«Empire of Light»: the art of disillusionment

Caught between the immoderation of Babylon and the portrait of Steven Spielberg through The Fabelmans, Empire of Light is unlikely to draw a crowd. But rest assured: you can dispense with Sam Mendes' new project in favor of its big brothers.

1980, the Empire Cinema sits proudly on the shores of a recently Thatcherite England. Hilary (Olivia Colman), in charge of admissions and treats, tries hard to maintain a balance between her aloof colleagues, her manager (Colin Firth), who makes repeated sexual demands, and the severe depression she suffers from every day. Her daily routine is disrupted by the arrival of a new employee, young Stephen (Michael Ward).

Cinema Inferno

After the triumph of 1917 and two James Bond, Sam Mendes returns to the kind of cinema that brought him his first successes: the drama of everyday life, or rather everyday life as drama. Here, the drama is that of a woman soon to be in her fifties, suffering from depression. Olivia Colman's performance is the highlight of the film. From the very first minutes, her character manages to make it clear that, for her, daily life is not yet another representation of a dull, banal life for which we expect renewal, but a challenge in which it's a question of not breaking down in the face of depression so as not to be committed again. The movie theater with its wide red curtains, its corridors bathed in warm lights, the dressing room where colleagues can have a laugh - all this space generally inhabited by an imagination of dreams and abandonment is a nightmare for Hilary.

It's hardly surprising, then, that Sam Mendes' camera sublimates every space he brings to the screen. The projectionist, played by the always touching Toby Jones, reminds us that cinema is the art of illusion. All the glitz and glamour of the cinema, the grand parties held there and the rhetoric of the films shown, are contrasted by Hilary's depression, which contaminates everything. It's then that we're introduced to the darker areas of the building. Old, abandoned rooms, converted into pigeon lofts, where our heroine can recharge her batteries. Our protagonist finds refuge for a time in these bare, magnificent settings. Sam Mendes knows how to sublimate each space, just as he knows how to render them in keeping with the character's state of mind. Quickly, the state of the room and the false varnish resonate with the beginnings of the Thatcher era. The drama is national and intimate.

A magnificent platitude

Unfortunately, all the beauty and energy of’Empire of Light find themselves sucked into Stephen, played by Michael Ward. His character is empty, embodied only in his skin color. We wonder about the relationship he forms with Hilary, but the answers the film provides are always disappointing. This character, without relief or shadow, is filled only with the symbolism of being black in an England where Thatcher has just come to power.

From then on, the film's rhythm seems to collapse. This is reflected in the succession of demonstrative scenes, sometimes embarrassing when they serve exclusively to show us how kind and patient young Stephen is. The choice to give such prominence to this character is all the more strange in that it overshadows those who could have given the work a real dynamic. We're thinking of the director and his ambiguous relationship with his employee: is he aware of her pain? Does he take advantage? What's more, the scenes portrayed by Toby Jones reveal the film's full potential. Who better than the projectionist to tackle the whole theme of illusion, of what goes on behind the scenes? Why not dwell a little more on the country's transition into the Thatcher era, about which cinema would have much to say?

The recurrent criticism levelled at 1917 of form taking precedence over content and narrative was wrong. This fake sequence shot managed to tell the story of four years of a murderous war with a rarely equaled effectiveness. Here, the same criticism is justified. The magnificent image and the corridors of the Empire Cinema will haunt you for a long time to come. The depression will remind you of Hilary's apartment, plunged in a half-light that makes you forget the drama being played out. But beyond the images and a face to put on Depression, will there be anything left? Lacking breath, Empire of Light soon becomes exhausted and suffocates under its layers of varnish.

Write to the author: jordi.gabioud@leregardlibre.com

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