As most of this was filmed locally in Margate I thought I would add this..
This afternoon I went to see the new release “Empire of Light” which is the latest film directed by Sam Mendes and stars Olivia Colman, Colin Firth, and Toby Jones.
It was filmed last year in Margate, including the seafront, the Lido, the old town, and the Winter Gardens. There are also scenes on Broadstairs seafront. Both towns aren’t mentioned by name in the film but look good. The terminal building at Manston airport becomes the hospital but the brutalist Arlington House does looks good in this.
The film is based in 1980 - 81 and is essentially a multiracial love story with a bit of an age gap set in a south coast seaside cinema during a period in the UK when there was racial unrest.
Although Dreamland cinema isn’t named it’s obvious that it was the inspiration for the cinema in this film.
If you were local and like me, followed the making of this film last year, then you will know of the confrontation scene between the Mods and Skinheads... well let’s just say it’s done very well and it’s a very impressionable scene and it made quite a few people around me jump.
This film has contrasting light and shade, with a bit of humour as well showing the different sides to the personality of the character played very well by Olivia Colman who I think deserves an Oscar for her performance.
This film isn’t about Margate, but it was nice seeing it without art galleries which is fantastic cinematography by Roger Deakins.
I enjoyed this film, it had a couple of scenes that were very powerful, I thought that it had a good ending and I recommend that you see this film as it’s very good.
