The cat fanciers among this audience of cinephiles are no doubt familiar with the fantastic kitty attitude depicted above. The thing that happens when a given feline, after a spirited bout of self-grooming or even a swift dab at the nose, forgets to completely retract his or her tongue. After which he or she may sit around for however long, in ignorant hauteur, with a little slice of pink sandpaper sticking out of his or her mouth. Such moments are both hilarious and endearing—my late, great buddy Pinky a.k.a. the Pinkster (1985−2006) was a master at them. But such moments are also elusive, and difficult to capture in film—I know, I’ve tried, and I have one blurry closeup to attest to my extremely limited success in this endeavor. So kudos to director Joseph Losey and cameraman Gerry (Gerald) Fisher for the above, from their 1968 film Secret Ceremony, the rest of which is somewhat more problematic but does feature the intriguing spectacle of Elizabeth Taylor and Mia Farrow together in a bathtub with a rubber ducky. It’s the subject of today’s Tuesday Morning Foreign Region DVD Report, at The Auteurs’.
One of our cats, Pepe, does that, and the last time, about two weeks ago, had my wife and I in tears. He was sitting on my wife’s stomach, while we were lying in bed, and his tongue was out further than we’re used to. Not only that, but it was caught between his teeth, so it was curled. And not only THAT, but when my wife was at the point where her laughter was really uncontrollable, Pepe apparently became bewildered by her behavior, and his eyes got really wide. So big eyes, curled tongue sticking out…we just couldn’t handle it. I’m pretty sure I pulled something.
And 21 years?? Nice going, Pinky.
Being able to watch “Secret Ceremony,” with large groups of people with large bottles of wine, is one of life’s great pleasures.
“You look more like a cow than my late wife…” says Mitchum. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m very fond of cows. Mooooo!”
Mitchum to Taylor: “Listen, mysterious bitch, you slut, you cow, I don’t need any lessons in fatherhood from you.” If memory serves, and one hopes that it does.