Pietro Germi's farcical satire of one family's struggle to cover the tracks of unwed motherhood comes to North American DVD with this superb release from the Criterion Collection.
Seduced and Abandoned
(aka
Sedotta e Abbandonata
) has been given a widescreen transfer, letterboxed at the original aspect ratio of 1.85:1 on conventional televisions and enhanced for 16x9 playback on widescreen monitors; the source elements look clean and well cared for, and the transfer captures the details with commendable clarity. The audio has been mastered in Dolby Digital Mono, and the quality is as good as one can expect from the film's vintage. The dialogue is in the original Italian, with optional subtitles in English. Bonus materials include a
Commedia all'Italiana: Germi Style
, a documentary on Italian comedy and in particular Pietro Germi's work which features exclusive interviews with a number of his collaborators; new interviews with cast members Lando Buzzanca and Stefania Sandrelli; clips from Sandrelli's screen test for the movie; the original Italian theatrical trailer; and an essay by critic and film historian Irene Bignardi. While some cinephiles may not regard
as one of Criterion's "prestige" titles, they've extended the same care and attention to it that they give all their releases, and anyone with a taste for European comedy will be pleased with the results.