La Cérémonie

In a surprise during the opening credits, you'll learn the leading man in The Ceremony also directed it: Laurence Harvey. I don't know why he was drawn to such a strange story, but perhaps he wanted to pair it with equally strange direction. His angles and framing were odd (or, if you want to be kind, avant-garde), but it's always a treat to see an actor try his hand at a role behind the camera.

The plot features Larry as a convict on death row in South America. He was in a bank robbery, and although he didn't commit the murder, he's given an unusually harsh punishment for being an accessory. As the clock ticks down until his firing squad, his younger brother Robert Walker Jr. And his girlfriend Sarah Miles try to execute their plot to break him out of prison. It involves impersonating a priest, a seduction, and a flat tire. Incredibly simple, and you would think that in 1963, prison break movies would be a bit more complex.

Sarah's acting style always grates on my nerves, since she stammers around as if she's frightened of speaking her next line. Her perpetually wide eyes don't seem to hold much expression, but thankfully, she's not the lead. Larry certainly gives his all in this movie, so if you want to watch it, it had better be because you're a Laurence Harvey fan. The conclusion is a bit obvious, so strictly as a prison break drama, I wouldn't really recommend it.

Dismissed by the late David Shipman as "a pretentious plea against capital punishment" and now disinterred by the wonder that is Talking Pictures. Boasting a truly extraordinary international cast, shot in kafkaesque black & white by Ossie Morris and full of ripe one-liners, it's just the film you'd expect Lawrence Harvey to have directed.

If you didn't know this was a Spain/US production, you'd think it was a timeless fable: there are so few localized contexts. The supporting actors delineate themselves sharply, but Laurence Harvey steals the show, as always, with his intensity (check out his work in Tamiko, a neurotic romance set in Japan), and compounds this by directing with intensity: the camera is always zooming into people's faces from above, below, and sideways. It's dizzying. That said, the movie's worth seeing. All praise to early 60's B&W films.

This is a timeless drama challenging the matter of justice as it is enforced by law, unavoidably leading to mistakes that can't be corrected and leaving wounds and damages for life. Laurence Harvey is the prisoner convicted and sentenced to execution, while his brother (Robert Walker) and sweetheart (Sarah Miles) with a team of others plan to set him free in order for them all to get at the money obtained in some kind of a robbery that cost someone his life, which Harvey actually tried to prevent while instead he got prosecuted for the manslaughter. They all become victims to the ultimate judicial murder, as finally the wrong man gets executed. This is actually a drama, the stage is almost Shakespearian, and all the characters play vital parts. The most striking thing however is the cinematography, which is almost expressionistic in its consistently intimate approach to the actors' faces, making their expressions a vivid part of the drama. It is claustrophobic and very dark as almost everything happens in the dungeons of a prison, but also all the prison staff and wards play an important part and even the other prisoners by their noise constituting almost a chorus. It is all very much like a Greek drama in its structure, leading all the protagonists hopelessly into an abyss of destiny in which they are all ultimately helpless. The story ends classically in a great question mark, as we never shall know what happened next to all the survivors - there is only death in the whole drama. Regrettably this became the only film that Laurence Harvey ever had the opportunity to direct, and it marks in many ways the epitome of his career. He continued acting in films but constantly on a lesser scale until he ended tragically and abruptly at only 45 from a stomach cancer.

I did not hate "The Ceremony" nor did I particularly like it. I think the biggest problem keeping me from really enjoying the films were the characters...I just didn't care about any of them. And, after a while I found my attention wavering.

When the film begins, Sean (Laurence Harvey) is about to be executed. It seems he was part of a robbery gone bad--and someone was killed during the robbery. However, and this makes no sense at all, some of the folks at the prison are lamenting how sad it is that they're going to kill the guy. However, he isn't executed, as hie brother (Robert Walker, Jr.) arranges for him to escape.

The most interesting thing about this movie is that the leading man, Laurence Harvey, not only starred in it but directed and produced it as well. While this wasn't always a bad thing, I do think Harvey overacted a bit when his character was in prison--and a different director might have gotten a different sort of performance. Additionally, the film suffers because I just didn't care on whit about anyone in the film and at times it seemed a bit lifeless, though the twist at the end was pretty interesting.