1962 Directed by Paolo Cavara, Gualtiero Jacopetti …
A documentary consisting of a series of travelogue vignettes providing glimpses into cultural practices throughout the world intended to shock or surprise, including an insect banquet and a memorable look at a practicing South Pacific cargo cult.
For a film featuring exploitative, racist, sexist stereotypes distorted into cartoons via juxtaposition, editing, and staging despite claiming to be a documentary, for a film that was a major hit when it was released despite being the basest kind of quasi-snuff film, for a film that even in dub is an open sneer at cultures around the world, for a film that revels in graphic violence and nudity, for a film that is nothing but crudity, this is incredibly fucking boring.
Kathleen's VHS Collection 2017: 28/100
As the founder of the eponymous mondo genre, the historical import of Mondo Cane is well-documented. Unpacking why it is this particular film launched a thousand grotesque ships is another matter. It's tempting to write this off as a collection of mashed up imagery organized loosely along shock and titillation, especially given that this is the product of three directors (Paolo Cavara, Franco Prosperi and Gualtiero Jacopetti). But more so than the obvious cues of animal cruelty and bouncing tits, there are some weirdly specific strains of imagery in here.
The film is strangely fixated on old people. For a slimy little travelogue with ample shots of bare breasted tribeswomen, I've never seen quite so many lingering, steady shots of…
The worst thing about finally watching this: realizing that it's no better or more interesting than any of the films that it spawned. Can't believe I'm saying this, but I'll stick with Meyer's absurd Mondo Topless, thanks!
A groundbreaking travelogue around the World, showing its diverse cultures and customs.
Some banal, some extreme, some decidedly dull....
To fully appreciate the influence of "Mondo Cane" you have to remember that although the travelogue had existed for decades none of them garnered this much global distribution and recognition (famously a song from the Riz Ortolani score got an Oscar nomination and the film itself was nominated for the Cannes Palme d'Or), TV was still pretty much in its infancy and the internet was a thing of Sci-Fi.
For audiences in 1962 "Mondo Cane" truly offered an everyman view of the World very few could ever hope to see otherwise.
Its status and popularity not only garnered a sequel, "Mondo…
Boring and shocking come together. The narrator is seething with racism at one point as he talks about how worthless the Chinese are. There is a 15 minute scene of Germans walking around drunk all night, and still drunk in the morning, and no other glimpse of how their culture is at that time. Geez, I wonder what they're trying to say. My favourite scene was the narrator praising that meaning has been brought into a group of aboriginals lives' through the power of christ. They're confused as shit and try summoning airplanes to a mock landing strip they built for who knows how long.
Despite outdated language, stereotyping, and Euro-centric biases, Mondo Cane offers glimpses at various cultural practices across the world, offering interesting comparison and critique. Certainly fascinating, this “shockumentary” is worth a watch, especially for the cinematography, composition of comparative vinettes, or if nothing else, a primary source document the world in 1962.
This is an interesting film man. The fact that this literally disappeared from cinema history after creating a whole genre and blowing up internationally is pretty wild. Pauly Shore got more long time credit than this film. But, it’s a phoney nationalistic film, so it’s not super surprising history didn’t look at it too kindly. While from first watch this film looks like interesting look and glance into different cultures, after doing some digging and analyzing you find that most if not all of this shit is indeed-fake. The turtle scene is infuriating, supposedly being the most emotional vignette in the film, it’s filled with flaws and a big ‘why the fuck would flip an already struggling turtle on its back?’ But, with enough critical thinking you can pinpoint flaws and holes in all the vignettes, making this exploitation film just a big old fake. Time to watch Cannibal Holocaust and have my hope restored >:)
Producer: Gualtiero Jacopetti. First and best of Italian shockumentaries, with dubbed American narration; focuses on bizarre peculiarities of man in various parts of the world. Features hit song “More.”
In Italian, the word "mondo" simply means "world." However, "mondo cinema" refers not to films from around the world, but rather to a very specific subgenre that originated with this incredibly popular 1962 shock picture. Mondo films professed to be documentaries showing the dark and weird sides of humanity, not much unlike Vice documentaries would later go on to do. (I've mentioned how one could make a "Mondo Vice" feature film quite easily from editing footage from their documentaries - anyone with more free time than I want to take a crack at it?) However, right from the start, mondo filmmakers were far less than interested in staying true to their alleged purpose of presenting objective reality as-is. Selective portrayal…
All the scenes you are about to see are real and were shot as they were taking place. If sometimes they seem cruel, it is only because cruelty abounds on this planet. And anyway, the duty of a reporter is not to make the truth seem sweeter, but to show things as they really are.
Movie Challenge 2019: 52 Unseen Movies Which Won or Were Nominated for an Oscar: Movie #28 out of 52
This has to be the mother, father, uncle and aunt of all mondo movies out there in the world. It's shocking, beautiful, bizarre and very disturbing in some scenes. And yes, it was even nominated for an Oscar. I'm just wondering, if the members of the academy really had to watch this one or if they just listened to the nominated song.
Oscar Statistics:
Year: 1964
Nominee: Best Music, Original Song
I get why this was a hit in the early 60s, but it reeks of exploitation and dishonesty in a way that robs the film of any intrigue, and just makes me further loathe the glamorization of the "exploitation" film.
Dated travelouge with no real focus and purpose other than to shock. There is a way to do exploitation style films right but this is not it. Pass.
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