torrilla:

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Her first two films, Unrelated and Archipelago, had a fearsome stillness and surgical eye for the mores of the English middle class. Both starred Tom Hiddleston, in his first film roles before becoming the fiendish Loki in the Avengers movies. To him, what set Hogg apart was her grasp of the “strange truths” of families, her knowledge that “real life is often mysterious”.

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There were few visitors. On alternate Saturdays, one was Tom Hiddleston – cast in a small but pivotal role as a butter-smooth estate agent. He first met Hogg in 2005, a fortnight after leaving drama school. In 2012, he joined her after working weeks spent at Shepperton making Thor: The Dark World.

He emails to discuss his role. First was a period of research, a mastery of conveyancing and contract management. “A lot of work for a small part, but I didn’t want to screw it up.”

Albertine’s discomfort may have been unavoidable. Sharing their clothes and creating their dialogue, Hiddleston writes, “you can’t help but pour parts of yourself into Joanna’s characters, to the extent that sometimes by the end of the shoot, it’s all begun to feel alarmingly real.”

Yet Exhibition sounds not unlike a trip home. “A big budget studio film can feel necessarily like a military operation. Joanna’s set feels like a family.”

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Home movie: how Joanna Hogg made Exhibition