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Secret Ceremony

Secret Ceremony (1968)

tomatometer

60

Average Rating: 8/10
Critic Reviews: 5
Fresh: 3 | Rotten: 2

No consensus yet.

audience

55

liked it
Average Rating: 3.2/5
User Ratings: 451

My Rating

Movie Info

This psychologically twisted tragedy begins when the boozy prostitute Leonora (Elizabeth Taylor) encounters a young woman on a London bus. Cenci (Mia Farrow) looks very much like Leonora's late daughter. The two lonely women start talking and seem to get along quite well, so Cenci invites Leonora to stay at her house. The two return to the rambling Gothic mansion that appears to be haunted. The wealthy younger woman plays the daughter and Leonora the mother, developing a close (maybe too close)

R,

Drama

Marco Denevi, George Tabori

Universal Pictures

Cast

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All Critics (10) | Top Critics (5) | Fresh (5) | Rotten (5) | DVD (1)

Losey has shown skill at conjuring up corruption and terror. Here he is undone by his scenarist, George Tabori, who attempts a ghostly esthetic melodrama in the style of Henry James.

March 23, 2011 Full Review Source: TIME Magazine
TIME Magazine
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Moody, leisurely developed and handsomely produced.

July 22, 2008 Full Review Source: Variety
Variety
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Losey's mannered direction, somehow entirely appropriate, makes for a memorable film.

February 9, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out
Time Out
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Joseph Losey's best film in years.

May 9, 2005 Full Review Source: New York Times
New York Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

If there's a secret, director Joseph Losey isn't letting the audience in on it.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader
Chicago Reader
Top Critic IconTop Critic

A murky, moody psychological scare story with more holes than a Swiss cheese.

March 23, 2011 Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide
TV Guide's Movie Guide

A trance

April 1, 2010 Full Review Source: CinePassion
CinePassion

Strangely fascinating.

June 20, 2004 Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews
Ozus' World Movie Reviews

Odd that Losey should make his two overly baroque disasters in the same year, first Boom! then this marginally less pretentious work.

May 24, 2003 Full Review Source: Film4
Film4

Audience Reviews for Secret Ceremony

A bizzare, ungodly film that has all sorts of nasty behaviours at work. Taylor and Farrow make a love lost pair with stepfather Robert Mitchum making things worse with his incestious prescence. Each Taylor and Farrow think they have been reborn meeting thier supposedly dead loved ones.


Slow paced it made me want to leave several times until Mitchum arrives.


[img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/e/ec/SecretCeremony%2768.jph.jpg/220px-SecretCeremony%2768.jph.jpg[/img]




Secret Ceremony is a 1968 film, produced in Britain and released by Universal Pictures. Based on the book by Argentine writer Marco Denevi, it stars Elizabeth Taylor, Mia Farrow, Robert Mitchum, Pamela Brown, and Peggy Ashcroft. Joseph Losey directed, from a script by George Tabori.

[img]http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTPMyugIKOtUutIWpAep3QZDMmeafONNcbgjpl25d-bXA-83Y1YlQ[/img] Not what it seems, Farrow is childlike here.


If you are a fan of Mitchum, you'll have to see him half way through the film and then not too often after that. His role of an incest stepfather, if in fact he was that, is not becoming of the personna of a Robert Mitchum. But Taylor is convinced he is a rat so in the end she does something about it.


[img]http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRMpUu0MmiqNEqKc_FQbzs0VwM9z5wbbS8GsTrIVtk4fQEsUKZq9A[/img] Robert Mitchum as the incestious stepfather


SEE the trailer here:

http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/video/353288/Secret-Ceremony-Original-Trailer-.html

Worth watching if you can tolerate the very slow pace of the film. A plus for the film is a very young 23 year old Mia Farrow who pretends sex with herself a few times and even having a child. Her stepfather, Mitchum, advises Taylor she is a nut case headed for suicide.

SEE the entire film here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CH3gvC1PXY4


[img]http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRqT3gDqN5QHMMRV-vW2h2UhL3u-iX5PHSoKHiETHY6V6VlDt-0[/img] Here the two are like mother and daughter in bath


NOTES:

1 There are apparently varying versions of the film, the result of Universal Pictures' tampering with Losey's original cut, possibly to de-emphasize the lesbian aspects of the Taylor-Farrow relationship.

2 Critical reception of the film has tended to be mixed, with some critics essentially maintaining that it is a bad film but yet one that can be enjoyed due to a certain camp quality evident in Losey's mise-en-scène and the actors' performances. However, other film analysts regard the film as compelling because of its deep psychological portraits.


REVIEWS:

80%
Elizabeth Taylor is intriguing as a slightly overweight prostitute. Despite those flaws, her beauty is still beyond compare. I dare anyone to pull off...

50%
Now this--THIS--is a weird movie.


[img]http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcR-4F0pp-eq7z_kwiu2z7H8d8aDzDon0NaSfhEIlnOx77iXXY3InQ[/img] Farrow is excellent as the rape victum of Mitchum, or so it seems



Distributed by
Universal Pictures

Release date(s)
1968

Running time
105 min.

Box office
$3 million (US/ Canada rentals)


[img]http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcR5ZYW9eaFl8UBMJ6TZol6tV7Q7oK5pjRMWVhiEuq3HI64VFEpChg[/img] A powerhouse performance by Farrow and Taylor
March 30, 2013
Monsieur Rick
rick blaine
Elizabeth Taylor is intriguing as a slightly overweight prostitute. Despite those flaws, her beauty is still beyond compare. I dare anyone to pull off purple velvet the way she can! Robert Mitchum's character makes your skin crawl. Mia farrow is just scary! The story unfolds in an old gothy British mansion. This film was made in 1968, but plays like a Tim Burton film. Lots of black and mood. Not a feel good film, but I was completely entertained. Love Taylor's line---"What happened to the mouse that fell into the glass of milk? He kept paddling, until in the morning he was sitting on top of butter!" Dark-edged melodrama.
September 30, 2012
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Foreign Titles

  • Cérémonie secrète (FR)
  • Ceremonio secreta (ES)
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