Jan 28, 2013

Mondo Flick Review: Mondo Cane - 1962



Mondo Cane
Director(s): Paolo Cavara, Gualitiero Jacopetti, Franco Prosperi
1962
Mondo

Once upon a time I thought these movies were of great entertainment values. Mondo flicks that is. I’m not sure if I even was aware what a mondo flick really was and I think I confused it with shockumentaries such as Faces of Death or Executions. Here we have a flick that are not even remotely connected to them. This is the real thing and one of the most famous ones. Possibly even the first of it’s kind but who knows? It might be interesting to know about the origin but it has nothing to do with the entertainment values.

I get the feeling of comedy here. Mostly because of the choice of music score. I don’t know if the intent is to make us laugh at what’s going on in a very cynical matter but that’s how it seems to me. But is it funny? Well… No! I can’t really relate to why it’s funny to ridicule native tribal traditions or to compare them with equally ridicule western traditions.

There are some observations of animals as well but most of the time the film lives up to it’s title – Translated into A Dogs World. I do find it entertaining that the whole thing start with barking dogs though. It creates the clever metaphor that the title suggests. But the cynicism isn’t very entertaining. I would much have preferred if the narrations were true and really described what’s going on before the camera. I cannot be absolute sure that it isn’t of course but it seem fairly obvious that the truth has been bend a bit

I won’t grade this as I feel it would be unjust to the pioneering aspects. It has some qualities when it comes to that, there’s no doubt about that. But I won’t be watching this again for a long long time!

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