theNomad’s review published on Letterboxd:
“Hush little baby, don't worry no more. Your daddy's gone fishing and your mother's an whore.” - Cenci (Mia Farrow)
Provocative psychological thriller from Joseph Losey, featuring the stellar casting of Elizabeth Taylor, Mia Farrow & Robert Mitchum. Its about a fragile imaginary world concocted between two bereaved women Leonora & Cenci.
I'll be Mother!... Secret Ceremony's one of those vague films with so much bubbling under the surface. Liz Taylors character Leonora is a painfully sad middle aged prostitute, whose never been able to forgive herself for being intoxicated while her infant daughter accidentally drowned. Mia's character Cenci is a silver spooned woman child, who had likely been abused by her perverted creepy stepfather 'Mitchum'. When she loses her mother, she can no longer cope. They're both drawn to one and other in a underlaying lesbian way, each substituting the vacated role the other is painfully seeking.
Its hit and miss and sure to get mix critical feedback, but worthy of hunting down. It features a very washed out, decaying London. Thats so unlike the usual bright swinging 60's London we mostly got in movies of that period.
[Personal Reasons For Remembering]
Liz and Mia sharing a bath together, and sinking the rubber ducky. I've always been a sucker for odd musical interludes, so I loved the bizarre folk ditties Mia mutters a few times.