painful to show my new film to my mother – Corriere.it

LONDON 1981: Great Britain is in crisis and the movie magic offers a way out. Hilary, a middle-aged woman with serious mental problemsfinds a community there.
“Empire of Light”
empire of light, is the film by Sam Mendes which starts from autobiographical memories and from a childhood spent protectively observing the mother, analyzing every change to prevent a crisis and push that away dark able to suck everything inside itself, like a black hole.

After Steven Spielberg, who with
«The Fabelmans»
has retraced its history, it is now the turn of Mendes, Oscar winner for “American Beauty”capture with the camera a part of his life with a film where the characters are more autobiographical than the events, the protagonist Hilaryand the times: those eighties in which the cinema offered new worksoften indie, before today’s prequels and sequels and before streaming, and theaters represented a meeting point and leisure.

«I was three years old and, after the separation of mine, we found ourselves alone, my mother and I – Mendes told al “Guardian” —. When you’re a kid, you face what’s in front of you without making yourself too many questions: What does not kill you makes you stronger. He gave me some resources, but it also made me grow up fast. In a way it became me the parentI was the one taking care of my mother.” Even as a child Mendes was able to realize that when his mother, who is now 83 years old, was under the effect of drugs “She was manipulated by men. When she however she stopped medication she was able to tell the truth. She seemed heroic to me when she managed to rebel, she became a be magnificent».

Showing the film to the mother, for the director of «1917» was adifficult operation: “I know how complicated it is when there are autobiographical elements,” he said. Ms. Mendes endorsed her and now the next appointment is with the criticswhen the film hits theaters. In the film Mendes preferred not to include himself: «I know when it’s there a child on the screen the audience has a different reaction, think about what will happen to them, I didn’t want to arouse these kind of emotions. I preferred focus attention on adults”.