The Souvenir

The Souvenir (2019)

Timing: 1:59 (119 min)

6.092/10
277

All about film

Video 4

Photo 28

Actors and characters

Release date

2019-05-17

Country

United Kingdom, United States

Production

Protagonist Pictures, BBC Film, BFI, Sikelia Productions, JWH Films, BFI Film Fund

Genre

Romance, Drama

Budget

$0

Revenue

$2 087 678

Website

https://a24films.com/films/the-souvenir

Director

Joanna Hogg

Actors

Honor Swinton Byrne, Tom Burke, Tilda Swinton, Richard Ayoade, Ariane Labed, Jaygann Ayeh, Jack McMullen, Chyna Terrelonge Vaughan, Tosin Cole, Hannah Ashby Ward
All actors and roles (10)

Scenario

Joanna Hogg

Producer

Joanna Hogg, Luke Schiller, Martin Scorsese, Andrew Starke, Emma Tillinger Koskoff, Lizzie Francke, Rose Garnett, Dave Bishop

Operator

David Raedeker

Composer

Artist

Hattie Gent, Luke Moran-Morris

Audition

Olivia Scott-Webb

Editing

Helle le Fevre
All team (56)

• Director Joanna Hogg had already cast Tom Burke and Tilda Swinton in the film, but couldn't find an actress for the role of Julia. Time before the start of filming was running out. When she met with Tilda Swinton one day to discuss her role, Swinton's daughter, Honor Swinton-Byrne, happened to be present, and Hogg suddenly began to see Julia in her. Hogg and Swinton have been friends since the age of ten, but Hogg had never seen the girl as an actress before, and she had no acting experience.
• Joanna Hogg wrote the screenplay based on her own memories of studying at a London school in the early 1980s. She then distributed the script to all the actors, except for Honor Byrne. Byrne received Hogg's diaries from those years, records, photographs, and old scripts that Hogg had written at the time. As for the role, Byrne was instructed to improvise, while the rest of the cast had to adapt to her improvisations as best they could.
• The London apartment of Julia, played by Honor Swinton-Byrne, is an exact replica of the apartment where the film's director, Joanna Hogg, lived at the same age. The set was built inside an airplane hangar, and the city visible from the windows is a projection of photographs taken by Hogg in her youth.
• In the screenplay, Joanna Hogg used memories of her own time in London while studying at film school in the 1980s.
• All the actors read the script, with Honor Swinton-Byrne being the sole exception. Joanna Hogg gave her her own diaries from the early 1980s, notes, photographs, and scripts she had written for films at that time. The actress was instructed to improvise in each scene, while the others had to adhere to the script. Tom Burke played the role of Anthony, and Hogg gave him old letters, records, and notes of the person on whom his character was based.
• Joanna Hogg herself studied at a film school near London in her youth. Tilda Swinton, who was then completely unknown, starred in her graduation project.
• Filming took place in Norfolk in August 2017.
• The film's title is taken from a painting by Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806) depicting a lady scratching the initials of her beloved into the trunk of a tree.
• All the projects that Honor Swinton-Byrne undertook at film school were based on projects by director Joanna Hogg from her time studying at the same institution.