A Frequency: Tilda Swinton and Joanna Hogg on The Eternal Daughter

Filmmaker Joanna Hogg mesmerized critics and audiences alike along with her duo of semi-autobiographical movies 2019’s “The Souvenir” and 2021’s “The Souvenir Part II.” In filming these uncooked coming-of-auteur dramas, Hogg reunited with Tilda Swinton, her youth pal and the famous person of her thesis film “Caprice.” During quarantine the two worked collectively again on “The Eternal Daughter,” a meditation now not simplest on memory however on the inexorable connection between mothers and daughters told via the lens of a gothic ghost story. While the film can be seen as an extension of “The Souvenir” movies, it also works as a stand-on my own piece of artwork. In “The Eternal Daughter” Swinton performs an older version of Julie, the filmmaker at the middle of “The Souvenir” performed via Swinton’s own daughter Honor Swinton Byrne, in addition to an older model of Julie’s mom Rosalind, whom Swinton additionally performed in the sooner movies. Late one foggy night time, mom and daughter arrive at a nearly vacant hotel, once the grand domestic of Rosalind’s aunt. As Julie tries to paintings on a movie based on Rosalind’s reminiscences of the region, a ghost-like presence starts to upward thrust to the surface.

Although she is joined by using the lodge’s acerbic receptionist (Carly-Sophia Davies), its kindly groundskeeper (Joseph Mydell), and a canine named Louis, “The Eternal Daughter” is nearly completely a one-girls showcase for Swinton’s giant abilities, both dramatic and comedic. As the coronary heart of the movie slowly exhibits itself to the target market, so does the outstanding synchronistic artistry of Swinton and Hogg. It’s interesting due to the fact we had been really just having this same communication. I sense that “The Eternal Daughter” could be very a lot its own contained world. But, there are obviously some arrows that factor in the direction of “The Souvenir” films and the alternative manner round. Really, I just see it in my thoughts’s eye as some thing very, very, of its very own. It’s such a one-of-a-kind environment to the ones films. I assume with all my movies going back, they have all had something it is long past from a preceding movie into a new film. With this one, Rosalind and Julie have moved into “The Eternal Daughter” at a completely exclusive degree in existence. So I don’t assume it wishes to be framed with the aid of the “Souvenir” movies.You noted this connection of your movies, and this one made me think of “Exhibition,” which all happened in a single house. I love the line in “The Eternal Daughter” about homes having memories. How did you locate your location for this film and the way did you connect the memories in that constructing to the reminiscences of your mom?

JH: I found the house absolutely on the internet as it turned into while we were all at home around March of 2020. Tilda and I were already having a communique approximately “The Eternal Daughter,” however there was no house yet. Very, very important for all my films is the space that it takes location in, so it’s far just almost the maximum essential aspect to discover. So I was Googling homes across the u . S ., and it changed into very plenty about locating an photograph of a constructing that made me experience a little bit scared. So I looked at Scotland, I looked in Cornwall. I checked out the most haunted homes inside the UK. Then I saw an image of Soughton Hall in north Wales, and it just appeared frightening, but additionally very beautiful.

TILDA SWINTON: And very cinematic. I suppose it’s the opposite aspect, is that it feels nearly as if it’s seemed in films in our creativeness before; they haven’t. No one’s ever shot in it earlier than.