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The third film in Joanna Hogg’s sort-of trilogy, also comprising The Souvenir I and II, explores the hauntings of relationships through the one that lingers perhaps the longest in the other: that between a mother and daughter.
The amazing Swinton is both Julie Hart, and Rosalind, her mother, here. Seeking to make a movie about their relationship, Julie, a filmmaker, chooses a remote 18th-century castle-turned-hotel that her mother had spent a chunk of her past life in, to spend some quiet time together, talk about memories and usher in her birthday – and get it all on her phone recorder (in secret), and her camera.
All they have at this castle, located down a bleak road with wind whistling through branches, is mist that obscures, doors and windows that creak, things that go bump at night, and an almost insolent receptionist (Davies), who would rather be rushing off every night with what seems to be her boyfriend, who drives in blaring loud techno music.
Once the taxi driver has told Julie a story about a face in the window of the castle, she pauses every night to look – and sees something. It could be a swaying white curtain or a pale face.
From the beginning, Julie is unsure. Is the film she is trying to build a thing of love or exploitation? Is her mother’s privacy and story hers to tell? And as Rosalind recalls both good times and bad at that castle once owned by an aunt (including a brother’s death and a miscarriage), is Julie even right in bringing her here? Who is she trying to help, herself or her mother?
The setting which may or may not be haunted, the receptionist who may or may not know more, the groundsman who may or may not be real, their dog that might or might not be whimpering, all add to the shroud of sorrow that Julie bears around her.
As children, we almost wilfully wish our parents to be happy and untroubled, knowing we can’t make it better but also that in them lies a world that was once our cocoon. A chink there could end that parallel, actually non-existent, world for us.
As parents, we realise the burden of that expectation, a burden that only gets heavier as mortality pulls us the other way. Very little actually happens in this mood-driven film, except in the changes in the two women. As Julie’s desperation to make her mother happy, give her the perfect birthday, mounts, is Rosalind visibly shrinking from the effort?
In contrast is the groundsman’s love for his recently deceased wife, a joyous love unplagued by guilt but as laden with memories that “has entered a new chapter”, in his words.
In a conversation that Julie overhears, Rosalind regrets that Julie never had children of her own, adding that she still though was a “perfect mother”, and has always fussed over her. “She is great at the practical kind of love,” Rosalind says. “She does it well.” Her choice of “does” for love is interesting. And says it all.
The Eternal Daughter
The Eternal Daughter movie cast: Tilda Swinton, Carla-Sophia Davies, Joseph Mydell
The Eternal Daughter movie director: Joanna Hogg
The Eternal Daughter movie rating: 4 stars
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