Secret Ceremony (1968)

15 Jul 2023

Rating: 3/5

Let no one snatch me from this heaven

Leonora (Elizabeth Taylor) and Cenci (Mia Farrow) find solace in other another — Cenci thinks Leonora is her lost mother, Leonora sees a surrogate child for the one she lost in a drowning accident

But in their game, the edges of their trauma show. Their inability to accept reality shatters when Cenci’s father Albert (Robert Mitchum) comes home from prison 

Honestly, I didn’t find the central story all that compelling. The movie presents itself like there is a mystery to solve, but I’m not sure what that mystery would be

I haven’t seen Mia Farrow be this much of a weirdo before — she embodies the arrested development of her character and shifts tones deftly

Elizabeth Taylor is good when the emotions have to get big, but the needy person underneath is not as well developed

Robert Mitchum is creepy as hell, totally confident in the choices he’s made and the things he’s done to Cenci — his character went to prison for child molestation

Overall, I enjoyed the actors doing weird stuff, but this isn’t one I plan to revisit


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