Secret Ceremony (Losey, 1968): Nickel Cinema, 3.45pm
Time Out review:
It's difficult to know why Robert Mitchum, slouching through a few scenes in
the ill-fitting disguise of an ageing, bearded academic with little
girls on his mind, should have accepted this part. Elizabeth Taylor, however, is
very fine as a tacky madonna: a devout prostitute who's offered a
respite from the streets when a regressive child-woman called Cenci
(Mia Farrow in long wig and Pollyanna tights) adopts her as substitute
mother and moves her into a mansion of art-déco splendour. No wonder
then that Taylor/Laura should fervently pray 'Oh Lord, let no one snatch
me from this heaven'; and as the strange 'secret ceremonies' begin, her
treatment of Cenci displays the same mix of greed and generosity.
Losey's mannered direction, somehow entirely appropriate, makes for a
memorable film.
Jane Clarke
Here (and above) is the trailer.
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