Three years after the spectacular war spectacle “1917”, the British Oscar-winner Sam Mendes (American Beauty) filmed a more intimate and tender drama, which is set in the British coastal town of Margate at the very beginning of the eighties. “Empire of Light” is also Mendes’ tribute to the film and the peak of the golden age of cinema in Great Britain, which will also find itself in trouble when the recession hits. Hilary (the standard excellent Olivia Colman, who once again proved to be the perfect choice for the roles of average, ordinary British women) is a depressed and lonely middle-aged employee of the once opulent Empire cinema. And this once magnificent cinema is a perfect symbol of recessionary Great Britain, which is struggling with unemployment, but also with racism, which we will see in the example of the young black man Stephen (Michael Ward), who will get a job as a ticket seller.
Although it is a time when skinheads and hooligans are attacking and harassing black people in the streets and in front of the unresponsive police, Stephen is an open and kind young man who will bond with Hilary very quickly. In fact, the entire cinema crew functions as one big family, except for the manager Ellis (Colin Firth), a grizzled guy who is in a secret relationship with Hilary, who we learn was recently hospitalized for bipolar disorder. It seems as if this secret relationship is having an additional bad effect on Hilary’s mental state, and she will surprisingly quickly bond with Stephen, who will pay attention to her. And in the moments when it seems that a relationship could develop between a middle-aged, depressed, lonely and completely closed white woman and a young, warm-hearted and good-natured black man, “Empire of Light” will take a completely unexpected direction.
“Empire of Light” was one of those wonderful, tender, warm and emotional films, distinguished not only by great acting performances, but also by the sensational cinematography of Roger Deakins, as well as by the subtle, tender mostly piano music of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. Aesthetically, “Empire of Light” is much closer to “American Beauty” than “1917”, and it was also the first film for which Mendes himself wrote the script, so it is also one of those intimate, probably inspired and own experiences of the author who was a teenager in the early eighties.
“Empire of Light” reminded me a little of American Todd Haynes’ melodramas like “Far From Heaven”, which in turn found an undisguised role model in the legendary Douglas Sirk. It is a humanistic and gentle drama in which the old cinema is like an escapist corner, as if created to escape from harsh reality. The dedicated projectionist Norman (Toby Jones) is also a great character, one of those enthusiasts who with so much love and happiness likes to explain to everyone how his job works and how this movie magic is created.