Tilda Swinton playing both mother and daughter in a Joanna Hogg–directed, A24-distributed ghost story? No, that’s not film-Twitter ad-libs. Yes, Swinton took the role from her daughter and star of Hogg’s The Souvenir, Honor Swinton Byrne. That’s the nuts and bolts of the director’s upcoming film and fourth collaboration with the elder Swinton, The Eternal Daughter. The trailer depicts Swinton’s characters headed to the Moel Famau hotel in the Welsh countryside for what should have been a getaway. Instead, heavy fog looms over the cold, decrepit road — captured on grainy film and color-graded to match the frigid atmosphere — as the gray dusk gives way to night. The sprawling estate is nearly empty, save for a lone receptionist who doesn’t seem to notice the spine-chilling sounds echoing from the upstairs rooms, whose lace curtains and Victorian furniture suggest they haven’t been renovated for a century. “You brought her here,†a man says while the camera pans across old photographs and porcelain keepsakes. “Memories flood back in this place, quietly in the evening, through the building and on the grounds. And I suppose it is a way of staying in touch.†As memories flood back, the dread settles in. The Eternal Daughter arrives in theaters December 2.
Tilda Swinton Is Mother (and The Eternal Daughter)
