350 Seduced and Abandoned

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tavernier
Joined: Sat Apr 02, 2005 7:18 pm

350 Seduced and Abandoned

#1 Post by tavernier » Sat May 06, 2006 11:03 am

Seduced and Abandoned

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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 fiance. Merciless and mirthful, Seduced and Abandoned skewers Sicilian social customs and pompous patriarchies with a sly, devilish grin.

Special Features
• New, restored high-definition digital transfer
• Commedia all'italiana, Germi Style, featuring new interviews with screenwriters Furio Scarpelli and Luciano Vincenzoni and Italian film scholar Mario Sesti
• Interviews with actors Stefania Sandrelli and Lando Buzzanca
• Stefania Sandrelli screen test
• Theatrical trailer
• New and improved English subtitle translation
• PLUS: A new essay by film scholar Irene Bignardi

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According to this weekend's New York Times (Sunday's Arts & Leisure section), Criterion is releasing SIX MORAL TALES in a boxed set on Aug. 15 and SEDUCED AND ABANDONED on Aug. 22.

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zut
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#2 Post by zut » Sat May 06, 2006 2:36 pm

*pumps fist for seduced and abandoned*

I wonder if it'll be a two disc-er like divorce, italian style. ETA nevermind, guess I ought to have read the thread properly.

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souvenir
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#3 Post by souvenir » Sat May 06, 2006 2:46 pm

From the New York Times:
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

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otis
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#4 Post by otis » Sat May 06, 2006 3:22 pm

Here are some caps from the Italian DVD of Sedotta e abbandonata to get you in the mood:
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Narshty
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#5 Post by Narshty » Sat May 06, 2006 3:45 pm

Count me in for the Germi film - it sounds like the perfect extension and continuation of everything in Divorce: Italian Style. And more Stefania Sandrelli and Leopoldo Trieste is no bad thing either.

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Cinephrenic
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#6 Post by Cinephrenic » Sat May 06, 2006 7:19 pm

Another film from Cristaldi.

So far we got:

The Children Are Watching Us
Lacombe Lucien
Murmur of the Heart
Big Deal on Madonna Street
Divorce Italian Style
Le Notti Bianche
Salvatore Giuliano


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
Last edited by Cinephrenic on Sat May 06, 2006 7:46 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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GringoTex
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#7 Post by GringoTex » Sun May 07, 2006 1:09 am

I hope this is better than Divorce, Italian Style, an unbelievably sexist and inept attempt to send up a combination of the Nouvelle Vague and your favorite teenage blowjob.

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justeleblanc
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#8 Post by justeleblanc » Sun May 07, 2006 2:56 am

As good as these releases might be, I can't wait to look up blowjob in the Dictionary.

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Jeff
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#9 Post by Jeff » Sun May 07, 2006 12:07 pm

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.
Why would you assume that? 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.

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tavernier
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#10 Post by tavernier » Sun May 07, 2006 12:11 pm

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.
Says you.

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Schkura
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#11 Post by Schkura » Sun May 07, 2006 12:14 pm

Why would you assume that?
Nothing against Mr. Taylor, but the NYT has lost enough cred to reasonably assume that.

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kinjitsu
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#12 Post by kinjitsu » Sun May 07, 2006 12:40 pm

Schkura wrote:Nothing against Mr. Taylor, but...
Taylor has also written articles for Sight & Sound, Film Comment and the New Yorker, among others, so it seems rather pointless to attack him for picking up a piece in the NYTimes every so often.
Langlois68 wrote:I hope it's better than Divorce, Italian Style...
I prefer Divorce, but...

"A grotesque comic tour de force, combining the sharp delineation of character typical of the Italian comic film with interesting stylistic effects. Seduced and Abandoned's chilling vision of how traditional social values can destroy an individual, especially a woman with a mind of her own, is tempered only by brief moments of undeniable comic relief" --Peter Bondanella

Acquarello on Seduced and Abandoned.

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denti alligator
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#13 Post by denti alligator » Sun May 07, 2006 1:49 pm

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

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kinjitsu
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#14 Post by kinjitsu » Sun May 07, 2006 2:00 pm

denti alligator wrote:... here's hoping that the cover art for the Germi will match Divorce.
Here's hoping that it's ineptly sexist too! :wink:

Cinesimilitude
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#15 Post by Cinesimilitude » Sun May 07, 2006 2:24 pm

denti alligator wrote:Somewhat OT, but here's hoping that the cover art for the Germi will match Divorce.
I'll second that. the cover and the film are among my favorites from criterion.

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kieslowski_67
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#16 Post by kieslowski_67 » Tue May 09, 2006 11:16 am

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
I will be very very happy with a Criterion issued "Senso", "Europa 51", "Under the Olive Trees", and "The mattei Affair". The Pal2 "Bitter rice" is excellent so I don't care about a Criterion release here. However, if Criterion can consider Santis's "Rome 11:00" that will make my day.

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Dylan
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#17 Post by Dylan » Tue May 09, 2006 12:59 pm

Yes, this is magnificent news (especially since I just got into Rohmer recently, and love him). I'll buy it the week it comes out.

And the only Germi I've seen is "Divorce, Italian Style," which I thought was wonderful, so I'll be seeing "Seduced" as well. Of course though, I think more Italian cinema is always welcome (love that cap of Stefania!).

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swimminghorses
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#18 Post by swimminghorses » Thu May 11, 2006 1:19 am

Where does the rumor that Criterion may release Visconti's "Senso" with Farley Granger come from? Just wondering because it would make such a wonderful bookend to "The Leopard".

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Cinephrenic
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#19 Post by Cinephrenic » Thu May 11, 2006 11:49 am

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.

rollotomassi
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#20 Post by rollotomassi » Thu May 11, 2006 6:17 pm

Great news about the Rohmer set. A s for the Germi, I already have a remastered print from Italy (same series as released Riso Amaro, which I also have). It's a gorgeous print and, if Criterion use the same print, everyone will be happy.

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kinjitsu
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#21 Post by kinjitsu » Thu May 11, 2006 7:55 pm

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.
Was there ever a R1 DVD of Senso? I thought Fox Lorber dropped it several years ago...

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pro-bassoonist
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#22 Post by pro-bassoonist » Mon Jun 12, 2006 3:20 am

aside from the interviews...looks like another low-key bare-bones Germi release....

Ciao,
Pro-B

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HerrSchreck
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#23 Post by HerrSchreck » Mon Jun 12, 2006 3:35 am

Aside from the crammed-to-hilt extras disc, F FOR FAKE was a fucking bare bones low key Welles release. 8-[

Friend what do you mean? It's got a Germi documentary, a seperate extra with interviews, and another seperate extra with screen test, plus essay and trailer. Another barebones Germi release? DIVORCE ITALIAN STYLE was a deluxe 2-disc hi-end special edition.

Bare bones is KWAIDAN, bare bones is NAKED KISS, with the film, and a tiny essay. A trailer is the "extra".

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tavernier
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#24 Post by tavernier » Thu Jul 27, 2006 1:40 pm

Release date pushed back one week, to August 29.

Anonymous

#25 Post by Anonymous » Mon Aug 07, 2006 8:16 pm

I have the italian dvd of "Seduced and abandoned" and is a great dvd.

The video is one of the best ones I ever see for a film of that age. I'm sure that Criterion will be still better and will be from remaining to open mouth.

In Italy this film by now is considered a classic of the "commedia all'italiana". From you it is appreciated?

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