A comingof-age story comes of age
Director Joanna Hogg on expanding the semiautobiographical world of THE SOUVENIR
JOANNA HOGG CAN’T let go of The Souvenir. The original award-winning 2019 film followed shy film-school student Julie (Honor Swinton Byrne) as she began her journey as a filmmaker, all the while caught in a relationship with troubled Foreign Office worker Anthony (Tom Burke). Beautifully acted, exquisitely made and emotionally devastating, if the first film was autobiographical for writer-director Joanna Hogg — drawing from her early years as a young film student, and a complex, formative romantic relationship —sequel The Souvenir: Part II sees the filmmaker throw off the shackles of her own life.
“There’s more invention in Part II,” she begins. “I don’t really see it as based on my own experiences anymore. It’s totally become its own thing because those characters already had life breathed into them. Then it’s just about taking their journeys further. I found that very exciting. It was an even more creative journey for me.”
This time round, we see Julie’s development as a filmmaker, using her relationship with Anthony as inspiration for her art, exploring more of her home life (Swinton Byrne’s real-life mother, Tilda Swinton, returns as Julie’s mother Rosalind) and exploding the intense focus of the first film with more life, more characters. There are now multiple men in Julie’s life, some old — film-school confidante and fellow outsider Marland
(Jaygann Ayeh) — and some new: a student film editor (Joe Alwyn) and two actors (Harris Dickinson, Charlie Heaton). But they can’t have the same impact that Anthony had in the first film. “No-one replaces Anthony,” says Hogg. “It’s all really about Julie coming into her own as a young woman not defined by men.” Another big presence in Julie’s life is opinionated French student Garance (Ariane Labed), glimpsed holding court in the back of a minibus in the first film.
“I got great pleasure introducing her at the end of part one, knowing that she was going to have a journey with Julie in Part II. She’s a very different filmmaker to Julie. Garance has a much more macho side to her. She is one of Julie’s role models, but not always in a positive way.”
After making small-scale indies Unrelated, Archipelago and Exhibition, the Souvenir films saw Hogg stretch herself as a director. “It did feel like a bigger canvas and a lot of gear changes stylistically, especially in Part II,” she says. “So, it was never easy.” But the experience hasn’t deterred Hogg from returning to Julie at a later date. “I do have an interest in her being a filmmaker and some of the characters around her,” Hogg admits. “She also connects with my previous films in different ways. What I find is that I finish one film and then the next film I do, there’s always a connection with the previous one. They’re all linked. It’s like I’m making one film, that’s how it feels.” We haven’t seen the last of the Joanna Hogg Cinematic Universe.
THE SOUVENIR: PART II IS IN CINEMAS LATER THIS YEAR