Everything We Know About Empire of Light Starring Olivia Colman
Empire of Light is sure to be in awards consideration this fall. Directed by Oscar winner Sam Mendes and featuring Oscar favorites Olivia Colman and Colin Firth and relative newcomer Michael Ward, the film promises to be a "poignant story about human connection and the magic of cinema."
Here's everything we know so far about Empire of Light.
Empire of Light is a love story set at an old-fashioned movie theater in 1980s.
The film is set at a run-down movie theater in Margate, in the southeastern UK, in the early 1980. Here's the plot, per the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF): "The Empire is the kind of movie house you don’t see too often anymore, framed by bright lights and a beautiful marquee, graciously inviting all into its red-velvet seats. Hilary (Olivia Colman) serves at the front of house, opening the theatre every morning and overseeing a brimming concession stand. Meanwhile, her manager (Colin Firth) calls her into his office from time to time for illicit favours. It’s a gloomy routine that Hilary grudgingly repeats, but all her co-workers recognize that she’s been a lot quieter since returning to the job after a long absence.
When Stephen (Micheal Ward) arrives as an eager new employee, the two form a quick, if outwardly unlikely, connection. Hilary hides a troubled past, struggling to manage her mental health, while Stephen, a young Black man, grapples with the racism rampant in 1980s Britain. Both wounded by aggressions outside their control, they find an escape and safe harbour in one another — but their relationship, like the Empire cinema itself, cannot last forever, and soon the pair must face the reality of their differing futures."
It is based on director Sam Mendes's life.
The movie is written and directed by Sam Mendes, who previously helmed 1917 and Skyfall. While it's inspired by his mother, Mendes stressed that Hilary is not his mother. "Look, I’m an only child and I grew up with my mother and my mother suffered from mental issues. So a lot of these things [in the film] are from a deep personal place." he told Deadline. "My mother never worked in a cinema… but her story and certain scenes from her life are scenes that I lived through."
It stars Olivia Colman.
Mendes wrote the movie with the Oscar winner in mind.
"Olivia’s like Judi in that she’s accessible and yet also slightly mysterious," Mendes told Deadline. "She’s very friendly, always delightful to see her, but there’s something held back, too. A little core is very private. She’s not an extravert, not an exhibitionist; she’s very guarded actually. Certainly since the Oscar. I think she had to recalibrate her life as people do when they become that level of famous. It’s frightening; I’ve lived through it too, to a degree, but not as a famous face."
Her co-star Michael Ward shared, "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."
The on-set intimacy coordinator helped Ward and Colman prepare. "It was basically making it into a dance," Ward recounts. "We had counts and things [blocking] like that. And it made everything a lot easier and chill. It was something that we both knew when we were reading the script. I just wanted to do Stephen justice, first and foremost, and allow Olivia to feel like she can fly as well."
The first trailer is here.
The first teaser (above) didn't reveal much about the plot, but it promises to be a beautifully shot film. "Film: It’s just static frames with darkness in between," Toby Jones's character, a film projectionist, says in the trailer. "But there’s a little flaw in your optic nerve. So if I run the film at 24 frames per second, it creates an illusion of motion, an illusion of life. So you don’t see the darkness. Out there, they just see a beam of light. And nothing happens without light."
The film premieres December 9, 2022.
We'll update this as soon as we learn more.
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