Customer Reviews

Seduced and Abandoned

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4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

Criterion has released yet another classic Italian film. Director Pietro Germi's DIVORCE ITALIAN STYLE was previously released by Criterion, so I was hopeful that SEDOTTA E ABBANDONATA might also be in the works. The ensemble of actors work together brilliantly to satire Sicilian mores. SEDUCED is much darker than DIVORCE, and the beautiful Stefania Sandrelli gives a very sympathetic, at times painful performance as the victim of her societies prejudices. Sandrelli, 60 this year (still beautiful), has given us many excellent cinematic performances over the last 40-some years. Check her out in Bertolucci's masterpiece, The Conformist (Extended Edition), and another fine film, Gabriele Muccino's The Last Kiss (L'ULTIMO BACIO; 2001; the American remake is being released this year, starring Zach Braff). And the late Leopoldo Trieste (d. Jan. '03) gives another fine comic performance, here as an impoverished nobleman. Trieste's most recognized screen role is likely that of the censorius priest in CINEMA PARADISO. Italian Cinema fans should not miss the amusing interview with Trieste, a special feature on Criterion's release of Fellini's The White Sheik - Criterion Collection, in which he speaks of his insulting (and hilarious) first encounter with Federico Fellini. And how 'bout the cool cover art by graphic novelist Mike Allred?! Keep those Italian Cinema classics coming, Criterion. We love you!

N.B. Criterion Collection's most recent Italian Cinema release is a restored, loaded 2-disc edition of THE most beloved Italian film of all-time, Bicycle Thieves (The Criterion Collection) (LADRI DI BICICLETTE). Don't settle for the previous Image Entertainment release under the film's better known (inaccurate) title translation, The Bicycle Thief.

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!

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.

Black comedy skewers Sicilian mores with a sharp cinematic knife, making "Seduced" by turns funny and tragic. Agnese, the central object of all the fuss, is maltreated throughout, but the beautiful Sandrelli strikes the right balance so that our sympathies for her don't overwhelm the film's broadly humorous tone. Though the ferret-like Puglisi is tailor-made for the unsympathetic role of Peppino, this is truly Urzi's film. His volcanic Don Vincenzo serves as comic center-piece and driving force behind the whole tumultuous affair. An unbridled satiric masterpiece from director Germi.

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. Since she is not yet 16, this really should not be funny but, if you accept what has happened then you will be able to enjoy what happens throughout the rest of the movie. "Seduced and Abandoned" is many things; a comedy of errors, a satire on Sicilian society, the double-standard between the sexes, and more. This really IS a funny movie and it excels in humor because of the sterotyped characters that range from the bombastic father to the timid brother and everything in between. The ending IS a bit odd but I guess that's in keeping with the beginning. I enjoyed watching "Seduced and Abandoned".

A delightfully satirical film! Germi explores an antiquated law that eradicates rape if the parties marry. Peppino doesn't want to marry Agnese because she is no longer virginal: "The man has the right to ask; the woman has a duty to refuse." But, why would Agnese want to marry her seducer? Chaos ensues in defense of family and honor.

An adolescent girl (Stefania Sandrelli) is seduced and impregnated by the wormy fiancee (Aldo Puglisi) of her sister (Paolo Biggio). When her father, a minor Sicilian aristocrat (Saro Urzi) demands that said fiancee marry her, he refuses to marry "damaged goods." Thus begins an epic battle of wills that pretty much ruins the lives of everyone involved. It's a comedy . . .

And what a comedy--not just the brilliant script, which director Pietro Germi co-wrote with the great comedy-writing team of Age and Scarpelli and Luciano Vincenzoni, but the explosively funny performances he gets from his cast, most importantly Sandrelli as the tough-as-nails heroine, Puglisi as the fiancee from hell, and Urzi as her ghastly but well-meaning father. They are beautifully supported by Lando Buzzanca as Sandrelli's galoot of a brother and Leopoldo Trieste as the impoverished major aristocrat that Dad tries to set up as the new fiancee for the older sister. You will laugh constantly, but the laughs will mostly come out of the wrong side of your mouth, and the final scenes are both completely logical and quietly devastating. And you'll still be laughing. The story that Germi was telling, as in his previous masterpiece, DIVORCE ITALIAN STYLE, is grim indeed, and needed to be told. But rather than self-righteous polemics, we get withering, bases-clearing satire. Which proved to be the perfect approach.

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.

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. The "message" is sometimes not very subtle (the "carabineri" putting his hand over the map of Sicily an shaking his head, the nightmares of Sandrelli, etc.). Besides, there is no Mastroianni.