I was sorry to see Empire of Light miss out at the baftas. I thought it was a very good movie but there was one respect in which it really stood out and that was its treatment of mental illness. The story is, apparently, loosely based on Sam Mendes’ own mother, who suffered from mental illness. If so, that direct, first-hand experience came good: this film showed several things about mental illness which are usually missing when we talk about it.
One was that when Olivia Colman's character was in the grip of her illness, it was horrible. It was blind hurt, fear and aggression, impossible for anyone to be with and they didn't pretend otherwise. She was on her own and she was going to stay on her own. The relationship she'd formed with Michael Ward’s character ended with her raging on the beach. The implausibly balanced and mature young man was concerned, still cared about her but it was over. And that's true to life, no one can be with that and no one should. When they parted at the end of the film, he was on his way to start a new chapter in his life, she was stuck where she was, in every sense.
What happened on the beach had happened before and (even though she was a very attractive, intelligent and sensitive personality and surrounded by fantastically supportive colleagues) it was liable to happen again without warning, irrationally, unpredictably and with similar consequences. The levels of support she got did feel a little over-cooked: whisked away to residential care within a few days of the onset of her breakdown. Maybe that happened in 1981, it would be very unlikely now. The more realistic element of her treatment was the lithium prescription by her doctor ('marvellous stuff'). That's still the standard prescription for mania 40 years later.
These days there’s more chance there would be some involvement of talking therapies. Though that could have been the case then too and perhaps in the movie, it had already ended. It would be fairly short-lived today (NICE recommends 16-20 sessions for bipolar disorder)[1]. But, the fact is, the NHS’ own figures suggest, that, even when dealing with ‘simpler’ conditions of anxiety and depression three out of four times, therapy doesn’t work (as in people don’t recover).[2] There’s a powerful tendency to hold therapy out as a salvation, a safe refuge: it will somehow be OK if only people can reach it (and everyone else can believe things have been taken care of and move on). There’s really no evidence to justify that faith.
Another realistic element was the portrayal of the effect of the medication. Despite the fact that 20% of the adult population is taking psychoactive medication,[3] we don’t understand how it works. What seems clear though – and this was endorsed yet again in a study on antidepressants earlier this year[4] - is that for many people medication has the effect of reducing the intensity of aspects of their internal experience. So, it seems that very often when medication succeeds in dialling down the torment of their fear and aggression and self-loathing, it does so by damping down sufferers’ ability to feel altogether – that’s feel happiness, gratitude, affection, connection anything really. The film captured that nicely.
Something else they got right was the self-dislike at the heart of it: the shame Olivia Coleman’s character talked about no-one should have to live with shame she says. Well, that’s a nice idea but everyone has to live with shame: feelings of weakness, inadequacy, worthlessness, a sense of shame are hard-wired in. Mental health is about how people live with those ideas, how they respond, how well they can manage them. [5] That was another admirably realistic aspect (which avoided the sanctimonious playing to the gallery you often get with accounts of mental illness): when she told her story, it didn’t seem that anything particularly traumatic had happened to her. This rage and self-hate and anxiety came from things that were no worse than happened to others who were bearing their loads. Toby Jones’ character, the projectionist, had been estranged from his family and adult son (of whom he kept a photo as a child in his projectionist’s booth) for 20 years. Michael Ward’s character, and his mother, had lived with a history of racism and the young man was the victim of mob violence and seriously injured. Everyone has their crosses to bear; there was little sign that what had happened to her was any worse than what was happening to others.
So, what’s the point? The point is this: in the end mental illness is about people having ideas which are incorrect, inaccurate, distorted, out of proportion, unrealistic, unhelpful, harmful, destructive. Ideas about mental health which are inaccurate, which are incorrect, have similar potential to cause harm. We’re getting very confused about mental health: celebrities flirt with it, in 2015, 78% of students reported that they had experienced mental health issues in the previous year,[6] in 2017 psychiatrist Simon Wessely said ‘every time we have a mental health awareness week my spirits sink. We don’t need people to be more aware. We can’t deal with the ones who already are aware’[7] – it didn’t matter that he had just been appointed the first ever psychiatrist president of the Royal Society of Medicine, he still got shat on.
The point is mental illness isn’t melancholy or wistful sensitivity or off-beat indie folk sadness. It isn’t frustration, disappointment, confusion, anxiety or sometimes feeling like you can’t cope. Empire of Light has been applauded for its treatment of mental health but I’m not sure how many people who were applauding appreciate what it should be applauded for. It’s not just a matter of finding room for mental health in a story, even a romantic lead, it’s the number of important things it got right. Mental illness is visceral, it’s a tripped brain, its bared teeth, it’s being engulfed by hopeless levels of self-hate and fear and aggression and the consequences are usually very severe. It is definitely not OK not to be OK like Olivia Colman’s character.
[1] https://www.bipolaruk.org/psychological-therapies-for-bipolar
[3] www.gov.uk/government/publications/prescribed-medicines-review-report/prescribed-medicines-review-summary
[4] https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/jan/23/antidepressants-emotional-blunting-study?
[6] https://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/dec/14/majority-of-students-experience-mental-health-issues-says-nus-survey
Very good. Love the closing: “mental illness isn’t melancholy or wistful sensitivity or off-beat indie folk sadness. It isn’t frustration, disappointment, confusion, anxiety or sometimes feeling like you can’t cope… Mental illness is visceral, it’s a tripped brain, its bared teeth, it’s being engulfed by hopeless levels of self-hate and fear and aggression”. Mental health awareness just rebrands fleeting, passive noticing into a virtuous act.