The Eternal Daughter

Welcome to Breakout, the MASSIVE scheme sending 12 first-time writers to London Film Festival to write their debut professional film reviews. For the 12 days following the 12 days of the festival, we’ll be publishing the writing of our chosen stars to celebrate cinema at its finest and introduce you to the next generation’s most promising new critics.

First up, London’s Holly Dolan reviews Joanna Hogg’s new one, The Eternal Daughter.

Joanna Hogg’s third film in three years is another emotional heavyweight, but unexpected comedic deliveries keep it from straying too far into the darkness. Tilda Swinton plays both mother and daughter in a film that indulges in the quiet turbulence shared in their relationship.  

Hogg’s successor to The Souvenir Parts I and II acts as a theoretical third instalment to the pair. The meta-fictitious narrative of ‘Julie’ continues, now middle-aged in a fog-ridden English countryside hotel with her mother.  

The Eternal Daughter tells a quintessential ghost story. The marriage of an orchestral score and gothic backdrop bring forth a beguiling atmosphere inflicted on Julie. As she tries to appease her placid mother, these gestures are met with a blankness that fills the rooms these characters share. 

Hogg is concerned with spaces we share with others. In The Eternal Daughter, this ‘space’ evokes Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining; a hotel is equipped with outdated wallpaper patterns, its exterior sits in a seemingly permanent mist, Hogg even includes some brief flashes of ghostly figures in windows. It’s the work of a consistently innovative and masterly storyteller. 

What lies at the core of The Eternal Daughter is Hogg’s delicate exploration of her own relationship with her mother, with every scene delivered with tenderness and attention to the slightest of details. Julie’s vulnerability is cathartic. In a particularly poignant scene, she carefully lays the table before dinner with her mother, perfectly assembling her mother’s birthday gifts. This fussing is a consistent trait of Julie, it’s a detail emphasising the film’s meta-context and makes the mother daughter interactions all the more heartrending. 

The Eternal Daughter is Hogg at her most vulnerable, serving as another open wound in her catalogue.

The UK release date for The Eternal Daughter is yet to be confirmed. Check back here for more Breakout reviews.