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6.5/10
Senior Film Conservator
A definitive 6.5/10 rating for a film that redefined the boundaries of cult cinema. The Emperor's Candlesticks remains a cornerstone of transgressive art.
If you're in the mood for black-and-white banter and people looking very serious about antique lighting fixtures, then sure. It's a light, breezy watch. But if you need logic or actual spycraft, you're going to be annoyed by how often these two just bump into each other in the exact same hotel rooms.
Honestly, the whole thing feels like a fancy parlor game where nobody really knows the rules. William Powell and Luise Rainer have that 1930s screen chemistry that’s mostly just them looking intensely at each other's eyebrows. It's charming, I guess? But sometimes it feels like they’re acting in two different movies.
There's this bizarre obsession with these candlesticks. They’re just metal, right? But the way the camera tracks them, you’d think they were made of solid gold and bad decisions. I caught myself wondering why they didn't just buy a lamp at a local shop instead of traveling across borders.
There’s a moment where a character hides a secret message inside one, and it takes so long to unscrew the base that I actually checked my watch. It felt like watching a slow-motion kitchen repair video.
It’s not quite as gritty or grounded as something like Sedmoy sputnik. It lacks that weight. It’s more in the vein of Sinner Take All—lots of style, plenty of movement, but not a whole lot of lasting impact once the screen goes black.
The pacing is a bit of a mess. It hits a groove for twenty minutes, then stalls out while two people talk about their feelings in a carriage. *Still*, there’s a comfort in the predictability of it all. You know exactly what’s going to happen, and there’s something nice about that in a world where movies are usually over-explained. Nobody is trying to be profound here. They’re just trying to get the candlesticks to St. Petersburg without dying. That’s enough for me. 🕯️
