There is footage here which is spectacular, and seldom seen outside of these 108 minutes. The Red Hoods Fraternity are filmed as they keep watch on the skeletal remains of centuries-gone ancestors, whilst the descendents of the dead work alongside the corpses, children playing with loose skulls. A Good-Friday procession sees a select couple of participants beat their legs with broken glass as they walk through narrow streets, watched with awe by praying locals, bloodied foot-prints lining the path.
Mondo Cane is the predecessor of not only the likes of Faces Of Death, which completely missed the humor and beauty and seemingly picked up only on the shock value, and the reality-crazed television we are faced with every evening. Police Hunt Killers, Crimes Caught On This Here Camera, Bizarre Events For Your Amusement and other such fare are given over en masse to the schedules, with entire channels devoted to the constant repetition of "reality", as seen through the lenses of enterprising spectators.
Mondo Cane is kitsch, a curiosity, but it's hard to see fans of camp-cinema clambering to pick up a copy despite the quintessentially "retro" Oscar-Nominated theme, or the parade of jiggling beauties. Too much of the red-stuff on display for the viewing of this to be a simple, nostalgic exercise.
Yet, it remains fascinating. It presents the bizarre, the traditional, the unwatchable and the hilarious, and is so much more deserving of merit than this unintentionally disapproving review would suggest. It is captivating, filled with equal doses of beautiful tranquility and demented cruelty, and it features some of the most stunning locations on Earth photographed with a painterly flair. It is worth seeing, and is a lot less disturbing than much of what fills the airwaves at present.
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Article comments
1 - Andrés Mego
Hi
Your review is great. I used it as input for my own article about "Mondo Cane" in my blog (in spanish, sorry) Do you have more info about the making of this film?
Regards
Andrés
2 - Elizabeth Riggs
We just got the Mondo Cane movies (just Mondo Cane I and II), and they are as good as I remembered them from the early 60s when I went to see it with one of my guy friends. (Back then, we used to date a lot of guys before settling down to "going steady" and finally to engagement and marriage.) I was then, and am now, fascinated by the juxtaposition of so many seemingly antithetical cultural practices. Back then, I was most intrigued by the Cargo Cult, and have followed info about it. It's almost sad that this quirky view of Heaven and Earth has about gone the way of the Dodo bird. Your review was pretty much along the lines of my "take" on these two movies, and I'll be back for more! Thanks, Duke!
Cheerio!
Elizabeth