A beautifully-crafted, intimate portrait of a young artist’s first love and self-discovery. A film by Joanna Hogg, starring Honor Swinton Byrne, Tom Burke, Tilda Swinton, and Richard Ayoade.

British filmmaker Joanna Hogg draws on her own experiences as a film student in the screenplay for The SOUVENIR. The film follows Julie (Honor Swinton Byrne), a film student determined to make a movie about a boy living in Sunderland, a port city in the north of England.

Julie meets Anthony (Tom Burke), a Foreign Office employee, and they quickly move in together. One day, Anthony leaves a postcard of Jean-Honoré Fragonard’s painting The Souvenir for Julie. He later takes her to the Wallace Collection gallery to see the real painting. Julie begins to experience financial difficulties. After her flatmate moves out, she is responsible for the entire rent, and Anthony never offers financial assistance. As a result, she is forced to borrow money from her mother, Rosalind (Tilda Swinton), under the pretense of needing it for school supplies.

Anthony lavishes Julie with attention, taking her to galleries, fancy restaurants, and introducing her to his favorite films. However, after returning from Paris one night, Julie notices needle marks on his arm. Anthony brushes her off, refusing to explain. He also begins to ask her for money on a regular basis. Sometimes he disappears for several days without explanation.

The film’s exquisite cinematography and captivating storytelling draw viewers into Julie’s world, where she is a young woman who genuinely attempts to help her boyfriend, even as his problems drag her deeper than she ever anticipated.

Tom Burke delivers a mesmerizing performance, conveying a sense of enigmatic secrecy that hints at a sinister dark secret hidden beneath the surface.

Honor Swinton Byrne also delivers an impressive performance, showcasing her acting prowess in a demanding role. Her portrayal of Julie is nuanced and complex, capturing the character’s vulnerability, strength, and resilience. It is noteworthy that Byrne and Tilda Swinton, her real-life mother, also play mother and daughter in the film, adding to the film’s emotional resonance.

Le chiffre d’amour (The Souvenir) is a painting by French painter Jean-Honoré Fragonard, whose late Rococo manner was distinguished by remarkable facility, exuberance, and hedonism. One of the most prolific artists active in the last decades of the Ancien Régime, Fragonard produced more than 550 paintings. The painting is on permanent display at the Wallace Collection in London, England.

Rococo, also known as Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and dramatic style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpted moulding, and trompe-l’œil frescoes to create surprise and the illusion of motion and drama. It is often described as the final expression of the Baroque movement.

The SOUVENIR premiered at Sundance Film Festival on 27 January 2019. The film was theatrically released in the United States on 17 May, by A24. It was later theatrically released in the United Kingdom on 30 August, by Curzon Artificial Eye.