herronadamj Review of The Souvenir

The Souvenir (2019)

late to the party

[10/10 · 16 February 2020]

Just watched this after seeing it appear on many "best of" lists for 2019.

I found it spellbinding.

Some comments:

• The director seems to have gone out of her way to do stuff that doesn't work - but it does - people talking off screen, shots not properly focussed etc.
• The script was like real life - mumbling, people talking over each other, lots of ums and incoherence - we are so attuned to snappy interactions in most scripts that we forget how unreal most dialogue is in what we watch
• The parents were remarkable characters - so carefully written, and beautifully performed
• It captured gloriously the daggy early 80's - the earnestness and the idealism
• The sets / art direction were probably the highlight - for example, the way the camera used the mirrors in their flat to express a range of emotional states
• Some sumptuous tableau cinematography, particularly in the restaurant scenes; reminded me of Peter Greenaway's work
• The use of period music as a coda between sections - whilst in the majority of scenes there was no music at all, which meant the actors needed to do all the work
• The performances were uniformly excellent - particularly Honor Swinton Burke who was translucent in her vulnerability
• As a final point, loved the cameos by the jadied marxist academics sucking on their cigarettes as they planned the revolution which never came

I admit to being pretentious, and as such found this exceptional. We should treasure the fact that films like this are still being attempted - whether or not you liked it.