Best movie of this year hands down!

The Worst Film Ever

Too much about the plot just didn't add up, the writing was bad, some of the scenes were cringey and awkward,

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Agnese. No wonder the wedding ring would not go on her finger. Her fingers were swollen from enlarged tissues due to her pregnancy. Nowadays, Peppino could get her a stretch-band ring, albeit from the discount store, lol. Vincenzo. Reminds one of S. Berlusconi -- rotund, blow-hard, bragging, obnoxious, thinks he is handsome and charming. Baron. Goofy, bad hair and teeth, stupid, broke, bungles his own hanging several times. Matilde. Cutting off hair to marry Mother Church. Any normal mother would like their daughters to have nice hairstyles, but of course with Mother Church the hair 'i capelli' had to be hidden behind those heavy veils.Women in black. Mourning forever? Mourning that they had no rights nor respect? Vincenzo in white 'bianco', perfect for hot summer days, but mamas in 'nero' would surely swelter in the sun. Vincenzo swaggering and leader of the pack, while traditional women have to be victims, have no birth control, and spend their lives in those days washing clothes by hand outside and hanging them up on the line to dry. Women home-caretakers; men spewing out sex and violence and mafia-esque orders to kill enemies and those who mess with stupid oldtime dumb honor codes.Divorce I think became legal later in Italy than in the time frame of this film. Of course, Mother Church was not happy. Birth control may be readily available now there, too, so today's Agneses would not have to be bothered by 'getting knocked up' especially by someone else's main squeeze. Mother Church always wanted more parishioners, for moolah to be put into those coffers. Birth control cuts the number of churchgoers way down.Did the nuns sell Matilde's hair for more cash to put in those coffers?

A beautiful sixteen year old girl is seduced by her older sister's fiancée, a conniving would-be bureaucrat. How far will the tradition-bound paterfamilias go to restore the family's lost honor? Well, if you're writer/director Pietro Germi, the answer is pretty darn far—including perjury, kidnapping, murder, and bribing an eccentric baron with a new set of false teeth. Rarely has male hypocrisy and sexual double standards been so thoroughly lampooned. The film walks a fine line between comedy and tragedy, as the more and more traumatized sixteen year old girl is passed back and forth like damaged goods. Shot in beautiful black and white, on location. If you liked MAFIOSO, last year's great Italian rediscovery, you'll like this.

When Agnese (Stefania Sandrelli), a fifteen-year old girl, is seduced and impregnated by her older sister's fiancé, the stage is set for a series of events that involve an attempted murder, an abortive suicide attempt, a protracted court battle, and a fake kidnapping. A wicked satire from Pietro Germi, Seduced and Abandoned lampoons the macho morality, legal system, and hypocrisy of Sicily in the early 1960s. Though it seems a bit overlong, it is a very funny film that shows how outmoded codes of honor can stifle individuality, and the consequences that result when a family's reputation becomes more important than their happiness.Saro Urzi won the award for Best Actor at the 1964 Cannes Film Festival and he turns in a dominating performance as Vincenzo Ascalone, the ebullient patriarch who is determined to preserve the family honor at any cost. After discovering that his young daughter Agnese has been seduced by Peppino Califano (Aldo Puglisi), daughter Mathilde's (Paola Biggio) fiancé, he goes into a rage, first against Agnese than against the cowardly Peppino, assaulting him in front of his parents. He demands that Peppino break off the engagement with Mathilde and marry Agnese, but Peppino hypocritically proclaims that he will not married a defiled woman though in fact he was the defiler.When Peppino hightails it out of town and hides in a monastery, Vincenzo persuades his son Antonio to hunt him down and kill him but the murder plot turns into another farce after Agnese informs the police (who are about as competent as the lawmen on The Dukes of Hazzard TV series). The bumpy affair finally ends up in court where the only thing that can prevent Peppino from jail is marriage but the proud papa refuses his daughter's hand. This forces Peppino to stage a false kidnapping and it goes on from there, full of twists and turns that left me a bit worn out but full of smiles.

Granted, it's not as polished or swanky as "Divorce". No dashing Marcello, no Sophia's curves. Perhaps it dabs in paint too close to that of his more famous predecessor. Yet, what delightful film! The comedy of manners and mores can rarely get any better. And then the cutting, darker, a bit menacing undertones that reveal that fascinating Sicilia of times now lost forever: wow! I love both of Germi's gems but if I could take only one with me it would be "Sedotta e abbandonata". I also marvel at how well Germi, himself un Genovese, understood the very heart and soul of that lovely island off the boot of Italy. Almost perfect: who cares for perfection anyway?