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Seduced and Abandoned (1964)

Back when middle-class couples turned to foreign films for an acceptably racy evening out, a title like "Seduced and Abandoned" was catnip. Forty-two years later, the title is better known than the movie itself. And you can't help wondering, with this new Criterion edition, if Pietro Germi's film will ruffle sensitive contemporary sensibilities. The picture is about as brutal as a comedy can be and still be funny. Nobody will feel much like laughing when Don Vincenzo (Saro Urzi), a Sicilian patriarch, slaps around his beautiful daughter Agnese (the radiant Stefania Sandrelli), who has been impregnated by her sister's fiancé. But let's be clear about who's slapping around whom. Germi's film is a desecration of honor and family, the very values Don Vincenzo holds dear. Compassion did not exactly flow through Germi's veins. Clarity did. "Seduced and Abandoned" is so bracing precisely because Germi refuses to blunt his meanings with sops to fairness. A society where women can be treated so brutishly in the name of honor and family, Germi is saying, deserves to be called backward and barbaric because it is. This is the sort of place where Agnese's seducer, the mama's boy cad Peppino (Aldo Puglisi), can give her the reputation of a whore in the eyes of society, and then feel justified in announcing he wouldn't want to marry a woman who would let herself be dishonored in such a fashion. Whoredom, marriage or the nunnery are the options open to women, and Germi doesn't deny the part the Roman Catholic Church plays in the maintenance of that sexual hypocrisy. His wickedest bit of caricature is the way he links the quietly suffering face of Ms. Sandrelli to the icons of the Virgin that populate the movie. Germi implies that the reverence paid both is largely a function of their not being able to talk back. When our contemporary bromides about cultural tolerance have us shying away from naming the places where intolerance exists, this ruthless comedy about the twin tyrannies of honor and religion becomes even more potent. (Criterion, Aug. 22, $29.95) CHARLES TAYLOR

Langlois68 wrote:

souvenir wrote: There's no getting around the element of boredom that hangs over even Mr. Rohmer's best films.

Another NY Times Reviewer regurgitates a deadline-saving google search. But that's what the NYT does- hire good writers and pay them to learn their subject on the fly.

Jeff wrote:I assure you that Charles Taylor knows his subject well. He was Salon's film critic for many years, and is one of the most knowledgeable and astute critics writing in English.

Why would you assume that?

Schkura wrote:Nothing against Mr. Taylor, but...

Langlois68 wrote:I hope it's better than Divorce, Italian Style...

denti alligator wrote:... here's hoping that the cover art for the Germi will match Divorce.

denti alligator wrote:Somewhat OT, but here's hoping that the cover art for the Germi will match Divorce.

cinephrenic wrote:Possibilities:
Seduced and Abondoned (Rumored)
Bitter Rice (Janus)
Senso
Without Pity
Kapo (Rumored)
Under the Olive Trees
In the Name of the Father
Europa '51 (Janus)
The Bandit
The Mattei Affair

cinephrenic wrote:Criterion has access to Cristaldi Film (which they've released many Italian films from along with some Malle) catalog. Senso is also listed and the DVD for the film is out-of-print.