The Souvenir: Part II
The masterful sequel to Joanna Hogg’s The Souvenir, in which main character Julie uses her negative relationship experiences to make her graduation film.
In the aftermath of her tumultuous relationship with a charismatic and manipulative older man, Julie begins to untangle her fraught love for him in making her graduation film, sorting fact from his elaborately constructed fiction. Joanna Hogg’s shimmering story of first love and a young woman’s formative years, THE SOUVENIR: PART II is a portrait of the artist that transcends the halting particulars of everyday life – a singular, alchemic mix of memoir and fantasy.
The film sees the return of the main characters from the first part – again, played beautifully: Julie, played by Honor Swinton Byrne, and Julie’s comforting mother Rosalind, played by Tilda Swinton, Honor’s real mother. Hogg applies the same characteristic techniques as in her previous films: the use of a static camera to capture scenes in a single long take. And above all, she gives a lesson in how to deliver a sequel: funnier, more imaginative and with (even) more depth than its predecessor.
Like THE SOUVENIR in 2019, THE SOUVENIR: PART II was named best film of the year 2021 by the leading British film magazine Sight and Sound.
Please note: During this period, for everyone who missed the film at the time of its release, Lumière will also retake the first part of this film series: THE SOUVENIR.