''Seduced and Abandoned'' ( it, Sedotta e abbandonata) is a 1964 Italian film directed by
Pietro Germi. It was screened at the
1964 Cannes Film Festival
The 17th Cannes Film Festival was held from 29 April to 14 May 1964. On this occasion, the Palme d’Or was renamed "Grand Prix du Festival International du Film", a name that remained in use through 1974, after which it became the Palme d'Or ag ...
.
Plot
The film presents the tale of Agnese Ascalone, daughter of prominent quarry owner Vincenzo Ascalone, and takes place in a small town in
Sicily
(man) it, Siciliana (woman)
, population_note =
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, demographics1_footnotes =
, demographi ...
(specifically
Sciacca
Sciacca (; Greek: ; Latin: Thermae Selinuntinae, Thermae Selinuntiae, Thermae, Aquae Labrodes and Aquae Labodes) is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Agrigento on the southwestern coast of Sicily, southern Italy. It has views of the Medit ...
), as did Germi's previous film, ''
Divorce, Italian Style
''Divorce Italian Style'' ( it, Divorzio all'italiana) is a 1961 Italian dark comedy film directed by Pietro Germi. The screenplay is by Germi, Ennio De Concini, Alfredo Giannetti, and Agenore Incrocci, based on Giovanni Arpino's novel ''Un del ...
''. Agnese is seduced by her sister Matilde's fiancé, and has a tryst with him for which she confesses and tries to repent, only to be discovered by her mother and father. Vincenzo immediately demands that the man, Peppino Califano, marry his daughter, and antics ensue. The film is a dark satire of Sicilian social customs and honor laws, and is very similar to ''Divorce, Italian Style''.
Cast
*
Stefania Sandrelli
Stefania Sandrelli (born 5 June 1946) is an Italian actress, famous for her many roles in the ''commedia all'Italiana'', starting from the 1960s. She was 14 years old when she starred in '' Divorce Italian Style'' as Angela, the cousin and love i ...
- Agnese Ascalone
*
Saro Urzì
Rosario "Saro" Urzì (24 February 1913 – 1 November 1979) was an Italian actor. He is best known for his roles in the films '' In the Name of the Law'' (1949), '' The Railroad Man'' (1956), '' Seduced and Abandoned'' (1964), which earned him ...
- Don Vincenzo Ascalone
*
Aldo Puglisi
Aldo Puglisi (born 12 April 1935) is an Italian actor.
Life and career
Born in Catania, the son of two Sicilian language theatrical actors, Puglisi made his stage debut at very young age with the company of his parents. He made his film debut ...
- Peppino Califano
*
Lando Buzzanca
Gerlando "Lando" Buzzanca (24 August 1935 – 18 December 2022) was an Italian stage, film, and television actor whose career spanned 65 years.
Life and career
Early years
Born in Palermo the son of a cinema projectionist, at 16 years old Buz ...
- Antonio Ascalone
*
Lola Braccini
Lola Braccini, born Camilla Cariddi (28 March 1889 - 19 March 1969) was an Italian film, television and stage actress.
Life and career
Born in Pisa, Braccini moved to Rome at 14 years old and debuted on stage in 1912 as an extra at the Teatr ...
- Amalia Califano
*
Leopoldo Trieste - Baron Rizieri Zappalà
*
Umberto Spadaro
Umberto Spadaro (8 November 1904 – 12 October 1981) was an Italian film actor.
He appeared in around 95 films between 1940 and 1979. His brother Peppino Spadaro was also an actor.
Selected filmography
* ''Cavalleria rusticana'' (1939) – ...
- Cousin Ascalone, a lawyer
*
Paola Biggio - Matilde Ascalone
*
Rocco D'Assunta
Rocco D'Assunta (7 February 1904 – 27 January 1970) was an Italian actor, comedian and playwright.
Life and career
Born in Palermo, D'Assunta started acting at very young age with several Sicilian stage companies, including the ones led by ...
- Orlando Califano
*
Oreste Palella - Police Chief Polenza
*
Lina Lagalla - Francesca Ascalone
*
Gustavo D'Arpe
Gustavo is the Latinate form of a Germanic male given name with respective prevalence in Portuguese, Spanish, and Italian. It has been a common name for Swedish monarchs since the reign of Gustav Vasa.
It is derived from Gustav
Gustav, Gustaf or ...
- Ciarpetta the Lawyer
*
Rosetta Urzì - Consolata the Maid
*
Roberta Narbonne - Rosaura Ascalone
*
Vincenzo Licata - Pasquale Profumo the Undertaker
*
Attilio Martella - The Magistrate Judge
*
Adelino Campardo - Police Officer Bisigato
*
Salvatore Fazio
Salvatore may refer to:
* Salvatore (name), a given name and surname, including a list of people with the name
* "Salvatore" (song), by Lana Del Rey, 2015
* Salvatore (band), a Norwegian instrumental rock band
* '' Salvatore: Shoemaker of Dreams' ...
- Don Mariano the Priest
*
Italia Spadaro - Aunt Carmela
Context
These Sicilian customs, including a form of
bride kidnapping
Bride kidnapping, also known as marriage by abduction or marriage by capture, is a practice in which a man abducts the woman he wishes to marry.
Bride kidnapping (hence the portmanteau bridenapping) has been practiced around the world and ...
or
elopement
Elopement is a term that is used in reference to a marriage which is conducted in a sudden and secretive fashion, usually involving a hurried flight away from one's place of residence together with one's beloved with the intention of getting ma ...
known as ''
fuitina
The Sicilian term (literally: "sudden escape"; plural ''fuitini'', Italian plural ''fuitine'') refers to a practice that used to be common in Sicily and other areas of Southern Italy, whereby a young couple would elope in order to get married aga ...
'' and the following "rehabilitating marriage" (''matrimonio riparatore''), were brought to national attention in 1966 by
the case of Franca Viola. Her story was turned into the 1970 film, ''
La moglie più bella
''The Most Beautiful Wife'' ( it, La moglie più bella) is a 1970 Italian film directed by Damiano Damiani, based on the 1965 case of Franca Viola, who challenged the still frequent southern Italian custom of kidnapping and raping a prospective ...
'' (''The Most Beautiful Wife'') by
Damiano Damiani
Damiano Damiani (23 July 1922 – 7 March 2013) was an Italian screenwriter, film director, actor and writer. Poet and director Pier Paolo Pasolini referred to him as "a bitter moralist hungry for old purity", while film critic Paolo Mereg ...
and starring
Ornella Muti
Ornella Muti (born Francesca Romana Rivelli; 9 March 1955) is an Italian actress. She made her film debut as Francesca Cimarosa in the 1970 film ''La moglie più bella.''
Early life
Muti was born in Rome to a Neapolitan journalist father and ...
.
["Franca Viola" by Deirdre Pirro in ''The Florentine'' (issue no. 78/2008 / April 30, 2008]
/ref>
See also
* Bride kidnapping#In film, Bride kidnapping in films
References
External links
*
*
''Seduced and Abandoned: Honor and Family''
an essay by Irene Bignardi at the Criterion Collection
1964 films
1964 comedy films
1960s Italian-language films
Italian black-and-white films
Commedia all'italiana
Films directed by Pietro Germi
Films scored by Carlo Rustichelli
Films with screenplays by Luciano Vincenzoni
Films with screenplays by Age & Scarpelli
Films set in Sicily
1960s Italian films
{{1960s-Italy-comedy-film-stub