Film Review: "Empire Of Light" (2022).

From the director of Skyfall and 1917 comes Empire Of Light. This British romantic drama film written and directed by Sam Mendes. Set in an English coastal town in the early 1980s, the duty manager of a seaside cinema, who is struggling with her mental health, forms a relationship with a new employee.

In April 2021, it was announced that Mendes had set his next film, which he would direct and pen the script himself, with Olivia Colman was set to star. By early February 2022, Micheal Ward, Colin Firth, Toby Jones, and Tom Brooke rounded out the film's cast. At the same time, principal photography commenced and took place in Kent and West Sussex, England. The Dreamland Margate Cinema building was remodelled and renamed until mid May. The actual Dreamland cinema in Margate (which stood in for the Empire cinema in this film) was opened in 1923. It changed hands several times during its lifetime and finally closed for good in 2007. It still stands, although empty, because it is a listed building and so cannot be demolished without parliamentary approval. The block of flats where Steven lives with his mother is not an optical effect: it is really is that close to the building (with Margate railway station being just one-hundred yards up the road).

The film stars Colman, Ward, Firth, Jones, and Brooke. What a stunning portrayal Colman delivers beside Ward; Hilary was written specifically for her, unsurprisingly, and plays that way at all times. Colman brings her distinctive perception as a marginalised woman battling psychological demons. Surprisingly, Colman’s extraordinary performance hasn't. Her subtle portrait of Hilary’s frailty is piercing and enough to make you sigh "now that’s acting". There is a lot to savour. The leads are excellent. Toby Jones finds every bit of gold in his role as their projectionist colleague.

A celebration of cinema's communal experience, this lovingly crafted ode to the joys projected upon the silver screen is a touching celebration of moviegoing. Mendes' film is a charming and gently humorous work of semi-autobiography, composed with an attentive painter's eye and a cinematic cross- referencing of images and motifs. That balance of the ideal and the tragic weaves all throughout the film, which is epic in terms of the time frame it covers, but feels consistently intimate. Recent changes to cinema which have seen the projectionist's art sidelined in the digital age add a further layer of poignancy to the magical memories. If too much charm can kill, this emotionally manipulative nostalgic love letter to cinema directed and written by Mendes is a killer. Even if the romance doesn't work for you -- granted, like life, it can be extremely maudlin -- the movie soars as a celebration of cinema and 20th-century culture. The film does not cover unfamiliar territory, but it manages to find its own romantic voice and, like the classic films it celebrates, becomes an enchanting fantasy that should happily spirit away even the toughest cynics.

Simon says Empire Of Light receives:

Also, see my review for 1917.