My first meeting with Tilda Swinton was in Grand Opening in Landmark last year and everyone in the house were only focusing on her the moment she came in, everyone. With an angular face and sharp features, she possesses a fierce beauty that is only matched by ferocity of talent. Underneath her self-possession and carefully controlled expression is a well of deep, tortured and conflicted emotion.
Her chameleon-like transformative abilities have made her one of the most noted actresses of our era — as the totalitarian leader of a post-apocalyptic future in Snowpiercer, or completely upending the image we’ve cultivated about her and playing against type as a magazine editor in Amy Schumer’s comedy hit, Trainwreck. No matter the role, every one of Swinton’s characters have something to say—about women, the role of women, and the society they inhabit.
The theme of womanhood, and more specifically, motherhood is something she explores in two very different films released two years apart: I am Love and We Need to Talk about Kevin. How mothers related to their children—more specifically, their sons—is a dynamic that has been explored since antiquity. From the ancient Greek tale of Oedipus, this primal relationship has been studied and dissected by every culture in every medium, from classic literature to modern day cinema. In both of these roles, Swinton highlights the struggles, pressures and limitations that motherhood can represent.
She is a movie, she is an art, she speaks fashion, she talks about life. She is one of a kind - the Tilda Swinton.
