The recently released DVD of Riccardo Freda's TRAGIC CEREMONY revealed to me something I have never noticed: Camille Keaton's brave face. I've had a liking for this actress since seeing her in the infamous I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE, but perhaps due to the long hair she had that, hippy-style, covered most of her cheeks and jaw I never spotted that she had slight scaring on her face. In the "Camille's European Adventure" featurette present on TRAGIC CEREMONY, the actress unhesitatingly admits: "I was involved in a car accident in 1969, which left me with some scars. And that was before I went into the film business. And I was self-conscious about the scars, and being able to make films was a very positive thing for me."
Not only does the DVD release show in clarity these scars, but it also shows that Camille suffered from a skin condition (probably acne) that manifested itself in a series of bumps that hovered chiefly around her mouth. As with any scaring or skin condition, lighting is crucial in hiding, minimizing or highlighting details, and in certain shots Camille's "brave face" is surprisingly evident and would have been much more so on the big screen. I write "surprisingly" because we are talking about an institution (cinema) that is careful to choose lead actresses with the clearest complexions. Not so with Camille, who had a moderate, short-lived success in Italy during the early 1970s. She was even a model for women's and men's magazines.
It is kind of inspirational that this young actress with scaring and a skin condition decided to become a model and an actress, and that she ventured into those domains despite what must have been serious doubts and even fears (and possibly other voices which may have been discouraging her from those career paths). She succeeded where the vast majority of hopefuls did not, and is a "cult" film personality with a fan base that many working actresses do not have.
Congratulations on your bravery, Camille. You fought the system in your own way, a fight few were aware of, and you won.
I'll be paying more attention to Camille from now on...and her brace face.
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Addendum: I've been informed by the lady herself that the skin condition mentioned above was, indeed, acne, a possibly allergic-sourced outbreak which occurred after she arrived in Madrid for shooting of the film.
