Like the character played by Olivia Colman in “Empire of Light”, Sam Mendes was amazed by a movie at the cinema, when he was a child. He reveals which one to us as his new feature film has just been released in our theaters.
If Empire of Light is not an autobiographical film strictly speaking, Sam Mendes put a lot of himself in his ninth feature film. By freely drawing inspiration from her mother for the character played by Olivia Colman, or by talking about her passion for the 7th Art during this drama which takes place largely in an English cinema.
One of the most beautiful scenes of Empire of Light is also the one where Hilary (Olivia Colman) discovers a film at the cinema (Bienvenue Mister Chance by Hal Ashby) and bursts into tears in front of the magic of this projection.
The opportunity for us to ask the filmmaker if he remembered such a memorable session, from which he came out with stars in his eyes.
And this is how he tells us how Encounters of the 3rd Kind left a lasting mark on him when he was a child. Both for the show and for the human side, which gave him a better understanding of the mental illness his mother suffered from when her family, as in Steven Spielberg’s film, was in the process of destroying itself. Can we expect him to pay homage to him by also tackling science fiction?
Interview by Maximilien Pierrette in Paris on January 11, 2023 – Editing: Marjorie Spinnhirny