07/09/2022 - VENICE 2022: Joanna Hogg returns with a double helping of Tilda Swinton and a ghost story that’s on the dull side

Tilda Swinton in The Eternal Daughter

Joanna Hogg has been enjoying a bit of a resurgence lately, mostly thanks to the massive success (at least in arthouse terms) of The Souvenir [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] and its follow-up, The Souvenir: Part II [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]. Her new effort, The Eternal Daughter [+see also:
trailer
film profile], although still a continuation of sorts, feels much more rushed – like something one would come up with on an especially foggy weekend with friends, especially if your friend happens to be Tilda Swinton.

Premiering in the Venice Film Festival’s main competition, it’s a tiny little thing that has some charm, but ultimately feels too slight to really engage. Even the casting of Swinton in two different roles, as a mother and as a daughter, feels entertaining only for a while. Although the sight of the famous actor, arguing with herself in front of some beetroot salad, won’t be easily forgotten.

If all this sounds slightly farcical, it’s not: The Eternal Daughter is a melancholic tale about chasing the ghosts of the past. As usual with Hogg, it’s another personal story, with Swinton playing a filmmaker trying to make a movie about her mother (and, funnily enough, taking over from her own daughter, The Souvenir star Honor Swinton Byrne). She rehashes old stories, memories good and bad, wanting to keep her mum close in some way. But there is no stopping time, obviously, even though people keep on chasing those shadows.

There is no one in the old-fashioned hotel where they are staying, except for a grumpy young receptionist who treats every demand as a personal insult. Which makes it easier to think and to feel, especially during the night, as weird sounds keep this one guest awake. There is something true that Hogg manages to capture here, actually, something authentic about the weirdness of a mother-daughter relationship, built on good intentions yet still failing to satisfy, as even a nice moment inevitably leads to more tension. Maybe that’s just the way it is sometimes – maybe it’s that kind of love.

The conversations these two have are never sentimental, though, mostly because it wouldn’t suit them one bit – especially the older one, clearly accustomed to holding it in and only occasionally offering her daughter additional glimpses. She, on the other hand, just wants her mother to be happy, she says. In another competition entry, Saint Omer [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Alice Diop
interview: Kayije Kagame
film profile], Alice Diop argued that a child always remains a part of their mother, and a mother always remains a part of her child. That’s what Hogg is showing here, too, even when their roles switch and the ailing parent is the one in need of care.

Despite such touching moments, it still feels like a horror pastiche a little too often, with floors creaking ominously, dogs getting spooked and people – Swinton, of course – pretending that all they can hear is the wind. Not affecting enough as a drama and most certainly not scary enough as a chiller, this one ultimately gets lost in the fog.

The Eternal Daughter is an Irish-UK-US co-production staged by Element Pictures, JWH Films, BBC Films and Sikelia Productions.

Photogallery 06/09/2022: Venice 2022 - The Eternal Daughter

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Joanna Hogg, Tilda Swinton, Carly-Sophia Davies, Joseph Mydell
© 2022 Dario Caruso for Cineuropa - @studio.photo.dar, Dario Caruso