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A love story set in an English seaside town in
the early 1980s, "Empire of Light" stars Olivia Colman, Colin
Firth and Toby Jones as workers in a local movie theatre, the
'Empire'.
With the country in recession, Colman's character Hilary
recovering from an episode of mental illness, and racial
tensions building outside the doors of the Empire, the new
decade has got off to an uncertain start for the staff.
The arrival of Stephen, an upbeat young Black ticket collector
played by Micheal Ward, injects new life into the cinema.
Stephen instantly bonds with Hilary, a lonely middle-aged woman,
and their budding relationship helps both find solace and
inspiration.
Mendes, who won the best director Oscar for 1999's "American
Beauty" and co-wrote the Oscar-nominated 2019 film "1917" makes
his solo screenplay debut with "Empire of Light," which he wrote
during the COVID-19 pandemic. Much of it reflected on growing up
and his mother, he said.
"It was very personal, it really was stimulated by memories from
my childhood of growing up around someone who was mentally
falling apart and yet somehow heroically was also bringing me up
at the same time. So it is a love letter to her and to the
courage of people struggling with mental illness," the director,
57, told Reuters at the movie's London Film Festival premiere on
Wednesday.
"And at the same time it's also set in and around the cinema
that's seen better days, written during a time when we were
worried that all those things were going and we'd never see them
again," he said.
Mendes wrote the role of Hilary for Colman and asked Ward for
input on his character.
"It's rare that you get to see an older woman with a younger
man, especially an older white woman but younger Black man. So
for me to tell that story was just super important and working
with Olivia made that a lot more easier," said Ward.
"Empire of Light" is released in U.S. cinemas on Dec. 9 and
globally in early 2023.
(Reporting by Hanna Rantala, Editing by Rosalba O'Brien)
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