Abstract
This chapter offers a study of gesture and performance in The Souvenir (Joanna Hogg, 2019), a film in which first-time actor Honor Swinton Byrne plays Julie, a fledgling filmmaker and film student. The Souvenir is an important and unusual film when it comes to nonprofessional performance for two key reasons. Firstly, unlike many other nonprofessional actors—who were “discovered” in the streets, come from modest backgrounds, and had no significant connection with screen acting—Swinton Byrne is the daughter of Tilda Swinton, an internationally renowned star and a seasoned actor. Secondly, The Souvenir is a reflexive film partly based on Joanna Hogg’s life and depicts the filmmaker’s formative years as she attends film school.
This chapter argues that Swinton Byrne’s uncommon status significantly informs Julie’s performance, enabling the film to vividly explore how, through trials and errors, a young filmmaker not only progressively discovers her artistic voice but also acquires a deeper understanding of herself as a social performer.
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Notes
- 1.
- 2.
The lines of the song are: “Right now I’m in Knightsbridge, in a really nice flat. I’m gonna get me one of these places, with five of my wives”.
- 3.
For an analysis of fluency in relation to screen performance, see Klevan (2012).
- 4.
For a discussion of how this aspect of nonprofessional performance is dramatised in El Perro/Bombon: El Perro (Carlos Sorin, 2004) see Gaggiotti (2021).
- 5.
Swinton Byrne explains she was particularly nervous performing in this scene because it was the first scene shot for the film and, therefore, her first time acting. See Swinton Byrne (2020).
- 6.
Later moments in the party share a similar pattern where, by staying with Julie after she has performed socially, the camera captures her private expressions and, in doing so, suggests the deceit and effort of her public front as well as Julie’s discomfort performing politely for her guests.
- 7.
In a making-off featurette about The Souvenir: Part II (Joanna Hogg, 2021), crew members point out that despite the film being set in a historical past, Joanna Hogg insisted on it feeling and looking like a modern film.
- 8.
- 9.
See Monks Kaufman (2019).
- 10.
The poem was written in 1948 and first published in 1962 as part of Rossetti’s first volume of poetry Goblin Market and Other Poems.
- 11.
The Souvenir: Part II (Joanna Hogg, 2021) explores Julie’s journey as she actualises her new self-conception. Though she remains a somewhat vulnerable character, she does not struggle actualising expectations set upon her by others (as she does in The Souvenir) but, rather, articulating her vision. In the second film, Julie has come to terms with the kind of artist she wants to be and commits to such self-conception even if others aren’t quite able to follow her.
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Gaggiotti, M. (2023). Honor Swinton Byrne in The Souvenir: Self-Consciousness and Privilege. In: Nonprofessional Film Performance. Palgrave Close Readings in Film and Television. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-32382-9_7
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