Mondo Cane (1962)

As a film, Mondo Cane seeks to shock and achieve a sort of reverse repulsion effect whereby viewers engage out of dark curiosity; even in this endeavor, it fails miserably. Rather than framing fictitious spectacle and violence within a story, Mondo Cane operates with the attitude that it is sufficient to find something strange in the world, point the camera, and shoot.

Its failings are less moral and more that very few viewers will find delight, thoughtfulness, or meaning in its sequence of odd documentations. Some sections seek to be more upsetting than others but none manage to be interesting.

Examples of what’s on offer in the disparate footage: women showing their breasts to some Navy men, geese being force fed as preparation for foie gras, and a Hong Kong market selling exotic animals for consumption.

None of this is pleasing or informative. And it doesn’t really seek to be. All that is left is the hope the viewer will be shocked with little context then ushered on. Despite its efforts, the film remains boring at all times.

Narratively non-existent, creatively bankrupt, and entirely untitillating, Mondo Cane may have managed to spawn its own subgenre, but it fails to generate viewer interest.