What is it about? Hilary runs a movie theater in an English seaside town and struggles to maintain her fragile sanity. Stephen is a new employee who wants to leave this small provincial town where every day can quickly turn into an ordeal. Together, they learn to heal through music, film, and a sense of belonging to a group…

Made to order

Sam Mendes wrote the role of Hilary especially for Olivia Colman. When he started writing his screenplay, he was watching The Crown: “Olivia looked brilliant there. I thought she should play Hilary. I didn’t know her particularly well, but I started writing the character with her in mind.”

The actor found it “pretty surreal” that an Oscar-winning filmmaker writes for him. “I was a drama student at Donmar, where I learned everything from Sam and american beauty. But I didn’t know Sam at all when my agent called and said he wanted to set up a Zoom meeting with me. Ohhhhhhhhhkay.”

A highly personal film

Empire of Light is the first screenplay written entirely by Sam Mendes ex nihiloWithout the contribution of any other author. “For many people the learning period is adolescence, which in my case is the late 70s early 80s: the music, films and pop culture of the time shaped who I was. In the midst of racism, and at the same time, an incredible time for music and culture in general, very creative, very politicized, very galvanizing. “

The director was inspired by memories of him and his childhood friends, producer Pippa Harris and comedian Toby Jones, who plays Norman, the projectionist. Moreover, Hilary’s character is inspired by her family members who have faced mental illness.

Margaret

The film was shot in Margate, on the north coast of Kent. “I was drawn to this particular place because it offered so many opportunities for visual grandeur of landscapes. It was there that JMW Turner painted his most famous canvases because, he said, the skies there were the most beautiful in Europe. It is where TS Elliot wrote desert, sat under a bus shelter outside a cinema, overlooking the beach and the gray sea. Its size gives this place a poetry and a very cinematic dimension.”Sam Mendes explains.

But he chose Margate in the first place because production designer Mark Tyldesley found an amusement park, Dreamland, with an old cinema and ballroom with an impressive Art Deco facade to serve as a fictional cinema exterior. Empire.

Representation of black people on screen

When he first read the script, Michael Ward focused on the impact the character would have not only on the story, but on many young black men. “It’s important for them to see themselves in a movie like this, because then they realize that everyone’s story is interesting and worth telling.”

Even before she was cast, Sam Mendes asked her thoughts on the character: “Sam didn’t need it: I’m new to the business, I haven’t been an actor for a long time. But he took my point into account – it was interesting to know that he was ready to work with me. Sam experienced it. The time, despite the tension around, He could not put himself in the place of colored people.”

The meaning of the film

The role of Norman, played by Toby Jones, is a projectionist. The actor learned the basics of the trade to give the impression of a seasoned professional. He notes: “You have to be in sync to go from one projector to another, and hanging the celluloid as it goes through the projector is a delicate operation. 20 years of knowledge is impossible to gain, but I have learned enough to make myself look better than I am. !”

At a time when movies are now being projected digitally, Sam Mendes laments the disconnect between the projectionist and the public: “The projectionist was giving the film to the audience, in the sense that even though there was only one person in the dark, they knew someone above was showing the film, giving it. When you talk to the projectionists, they feel like they’re part of the filmmaker’s world, they see themselves as the last link in the chain. Lawrence of ArabiaThey felt represented David Lynn.”