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Beeswax is a show stopper at our house. Whenever we’re watching a DVD we’ve got to stop, rewind and pause when beeswax candles come on the scene. Here are three films/TV shows where beeswax steals the show.

THE TUDORS – Season One

The ultimate beeswax show is the Showtime series The Tudors. Every interior scene in this sexed up epic about Henry the VIII’s court is lit with beeswax. According to TimesOnline “thousands of pounds were lavished on handmade double-wicked beeswax candles to provide authentic lighting for the interior spaces.” The results are stunning, and boggling… just thinking of the time & expense.

TIMELINE

The time travel movie Timeline has a single shot that just slays me. When the time travelers are crashing their way through a medieval French marketplace there’s a stall full of beeswax candles in a corner of the scene. (Blink & you miss it.) There are dozens of hanging candles there, all perfectly, perfectly golden. It’s the platonic ideal of a beekeepers market booth and what I aspire to (and, alas, fall short of) when we sell honey & candles at our local market in the fall.

THE DUCHESS

It was fun to see The Duchess win an Oscar for best costume design this year. Should it have won for art direction too? This is a film that used massive amounts of candles in a stylized way to frame the Duchess of Devonshire’s face & upper body. In reality, royal candles would have beeswax back then, but hard to say if the production used beeswax or another wax for the film (some of those candles looked whitish to me). Beautiful nonetheless.

Do you have a favorite beeswax film to add to the list? Please do! I’d love to know about it.