Secret Ceremony (1968)

Thanks for the memories!

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

If this movie didn't come out the same year as Rosemary's Baby, I'd wonder what possessed anyone to make it. I'll chose to believe everyone wanted to help launch Mia Farrow's spooky movie by releasing a similar film at the same time. That's my standard for recommending this movie: if you actually liked Rosemary's Baby, rather than just appreciated it, then you can feel free to watch Secret Ceremony.Elizabeth Taylor's daughter is dead, and Mia Farrow's mother is dead. Miraculously, Liz looks like Mia's mom, and Mia reminds Liz of her daughter. Somehow they find each other, bond quickly, and become enmeshed in each other's strange, sick lives. This is a very weird film, with unexplained plot points, melodramatic acting, and mentally-ill characters. Mia repeatedly reenacts a rape scene while she's alone. She calls Liz "Mom" and takes a bath with her, and the two girls giggle about what nuisances men and sex are. Robert Mitchum costars as Mia's stepfather, but unless he, too, wanted to support Rosemary's Baby, I don't know why he agreed to be a part of this movie.This movie is so strange, awful, and convoluted, it makes the 1968 horror flick seem like a Mister Rogers' episode. If I'd cared enough about it, I would have been seriously disturbed, but thankfully, I didn't let the film get the better of me.Kiddy warning: Obviously, you have control over your own children. However, due to some very strange and upsetting content, I wouldn't let my kids watch it.

Secret Ceremony displays Mia Farrow's excellent portrayal of madness. In fact, her portrayal seems to come so easily to her we were wondering about her own sanity. She plays emotionally disturbed almost too well. Elizabeth Taylor at times may have wondered just what she got herself into by accepting this role. It's even stranger than Reflections in a Golden Eye. She at least uses some restraint and knows her character well. Still, despite the idea that an emotionally disturbed Mia could be helped by a mother figure strongly resembling her own birth mother and despite the fact that actress' both contribute a lot to their roles, there isn't really anything that deep happening here. If anything, the story never becomes too informative. We are given the basics and it never progress' beyond that. What happened to the birth mother? What was the relationship about between the mother and daughter? What is the true role of Robert Mitchum's character? We don't really get anything too descriptive and for that the film just becomes another soapy melodrama with some odd characters. What it really needs is to dig deep and give us more information and we only get small bits and pieces. Despite the odd story, nothing too profound here.

Secret Ceremony (1969) *** (out of 4)Extremely bizarre psychological thriller from director Jospeh Losey about the strange relationship between a prostitute (Elizabeth Taylor) and a young woman (Mia Farrow) living alone in a large house. The Farrow character thinks that Taylor is her dead mother and Taylor sees that the girl resembles her dead daughter and things just grow more bizarre from here. SECRET CEREMONY is apparently available in a couple versions and most point out that the alternate, studio cut of the film is pretty bad but I'm not sure what the differences are. The version I watched was the uncut one and whenever rape and incest are the most normal things going on you know you're watching something completely different and strange. This is one crazy movie from start to finish and I think it's safe to say that many people will hate this thing and probably won't make it through to the end. In fact, I'd say that if the film doesn't grab you in the first ten-minutes then it's probably best to hit the stop button because I feel the opening sequences are the most important in the film in terms of getting you involved for everything that's going to follow. The brilliant acting and directing in these first ten-minutes were something I found quite special because there's no dialogue and the two actresses must tell us everything we need to know with their eyes and body gestures. Just take a look at Farrow as she stalks Taylor trying to figure out if she's her dead mother or not. Check out Taylor once she realizes that this strange woman looks like what her dead daughter would have at this age. This is an extremely bizarre way to start up a friendship and the movie has a deliberately slow pace with one crazy thing happening after another. Taylor and Farrow deliver some of the best work of their career and the way the two play off another another is something truly terrific to watch. There's no question that Farrow's character is quite demented and the way the actress pulls this off is rather remarkable. Taylor gets some extremely tough scenes to play because while her character isn't quite as crazy, there's no doubt she has a few loose screws. Robert Mitchum plays the possible rapist step-father who has some sort of strange control over the girl. Mitchum, as one would expect, comes off perfectly creepy and the actor does a very good job with the part. Director Losey does a brilliant job building up this rather creepy and unsettling atmosphere. I thought the director did a great job at building all this craziness up and bring it all together in the end. The music score by Richard Rodney Bennett is also another major plus. Again, this is about as art-house as you can get but if you can get caught up in the story, the brilliant acting and directing really make it worth sitting through.

Two wounded and lonely women come together under strange circumstances. Leonora, an aging prostitute, had witnessed her young daughter die. She is a woman with a wounded heart because the guilt she carries. Cenci, the younger woman, is in denial from the loss of her mother. Both are deeply disturbed persons who, as fate would have it, will be united in a stately house in London.Cenci, who has been spying on Leonora, decides she is her dead mother; both have a striking resemblance, so it's easy to see the confusion in Cenci's state of mind. Leonora, decides to go along in the ruse because she sees the possibility to cash on a situation that has been thrown in her lap. Leonora, though, is not prepared for the arrival of Albert, the late mother's estranged husband, and who is ultimately her downfall.Albert, we discover, has taken advantage of Cenci's vulnerability. He is a predator with incestuous desires for the step-daughter that comes his way when he married the late Margaret. Cenci has been turned off by his advances, but as the man reappears in her life, she sees the fictional world she has built around herself come crashing down. When confronted with reality she reacts violently against Leonora, who has no other choice but to leave the strange household she has been drawn into. Cenci will prove too weak to cope with all that befalls her.We read the original short story in which the film is based years ago. The adaptation by George Tabori of the Marco Denevi tale gets an excellent treatment in the hands of Joseph Losey, a brilliant director in his own right.Elizabeth Taylor got a good opportunity in which to excel. Her Leonora is one of her better roles of that period of her career. Mia Farrow also was a promising talent who surprises with her take on Cenci. Robert Mitchum is Albert, the lecher that abused his step daughter and marked her for life. Peggy Ashcroft and Pamela Brown are quite effective as Cenci's eccentric relatives.