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Special Features
- "Commedia all'Italiana: Germi Style" featurette
- Interviews with actors Stefania Sandrelli and Lando Buzzanca
- Stefania Sandrelli screen test
- Trailer
- Booklet with essay by film scholar Irene Bignardi
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
The graceful, biting, deadpan humor of Italian director Pietro Germi has no parallel; it fuses the sly wit of Ernst Lubitsch with the bilious social critique of Luis Bunuel. In Seduced and Abandoned, the blackest of black comedies, a young girl named Agnese (the delectable Stefania Sandrelli, fresh from Germi's Divorce Italian Style) is seduced by her sister's fiance, setting in motion a series of increasingly deranged pretenses by which Agnese's apoplectic father (the volcanic Saro Urzi) attempts to salvage the family honor. Central to everything is a legal code that states if a rapist marries his victim, all wrongdoing is forgiven. Germi, appalled at this distorted justice, attacks it with propulsive satire, clawing at sexual double standards, macho hypocrisy, and small town oppression along the way. Seduced and Abandoned tears along like a race car down a steep mountain road, turning and lurching in all directions. Its exhilarating momentum escalates into an outright horror film, with all of Italian society as the monster. The ferocity of Germi's characters and the savage ending are almost unbearable; the movie, though almost 50 years old, can still inspire outrage. Accompanied by a few sparkling extras, including a brief interview from 2002 with Sandrelli, still one of the loveliest women in cinema. --Bret Fetzer
Product Description
Shotgun weddings, kidnapping, attempted murder, emergency dental work-the things Don Vincenzo will do to restore his family's honor! Pietro Germi's Seduced and Abandoned was the follow-up to his international sensation Divorce Italian Style, and in many ways it's even more audacious-a rollicking yet raw series of escalating comic calamities that ensue in a small village when sixteen-year-old Agnese (the beautiful Stefania Sandrelli) loses her virginity at the hands of her sister's lascivious fianc‚. Merciless and mirthful, Seduced and Abandoned skewers Sicilian social customs and pompous patriarchies with a sly, devilish grin.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Pietro Germi, fresh from the success of his "Divorce Italian Style" (which won a Screenplay Oscar), returns with another slapstick slice of Sicilian life. Those familiar with the genre, and particularly Germi, will recognize the same black humor and macabre sensibilities that fashioned many pictures of the day. There is the requisite machismo, the sexual double standards, the wild gesticulating, and the need to preserve family honor at all cost. Wait a minute--maybe those are the same qualities employed in many films today!
I'll be frank, if you don't know what you're getting into, "Seduced and Abandoned" may seem a bit misogynistic. There is definitely a strong division of the sexes which we're not as accustomed to seeing in modern films. However, much of the sexual warfare plays as satire--so even though the stereotypes can be somewhat dismaying, none of the characters escape unscathed. Basically, Germi sets an environment where everyone is despicable. It's the blackest of humor that can make you identify with the characters even as they are proven to be buffoons and hypocrites, and that's a real achievement of "Seduced." You accept things at face value and go with it, no matter how ludicrous it may seem.
The plot revolves around a man, who while engaged, impregnates his fiance's sister. This sets in motion a riotous chain of events as the families battle to maintain respect. It would be difficult to describe much of what happens concisely, so let's just say things continue to escalate as everyone (at one point or another) joins in the moral debate with a strong-headed opinion.
"Seduced and Abandoned" is a very funny picture that still maintains its appeal today. The cast is filled with colorful characters giving robust performances. Definitely recommended for lovers of Italian cinema or screwball comedies--this is a dark and amusing picture that doesn't play it nice and safe. That's always refreshing. KGHarris, 01/07.
I'll be frank, if you don't know what you're getting into, "Seduced and Abandoned" may seem a bit misogynistic. There is definitely a strong division of the sexes which we're not as accustomed to seeing in modern films. However, much of the sexual warfare plays as satire--so even though the stereotypes can be somewhat dismaying, none of the characters escape unscathed. Basically, Germi sets an environment where everyone is despicable. It's the blackest of humor that can make you identify with the characters even as they are proven to be buffoons and hypocrites, and that's a real achievement of "Seduced." You accept things at face value and go with it, no matter how ludicrous it may seem.
The plot revolves around a man, who while engaged, impregnates his fiance's sister. This sets in motion a riotous chain of events as the families battle to maintain respect. It would be difficult to describe much of what happens concisely, so let's just say things continue to escalate as everyone (at one point or another) joins in the moral debate with a strong-headed opinion.
"Seduced and Abandoned" is a very funny picture that still maintains its appeal today. The cast is filled with colorful characters giving robust performances. Definitely recommended for lovers of Italian cinema or screwball comedies--this is a dark and amusing picture that doesn't play it nice and safe. That's always refreshing. KGHarris, 01/07.
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
This movie is hilarious and entertaining as can be! I loved "Divorce Italian Style" by Pietro Germi so I took the risk of buying "Seduced and Abandoned" from Criterion without ever seeing it. In my opinion I actually enjoyed it more than Divorce Italian Style! I won't repeat the plot again but the movie definitly brings you into their family. Once your sucked in it turns into a hilarious nail biter taking unexpected turns and twists. Very memorable movie I highly recommend purchasing for repeated viewings!
9 of 11 people found the following review helpful
By Ted
VINE™ VOICE
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
This review is for the Criterion Collection DVD edition of the film.
"Seduced and Abandoned" known in Italy as "Sedotta e abbandonata" is about a family and the teenage daughter becomes pregnant. Her father is outraged and tries to exact revenge on the man who impregnated her.
The DVD contains a theatrical trailer, interviews with Stefania Sandrelli and Lando Buzzanca, Stefania Sandrelli's screen test and Commedia all'italiana, Germi Style, a special with interviews with cast and crew.
This is a really humorous film and I recommend it.
"Seduced and Abandoned" known in Italy as "Sedotta e abbandonata" is about a family and the teenage daughter becomes pregnant. Her father is outraged and tries to exact revenge on the man who impregnated her.
The DVD contains a theatrical trailer, interviews with Stefania Sandrelli and Lando Buzzanca, Stefania Sandrelli's screen test and Commedia all'italiana, Germi Style, a special with interviews with cast and crew.
This is a really humorous film and I recommend it.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Hysterical
I have seen this film twice now. Hysterical satire. Great performances. I am looking forward to watching other Germi films
Published 4 months ago by Daniel Pearson
5.0 out of 5 stars
Belissima!
Having been smitten by the Italian Invasion--films starring the Diva/Goddesses, from Magnani, Loren, Viti, Sandrelli, Cardinale, (and consequently married into a big... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Peter W. Parsons
4.0 out of 5 stars
Dark Comedy Italian Style
A delightfully satirical film! Germi explores an antiquated law that eradicates rape if the parties marry. Read more
Published on August 2, 2010 by Stefanie Casey (The Cultural Sojourner)
5.0 out of 5 stars
Oh Boy . . .
An adolescent girl (Stefania Sandrelli) is seduced and impregnated by the wormy fiancee (Aldo Puglisi) of her sister (Paolo Biggio). Read more
Published on July 9, 2010 by Matthew Patton
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sad and funny at the same time
This is a great movie. It is very funny and extremely tragic at the same time. Both features don't contradict, but support each other.
Published on March 12, 2009 by Lenny Gorelik
4.0 out of 5 stars
Black Humor that Works
The challenge of "Seduced and Abandoned" is met at the very beginning. Everything happens because the leading young lady is is seduced by her sister's fiancee. Read more
Published on February 1, 2009 by Randy Keehn
3.0 out of 5 stars
Fine, but not as good as "Divorce italian style".
A good film. Very good acting of the whole cast and very good cinematography, the white houses and the black dresses, etc., but a little too much overblown and overwritten. Read more
Published on January 9, 2009 by Sevisan
5.0 out of 5 stars
Seduced and Abandoned
Black comedy skewers Sicilian mores with a sharp cinematic knife, making "Seduced" by turns funny and tragic. Read more
Published on June 28, 2007 by John Farr
3.0 out of 5 stars
Sicilian Honor again
This is a worthwhile movie for those interested in Sicilian culture. It shows the absurdity and barbarism of their social habits, or at least the way it was years ago. Read more
Published on November 5, 2001 by Anna Shlimovich
