‘The Eternal Daughter’ Trailer: Tilda Swinton Doubles Up in Joanna Hogg’s Ghost Story
With “The Souvenir” and “The Souvenir: Part II,” Joanna Hogg proved that her ability to push the boundaries of meta-filmmaking is unparalleled. Her latest work, “The Eternal Daughter,” expands on the fictional universe (based on her own life experiences) that she began building with those films. It brings back the character of Julie Hart, a young film student who gets into a troubling relationship with an older man and sorts through the memories by making a film about it. Set later in her life, the role initially played by Honor Swinton Byrne is now played by Tilda Swinton. Swinton also reprises her role as Julie’s mother, doing double duty in a film that examines the way aging can impact family dynamics.
The film’s official synopsis reads: “An artist and her elderly mother confront long-buried secrets when they return to a former family home, now a hotel haunted by its mysterious past. Featuring a towering, deeply moving performance by Tilda Swinton, acclaimed filmmaker Joanna Hogg’s beguiling latest film is a brilliant and captivating exploration of parental relationships and the things we leave behind.”
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“The Eternal Daughter” earned strong reviews following its premiere at the Venice Film Festival, with many critics singling out Swinton’s performance as a high point. In his review of the film, IndieWire’s David Ehrlich wrote: “More than just an efficient bit of stunt-casting for a movie shot at the height of COVID, Swinton’s uncanny dual performances are key to the movie’s hushed meditation on how women might see themselves in their mothers (this, despite the fact that Swinton so fully inhabits both roles that you almost instantly forget they share a single actress between them). If Julie sometimes feels like her mother’s doppelg?nger, then why does Rosalind also seem so distant? Julie becomes quietly fixated on the discrepancies between them, the filmmaker growing frustrated that her efforts to capture her mother’s memory on camera only lead to her getting lost in her own reflection or being confounded by tricks of the light.”
“The Eternal Daughter” is scheduled to open in theaters on Friday, December 2. Watch the trailer below.
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