuscany, a cottage and surrounding area in the Scilly isles, a modernist house in London. They’re also straightforward in their approach to time, entirely linear films that unfold in a relatively tight timescale.
The Souvenir is firmly based in Julie’s flat, but branches out to many different, distinctive locations, in particular a fleeting and dreamlike trip to Venice. It also seems to have a more subjective timeline. Early in the film, while reading about Venice, a single shot of a church reflected in a puddle is shown; later, the characters visit Venice and this shot is repeated, implying it to be a sort of flashforward. Likewise, letters between the lovers are read aloud throughout the film, over a shot of three trees in a row on the horizon. Even when time passes normally, it seems fragmented; the order of a holiday, with its trips and dinners and mornings by the pool, is long gone. Julie’s world collapses down to this time she shares with Anthony, everything revolving around him and her interactions with him; her time at film school is mostly off-screen, Hogg instead following their conversations between takes. When time passes, it does so in fits and starts, the film taking place over roughly a year but with very little indication of that.
This is a massive departure from form for Hogg. Or so it seems on first inspection. Recently I’ve begun to wonder if perhaps the film is told in a straight line, but from an unusual perspective.
After Anthony’s passing, Julie returns to film school and makes a film she’s been planning throughout this time. A camera dollies in on an actor; as it does so, Hogg’s camera dollies in on Julie, and she faces to the frame, mirroring the pose of the titular painting, Anthony’s favourite. The next shot is almost black, steeped in shadow. As these doors open, we can see the view outside; three trees, lined up on the horizon. Where Julie’s standing, they’d probably look like this. My understanding is that the entirety of The Souvenir is a recollection, from this moment in the story; it’s Julie looking back at herself, at her relationship with Anthony. Their letters are re-read in her mind while looking at this view; she recollects their trip to Venice when they read about it together, before they actually do it. And the more intimate moments of the film- tea parties in bed- are memories, hazy and unmoored in time as they tend to be.
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