Home | Movies By Year | Movies from 1969
Secret Ceremony
Buy Secret Ceremony now from AmazonFirst, read the Wikipedia article. Then, scroll down to see what other TopShelfReviews readers thought about the movie. And once you've experienced the movie, tell everyone what you thought about it.
Wikipedia article
'Secret Ceremony' is a 1968 British drama thriller film directed by Joseph Losey and starring Elizabeth Taylor, Mia Farrow and Robert Mitchum.
Plot
Leonora, a middle-aged prostitute, is despondent over the death of her daughter. Cenci, a lonely young woman, follows Leonora to the cemetery and strikes up a conversation with her, inviting Leonora to her home. Leonora is struck by the likeness between Cenci and her late daughter.
A resemblance of Leonora to Cenci's late mother becomes obvious once Leonora notices a portrait. Cenci, who is 22 but looks and acts much younger, asks Leonora to stay. A lie is told to her aunts, Hilda and Hannah, that Leonora is actually Cenci's late mother's cousin.
Cenci is found one day cowering under a table. Albert, her stepfather, has paid a visit. Cenci is terrified of him, claiming that Albert had raped her. Leonora is repelled by the man's presence until Albert tells her that Cenci is mentally unstable and had repeatedly tried to seduce him.
On a beach one day, Cenci and Albert have sexual relations. A despondent Cenci commits suicide. At the funeral, Leonora now knows whom she chooses to believe. After standing beside Albert in silence during the burial, Leonora produces a knife and stabs him.
The film ends with Leonora lying in the apartment of her bedroom, listlessly hitting the cord of a ceiling lamp, reciting a poem about perseverance.
Cast
* Elizabeth Taylor as Leonora
* Mia Farrow as Cenci
* Robert Mitchum as Albert
* Peggy Ashcroft as Hannah
* Pamela Brown as Hilda
Production
The short story on which the film is based won a $5,000 prize in a competition run by 'Life en Espaol'. It had already been filmed for Argentine television when it was optioned in 1963 by Dore Schary.
In an October 1969 interview with Roger Ebert, Mitchum claimed that the films production was "in trouble" when he arrived and that his presence did not help.
Locations
The main location for the film was Debenham House in London. Other London locations were St Mary Magdalene Church in Paddington, the area around the Molyneux Monument in Kensal Green Cemetery and the junction of Chepstow Road and St Stephen's Mews in Paddington.[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063571/locations Secret Ceremony (1968)], IMDb.com, retrieved 18 November 2020[https://www.reelstreets.com/films/secret-ceremony Secret Ceremony], Reelstreets.com, retrieved 18 November 2020 The hotel and beach scenes were shot around the Grand Hotel Huis ter Duin in Noordwijk, The Netherlands.[https://www.filmkuratorium.de/walks/secret-ceremony-1968 Movie-Walks: Secret Ceremony (1968)], retrieved 18 November 2020File:Debenham House (35482927182).jpg|Debenham House
File:St Mary Magdalene's Church, Warwick Estate, Paddington, London W2 - geograph.org.uk - 297563.jpg|St Mary Magdalene Church
File:Monument to the Molyneux Family.jpg|Kensal Green Cemetery
File:Chepstow Road, London W2 Geograph-1916059-by-Derek-Harper.jpg|Chepstow Road corner shop
File:Huis ter Duin, Noordwijk (ca. 1930).jpg|Hotel Huis ter Duin as it looked at the time
Reception
'Secret Ceremony' has divided critics since its release. Renata Adler in the 'New York Times' said that it was "incomparably better" than its predecessor, 'Accident', and that beneath its "elaborate fetishism and dragging prose, there is a touching story of people not helping enough," although she admitted that the film had its "longueurs, but not beyond endurance." Ernest Callenbach of 'Film Quarterly' said it was "difficult to guess" what the film was about, but felt that its "dominant note, if there is one, is of Loseys usual creepy, misanthropic disgust with sex and how people misuse each other to get it." He also praised Mia Farrows "touching and perverse and human" performance. Writing 30 years later after its release, John Patterson of 'The Guardian' listed 'Secret Ceremony' among the Losey films he dismissed as "woefully misguided material." Similarly, Dave Kehr of the 'Chicago Reader' lambasted the film as embodying the directors "worst tendencies as a filmmaker: the movie is cold without being chilling, confusing without being challenging."
References
Buy Secret Ceremony now from Amazon
<-- Return to movies from 1969