Seduced And Abandoned (DVD)
APPROX. 117 MINS. - PROD. YEAR: 1964 - MPA RATING: NR
" It’s a man’s duty to try, and a woman’s duty to refuse.
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When Kevin Smith´s "Clerks 2" hit theaters this summer, film critics couldn´t resist the urge to describe the film as "scabrous," no doubt referring to the secondary definition of the word: "indecent or scandalous; risqué; obscene." No doubt Smith´s ode to fart jokes and donkey sex qualifies under such a definition, but "Clerks 2" is strictly scabrous manqué when compared to Pietro Germi´s truly scabrous "Seduced and Abandoned" (1964).
Germi returns to the familiar territory that won him international fame in "Divorce Italian Style" (1961), taking a withering look at the hypocritical traditions of "honor and family" in Sicilian society. Peppino Califano (Aldo Puglisi) is engaged to the festively plump Rosaura Ascalone (Roberta Narbonne), but has his eye on her more shapely younger sister, fifteen year-old Agnese (Stefania Sandrelli.) By the end of the first scene, Peppino has more than his eye on Agnese: this is the seduction (i.e. rape); the rest of the film is about Peppino´s attempt at abandonment.
When Agnese´s father, Don Vincenzo (Saro Urzi) learns of what happened, he does what any responsible parent would do: he calls Agnese a whore, beats the hell out of her, and locks her in a room to hide the family shame. Agnese´s cruel treatment is made even more horrifying by Germi´s gallows-humor approach, best expressed in the screwball scene in which Don Vincenzo sends to the country in the middle of the night for a midwife to confirm the status of his daughter´s virginity; Agnese´s cooperation in the procedure is not considered relevant. There is no doubt left. Peppino has violated his underaged daughter, and there can only be one solution: Peppino must marry her.
In "Divorce Italian Style," Germi mocked the Sicilian custom of legally sanctioned honor killing. Here, he tackles an even more offensive Sicilian law (of the time), which states that a rapist may be set free if he agrees to marry his victim. As a policeman notes at one point, marriage is better than a pardon; it is literally a get out of jail free card. Peppino, of course, does not want to marry Agnese because she isn´t a virgin. Why should he marry a slut just because he´s the one that got to sleep with her? It´s a man´s duty to try, and a woman´s duty to refuse.
Germi doesn´t pull any punches in his savage attack on Sicilian customs, nor does he waste time with subtlety. The characters are all absurd caricatures, esp. Don Vincenzo, played by Saro Urzi with all the kinetic lunacy of Daffy Duck crossed with Tom Cruise. Vincenzo doesn´t care a whit about his slutty daughter, but only about "honor and family" which must be maintained at all costs. Nobody else in the family has much sympathy for Agnese either, not even her mother or her infinite number of sisters, cousins, and aunts. She can only suffer in silence, a main character who, appropriately enough, has no impact whatsoever on the story´s outcome. This is a man´s world.
The Ascalones aren´t the only ones at fault. Germi indicts the entire societal structure, from the clergy to the police to the courts. His criticism is so vicious at times, that it´s hard not to feel like Germi (who was from Northern Italy) is engaging in a form of race-baiting, or at least culture-baiting. With its over-the-top acting, and lunatic editing, "Seduced and Abandoned" is not content merely to poke fun, but rather to bludgeon into a bloody pulp. Considering the scope of the hypocrisy at end, however, this approach may be well warranted.
