The Souvenir Part II

Directed by Joanna Hogg

Running time: 1hr46 | REVIEWED BY CATHERINE BRAY

Honor Swinton Byrne stars in The Souvenir Part II

The Souvenir Part II wears its plot lightly: film student Julie (Honor Swinton Byrne) uses the death of her boyfriend (in 2019’s The Souvenir) as the inspiration for her graduation film, which proves to be a stressful experience. Writer-director Joanna Hogg proves here that dramatic stakes do not need to be especially high when you observe a character’s emotional landscape through such a persuasively perceptive microscope — under a powerful lens, the subtlest shifts will appear vertiginous, the slightest setback will feel epic, a faint pursing of the lips will register as high comedy. This is a particular mode of English filmmaking at its finest, a cinema attuned to the subtlest tremor of a stiff upper lip. The storytelling is expertly controlled — based on lived experience, yes, but never seeming to allow the lived experience to take over from the act of creating fiction.

Even more so than its sibling-film, this half of the Souvenir narrative possesses the fluid quality of a memory expressed with the discipline of a piece of elegant architecture, and the result is a masterclass in interpersonal dynamics. Hogg observes the back and forth between human beings with the sort of surgical attention to intimate psychological detail that is normally the preserve of beloved novels. The piercing precision with which the characters are pinned down and anatomised is eased with frequent comedy, the laughs coming largely from our recognition of the precarious nature of the human ego. Richard Ayoade’s precious director character is a particular highlight, throwing out lines like “Is there any chance of getting another half dozen people around this monitor?” with astringent sarcastic delicacy.

THE SOUVENIR PART II (2021) Written by Joanna Hogg | Shot by David Raedeker | Edited by Helle le Fevre

Selected for Directors’ Fortnight at the 74th Cannes Film Festival