MONDO CANE Movie Review

A Dog's Life
A Dog's World

It's hard to remember, but there was a time when the Italian word “mondo” was not an official part of the English language. That was the day before the release of Mondo Cane (A Dog's World), a 1963 exploitation film about bizarre human behavior around the world, directed by Gualitero Jacopetti and produced by Franco Prosperi. Mondo Cane billed itself as a documentary, though everything seen in the movie—the “cargo cult,” body painting, ritzy New Yorkers eating insects, etc.—was staged in such a bald-faced, phony-baloney way that even the makers of Sunn Classics’ pictures like Beyond and Back and In Search of Noah's Ark would have blushed with embarrassment. Mondo Cane came complete with a “love theme”—“More,” which was nominated for an Oscar—and played its initial engagements in art houses, billed as a foreign oddity. (I tried to get in at an art house in Detroit, but they said thirteen was too young to be exposed to the “mature” subject matter of Mondo Cane. Actually, being over thirteen should have disqualified you.) The picture developed a buzz and moved on to more mainstream theatres, which is when distributors and exhibitors became aware of the huge crossover potential of the geek audience. They wasted no time. Mondo Cane was followed by Mondo Pazzo, Mondo Balardo and Mondo Trasho (OK, OK, that's John Waters), and later its spiritual heirs—the pseudo-snuff Faces of Death series—would show up just in time for the video era, so that viewers would be able to watch the “good” parts over and over, day in and day out. What a wacky mondo we live in.

NEXT STOP … The Blood of the Beasts, Koyaanisqatsi, Powaqqatsi

1963 (R) 105m/C IT D: Gualtiero Jacopetti; W: Gualtiero Jacopetti; C: Antonio Climati, Benito Frattari; M: Riz Ortolani, Nino Oliviero. Nominations: Academy Awards ‘63: Best Song (“More”). VHS SNC, VDC, VDM