Opening on Christmas Eve 1980 and finishing in the autumn of 1981 Empire of Light tells the story of two employees at the Empire cinema in Margate, Kent. 

Hilary (Olivia Colman) is the duty manager and when we meet her she is sad and numb. An unseen event earlier in the year has clearly shaken her and she is a little lost. Whilst Stephen (Micheal Ward) is a new employee with an urge to study architecture but whose application was turned down leaving him in need of a job. Despite the age gap a spark is instantly present and the two tentatively begin a romance. 

The background to this romance is The Empire Cinema and the magic that it represents to writer/director Sam Mendes. His goal seems to be to show the love of cinema that he found in his early years and how that magical escape can transcend the daily pressures and difficulties from outside. There is a clumsiness in this juxtaposition but when he gets it right it is wonderful. Although I will admit that nostalgia may have given me a rose tinted view as well. 

Let’s talk about what works first. 

The film opens with the colleagues of the Empire cleaning a screen after a performance. The employees are having a laugh as they discuss what the worst thing they found when cleaning was. At various other times we see them in the break room doing the same, like an extended family who bicker and joke. Their projectionist Norman (Toby Jones) speaks of his work in reverent tones and in one scene explains how the phi phenomenon means that we perceive still images as motion if they are fed through a projector at 24 frames per second. The magic of film. The projection room is deemed the world of Norman alone and when he invites Stephen in it is an honour, as he walks around in awe of the machinery and all the pictures of actors and directors across the walls. All of this is absolute phenomenal stuff. The sense of camaraderie within the team and the manner in which he explains the environment within the cinema is perfect. Personally my tenure at a cinema may have started seventeen years after this film was set but it was a virtually identical experience. (We even had a projectionist named Norm!) As I said, rose tinted glasses they may be but the sense of place and the sense of magic in film is wonderful. Including the references to the many films that they were showing at the time. 

This level of brilliance goes for many other facets of the film also. Colman, Ward and Jones are all wonderful. Colman and Ward’s chemistry is palpable and they both do a great job of portraying characters who have an underlying shame and difficulty with aspects of their life. Jones on the other hand plays the perfect character role of the arbiter of the magic of cinema. Elsewhere the film is shot by Roger Deakins. Giving the art deco cinema, its reverent projection booth and palatial screens a sense of real grandeur. Whilst the score is provided by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross and it is simply divine. A piano filled melancholic delight and one I have listened to many times in the day since I saw the film. 

Where the film manages to be slightly clumsy is in the issues it depicts Hilary and Stephen as facing. Hilary’s backstory reveals a history of mental health issues whilst Stephen faces racial hatred in his day to day life. None of these issues are played down or treated lightly. But it does seem that in some way Mendes is trying to show that regardless of the hardships one faces, cinema is a magical experience that allows you to forget those things for the time that light is projecting those still images onto a screen. Personally I believe that to be true. But I appreciate that some may not and that it could appear to minimise issues others deem too serious. 

Empire of Light is a film about the love of film. Personally I found it be a truly beautiful experience.