Raak mij aan! Touch me!

Tilda Swinton movingly incarnates both mother and daughter in this atmospheric film by Joanna Hogg.

In The Souvenir (2019) and The Souvenir Part II (2021), Tilda Swinton and daughter Honor Swinton Byrne respectively played Rosalind and Julie – modelled loosely on writer-director Joanna Hogg (Exhibition, IFFR 2014) and her mother. The Eternal Daughter transposes the Julie-Rosalind relationship into another setting, decades later – and this time Swinton takes both roles.

The setting is a somewhat spooky, mist-covered, largely empty mansion in Wales, now a hotel, but once the place where Rosalind grew up. Hogg offers a frisson of mystery and suspense, with a nod to such minimalist masters as Jacques Tourneur and Jack Clayton – much is carried by the delicate design of off-screen sound. Yet the film’s true heart is the tender but complex bond between mother and daughter. Where does one identity end and the other begin? What roles do they find themselves now playing?

Do not expect the typical trickery of films featuring one actor in two roles: there are no shots over the shoulder of a stand-in, and little digital compositing – except at the most necessary, heart-breaking moment. The cast is small, but Carly-Sophia Davies is unforgettable as the bitchy, indifferent receptionist – and a dog named Louis (Swinton’s own) almost steals the show.

Agenda

Wednesday 28 June
18:50 till 21:16
How to read a film?-edition
Camera 2
€ 11.50
Thursday 29 June
Release date, session times to be announced
Language
Engels gesproken, Nederlands ondertiteld
Duration
96 min
Kijkwijzer
Actors
Tilda Swinton, Joseph Mydell, Carly-Sophia Davies
Country
verenigd Koninkrijk,VS
Year
2022
Director
Joanna Hogg

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