In the hushed sanctity of the projection booth at a cinema on the south coast of England, a man begins to unload a reel of film. His hands reverentially feed the tape into the projector, each tiny movement made with consideration and care. There is only one guest in the theatre, but when that guest is Olivia Colman, it doesn’t really matter. Her face is alive with delight as the projectionist begins his slow two-step between the reels. As Frank O’Hara put it, in his poem An Image of Leda: “Oh, what is this light that holds us fast!”
This vignette, the new film from director Sam Mendes, is shot by legendary cinematographer Roger Deakins like a love scene. The lighting is soft, the camera zeroed in on motion and movement, everything delicate and sensual. The film, in which Colman plays Hilary, the manager of a regional cinema who, for a while, finds a salve for loneliness amid the popcorn and the ticket stubs with Stephen, a fellow employee, is lit from within by the magic of the movies. Set in 1981, every film reference feels like a spark of recognition: The tickets cost only a handful of pounds, the concession stand is full of retro packets of Maltesers and Galaxy bars. “You should go and sit in the middle with a bunch of people who don’t know you - who can’t even see you,” Stephen (Micheal Ward) advises Hilary at one point in the film. “That little beam of light. It’s an escape.”
