January 13th, 2023 - 3:00 pm
EMPIRE OF LIGHT Opening at the Cinema Art Theater in Lewes
Opening January 13, the Rehoboth Beach Film Society’s Cinema Art Theater presents Empire of Light, a poignant drama about the power of human connection during turbulent times, from Academy Award® winning director Sam Mendes.
Empire of Light is a period piece set in the early 1980s about two employees at a once-majestic movie palace in an English coastal town. The main character cinema manager Hilary Small (Academy Award winner Olivia Coleman) is based closely on Mendes’s mother, who struggled with mental health issues, but the story is fictional, chronicling an unlikely romance between Hilary and a young coworker (Michael Ward) as well as the racial tensions of the early Thatcher era. Together they find a sense of belonging and experience the healing power of music, cinema, and community. The stellar cast also include BAFTA winner Michael Ward (Blue Story, Top Boy) and Academy Award winner Colin Firth (The King’s Speech, A Single Man). It also reunites Mendes with Academy Award winning cinematographer Roger Deakins (1917, Skyfall). [2022, UK, 113 min, Rating: R]
Michael Calleri of the Niagara Gazette remarks, “Empire of Light captures the magic of moviegoing and the dream world of watching films in a local theater perfectly. A superb Olivia Colman plays a middle-aged woman, who enjoys the camaraderie found at her job as an assistant manager of the cinema.”
Screening times are 5:30 pm on Fri (Jan 13), 3 pm on Wed (Jan 18) and 6:30 pm on Thu (Jan 19). Admission is $9 for members, $11.50 for general audiences and $5 for students. Purchase advance tickets at rehobothfilm.com or at the Cinema Art Theater box office in Lewes beginning 30 minutes prior to the screening.
