FROM FINDING SOLACE THERE AS A KID, TO MAKING OSCAR-WINNING CLASSICS, SAM MENDES HAS ALWAYS LOVED CINEMA. WITH EMPIRE OF LIGHT, HE’S CREATED A TRIBUTE TO THE MEDIUM THAT MADE HIM

WORDS IAN FREER

Olivia Colman — as Hilary — and Micheal Ward — as Stephen — in the shabby-opulent Margate cinema;

Pa-pa, pa-pa, pa-pa, pa-pa-papapa, pa-pa, pa-pa, pa-pa, pa-paaaaa – PA! The iconic Pearl & Dean theme — ‘Asteroid’ by Pete Moore if you’re interested — was one of the many soundtracks to the teenage life of Sam Mendes (also see: The Specials, Haircut 100). At his local Oxford fleapit during the early ’80s, he hoovered up the big movies (Indiana Jones and 007 obvs) and the smaller ones (Being There, Raging Bull), all the while devouring his cine-snacks of choice: Maltesers and Liquorice Allsorts. But, looking back, Mendes realises this movie-going habit was not just about catching the latest Gene Wilder-Richard Pryor buddy-comedy.

“It’s the whole experience,” he says. “It’s the place, the atmosphere of the place, the posters for other movies, the trailers, the adverts. It was as much to do with the Pearl & Dean theme or the smell of the popcorn as it was to do with the movies.”

This feeling is beautifully evoked in Mendes’ latest, Empire Of Light, but it’s more than just a magic-of-the-movies, Cinema Paradiso-type deal. It’s a tougher drama about how movies — and music and poetry — can provide a path through life’s problems, particularly for Hilary (Olivia Colman), suffering from mental illness, and Stephen (Micheal Ward), who gets targeted by racial abuse. The pair begin a May-to-December relationship while working at a Margate cinema in 1981.

Like his viewing tastes, Mendes’ filmmaking career has flitted between the huge (Jarhead, Skyfall, Spectre, 1917) and the intimate (American Beauty, Revolutionary Road, Away We Go and now Empire Of Light). He may have made his name in the theatre but, as Empire Of Light amply demonstrates, Mendes is truly, madly, deeply a man of the cinema. And Maltesers and Liquorice Allsorts.

Empire Of Light is set in 1981. If we’d met you in 1981, who would we have been meeting?

That’s really interesting. I’m just thinking about what I might have been wearing. I had a two-tone suit, a trilby and tassel loafers, but I’m not sure I was still wearing that. I think I might have been going more into an Orange Juice/Haircut 100 phase: pleated baggy cords, desert boots and an Aran sweater. You would have found someone looking for every opportunity to go to the movies and who had probably seen all of the movies that are in this film. Also you would have been meeting somebody who was trying to find a way to define themselves after a pretty rocky childhood, growing up with a mother who, like Hilary, was suffering from mental-health issues.