A review of the new art house film “The Eternal Daughter”
Films made by British writer and director Joanna Hogg make for challenging – but ultimately rewarding – viewing. Following the critical success of her autobiographical works “The Souvenir” (2019) [for my review click here] and “The Souvenir Part II” (2021) [for my review click here] – both of which I admired – comes a work influenced by Hogg’s relationship with her mother (who died during the editing process and therefore never saw it). Like the classic art house movie, nothing much happens and it happens slowly and very little is said but every sentence is laden with meaning.The minimal story concerns a stay at a deserted country house hotel in rural Wales where a middle-aged female filmmaker wants to celebrate her elderly mother’s birthday and craft the outline of her next film. Both the daughter Julie and the mother Rosalind are played by Tilda Swinton in a virtuous performance. Swinton is a lifelong friend of Hogg and played the mother figure in the two sections of “The Souvenir”, while daughter and mother in this latest work have the same names as those in “The Souvenir”, although “The Eternal Daughter” works as a standalone film.
This relationship movie takes the form of a kind of ghost story and many of the tropes of the ghost genre can be found here: whistling wind, creaking windows, swirling mists, empty corridors and unsettling sound. But it is not a scary film, rather a sad one in which a daughter is seen as endlessly trying to please her mother – an all too common affectation.