All the Silent Spaces by Christine Ristaino

Author:Christine Ristaino
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: She Writes Press
Published: 2019-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

Retrogression 28:

September 15, 2007, 7:04 p.m.

I will always think of my children’s faces when I remember this crime—open mouths, hands cradling their cheeks, eyebrows furrowed like old people with permanent grooves, eyes exaggeratedly open. It is seeing their reaction that makes me understand what I failed to grasp on my own. He has beaten me up in front of them.

Chapter 28:

Seduced and Abandoned

It’s my turn to show a movie for the Italian program and I’ve chosen Sedotta e Abbandonata (Seduced and Abandoned). When I was in my late twenties, I loved this film. I must have seen it at least six times. It’s a 1964 comedy directed by Pietro Germi, and it’s all about Sicilian honor.

Because of its location in the Mediterranean, Sicily was dominated by every foreign power imaginable over the course of its long history—Greeks, Spaniards, Turks, Ostrogoths, Arabs, Normans, Bourbons, you name it. Once Italy was unified in 1871, it wasn’t long before the Mafia took over in Sicily. But throughout this long occupation of powers, the Sicilians maintained control over their honor. It’s still something they ferociously guard.

The Sicilian obsession with honor drives this film as Vincenzo Ascalone works to return honor to his family after his daughter, Agnese, becomes impregnated by her sister’s fiancé. The family stages kidnappings, gunfights, serenades, and shouting matches, all to right this wrong and bring respect back to the family name.

When I arrive at the showing room, students spill over the seats and into the aisles. I stand in the front of the room, pop open the case, and slide the DVD into the player. As I introduce the film, I talk about Sicilian occupation and honor, and end by telling the students that this is one of my favorite Italian films.

I sit in the front, ready to be entertained. I watch the seduction scene, where Agnese and her sister’s fiancé do it in the washroom while the rest of the family takes an afternoon nap. But Peppino Califano begins to treat Agnese poorly immediately afterward and he continues to do so throughout the film. I find myself cringing each time Agnese’s father, Vincenzo, slaps his daughter and calls her a whore for her part in this misadventure, and I struggle to calm my anger when she is locked inside a room, away from all men except her brother, and has to bang on a pipe each time she needs to use the bathroom.

The part of the film that draws the most laughter involves a scene where Agnese’s father and Peppino’s parents stage a very public kidnapping of Agnese, part of their attempt to force their children to marry. But they kidnap Agnese’s sister by accident. When they realize she’s the wrong sister, they drop her on the side of the road. She sits sobbing while Agnese is taken away in a car. I used to love this scene, but now I find it hard to watch. What kind of a family would do this? I want to stand and

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