Mondo film
Mondo films are a subgenre of exploitation films and documentary films. Many mondo films are made in a way to resemble a pseudo-documentary and usually depicting sensational topics, scenes, or situations. Common traits of mondo films include portrayals of foreign cultures, an emphasis on taboo subjects such as death and sex, and staged sequences presented as genuine documentary footage. Over time, the films have placed increasing emphasis on footage of the dead and dying. The genre is also noted for the graphic footage of death and deceased people often shown in many such films, leading to the popular nickname of "death film".
The term "mondo" is derived from the Italian word for "world". The term shockumentary is also used to describe the genre.
Mondo films began to soar in popularity in the 1960s with the release of Mondo Cane, Women of the World and Africa Addio. The genre arguably reached its peak with Faces of Death in 1978, a film that inspired a myriad of imitators, such as the Traces of Death series, Banned from Television, Death Scenes and The Faces of Gore series.
History
Although earlier films such as Alessandro Blasetti's Europa di notte and Luigi Vanzi's Il mondo di notte may be considered examples of the genre, the origins of the mondo documentary are generally traced to the 1962 Italian film Mondo Cane by Paolo Cavara, Gualtiero Jacopetti and Franco Prosperi which was a commercial success.Documentary films imitating Mondo Cane in the 1960s often included the term "mondo" in their titles, even if they were in English; examples include Mondo Bizarro, Mondo Daytona, Mondo Mod, Mondo Infame and Mondo Hollywood. Films outside the genre followed suit: Mondo Trasho, Mondo Weirdo: A Trip to Paranoia Paradise, Mondo Keyhole and Mondo Brutale title themselves mondo, although none are mondo documentaries. Later in the decade, this naming convention began to fall out of favour and fewer mondo films identified themselves as such in their titles.
Filmmakers wanted to top each other in shock value to attract audiences. Cruelty to animals, accidents, tribal-initiation rites and surgeries are features of a typical mondo. Much of the action is staged, although the filmmakers may claim their goal is to document "reality". Subjects of mondo films include sex ; celebrities ; youth culture and the gay subculture.
Russ Meyer's film Mondo Topless was one of the few "documentaries" restricted to the old midnight movie circuit in the pre-VCR era; it explored strip clubs in 1960s San Francisco at a time when strip clubs were a novelty in the United States, restricted to centers of port-city decadence. Other examples of this genre include Mondo New York by Harvey Keith, Mondo di Notte by Gianni Proia and Mondo Balordo by Roberto Bianchi Montero.
The 1980s saw a resurgence of mondo movies focusing almost exclusively on death, instead of world cultures. The Faces of Death series is a notable example of this type of mondo movie. The producers used fake footage, but some of the footage was legitimate.
The rare 1985 film Mondo Senza Veli was purported by viewers to feature at its end the brutal execution of a young Arab rapist by public rectal impalement. This episode was, however, believed to have been a staged execution by some viewers.
Mondo films in the 21st century feature gore, exemplified by the Faces of Gore and Traces of Death series. There is less fake footage, and many use news footage of accidents from East Asia.
A number of films have parodied the genre. Examples include Ricardo Fratelli's Mondo Ford; Mr. Mike's Mondo Video by Saturday Night Lives Michael O'Donoghue and Is There Sex After Death? by Jeanne and Alan Abel. Mondo Beyondo spoofed the films' approach to titling, but was a parody of satellite television. The Italian cannibal film is arguably an offshoot of the mondo film.
Films
The original mondo film series was the Mondo Cane series by Gualtiero Jacopetti, Paolo Cavara, and Franco Prosperi. When this type of film proved successful, many imitators followed.| Title | Year | Country | Director and screenplay | Music | Uncut run time | Notes |
| Mondo Cane | 1962 | Italy | Gualtiero Jacopetti Paolo Cavara Franco E. Prosperi | Riz Ortolani | 108 minutes | R-rated run time 85 minutes |
| La donna nel mondo | 1963 | Italy | Gualtiero Jacopetti Paolo Cavara Franco E. Prosperi | Riz Ortolani Nino Oliviero | 107 minutes | a.k.a. Women of the World |
| Mondo Cane 2 | 1963 | Italy | Gualtiero Jacopetti Franco Prosperi | Nino Oliviero | 95 minutes | R-rated run time 76 minutes; a.k.a.Mondo Pazzo |
| Africa Addio | 1966 | Italy | Gualtiero Jacopetti Franco Prosperi | Riz Ortolani | 139 minutes | Unrated English version 128 minutes; R-rated version 80 minutes |
| Addio Zio Tom | 1971 | Italy | Gualtiero Jacopetti Franco Prosperi | Riz Ortolani | 136 minutes | Unrated English version 123 minutes; a.k.a.Goodbye Uncle Tom |
The pair's Mondo candido is not a "Mondo" film; the title was imposed on them by the studio, who wished to cash in on their earlier successes. The film is a retelling of Voltaire's novel, Candide.
In the late 1980s Stelvio Massi made two spinoffs of the original Mondo Cane series, known as Mondo Cane 3 and Mondo Cane 4 on video.
| Title | Year | Country | Director and cinematography | Screenplay | Uncut run time | Notes |
| Mondo Cane Oggi | 1986 | Italy | Stelvio Massi | Stelvio Massi | 78 minutes | aka Mondo Cane 3 |
| Mondo Cane 2000, l'Incredibile | 1988 | Italy | Stelvio Massi | G. Crisanti | 73 minutes | aka Mondo Cane 4 |
In 1969, brothers Angelo and Alfredo Castiglioni began to make a series of their own mondo films until the early 1980s. They made five films in all, tying Jacopetti and Prosperi as the most prolific mondo film producers. Each film examines brutal and bizarre behavior on the African continent. Their films are considered some of the most graphic Mondo films ever made.
| Title | Year | Country | Directors | Music | Notes |
| Africa Segreta | 1969 | Italy | Angelo Castiglioni Alfredo Castiglioni | Angelo Francesco Lavagnino | aka Secret Africa; uncut run time 103 min |
| Africa Ama | 1971 | Italy | Angelo Castiglioni Alfredo Castiglioni | Angelo Francesco Lavagnino | aka Africa Uncensored |
| Magia Nuda | 1975 | Italy | Angelo Castiglioni Alfredo Castiglioni | Ciro Dammicco | aka Mondo Magic |
| Addio Ultimo Uomo | 1978 | Italy | Angelo Castiglioni Alfredo Castiglioni | Franco Godi | aka The Last Savage |
| Africa Dolce e Selvaggia | 1982 | Italy | Angelo Castiglioni Alfredo Castiglioni | Franco Godi | aka Shocking Africa |
Antonio Climati, cinematographer to Prosperi and Jacopetti in many mondo films, joined Mario Morra in 1974 to produce their own string of mondo films, known as the Savage Trilogy. Prosperi also produced the films. Climati and Morra were known for staging scenes.
| Title | Year | Country | Director and Screenplay | Music | Notes |
| Ultime grida dalla savana | 1975 | Italy | Antonio Climati Mario Morra | Carlo Savina | aka Savage Man Savage Beast; uncut run time 94 min |
| Savana violenta | 1976 | Italy | Antonio Climati Mario Morra | Guido De Angelis Maurizio De Angelis | aka This Violent World |
| Dolce e selvaggio | 1983 | Italy | Antonio Climati Mario Morra | Daniele Patucchi | aka Sweet and Savage |
The 1978 Faces of Death popularized a Mondo style known as "death films", which depicted humans or animals dying in graphic ways.
| Title | Year | Director | Screenplay | Notes |
| The Faces of Death Series | 1978–1996 | John Alan Schwartz | John Alan Schwartz | Six parts |
| The Worst of Faces of Death | 1987 | John Alan Schwartz | John Alan Schwartz | Compilation of first three Faces of Death films |
| Faces of Death: Fact or Fiction? | 1999 | John Alan Schwartz | John Alan Schwartz James B. Schwartz | Documentary about Faces of Death |
Uwe Schier bought the rights to the Mondo Cane and Faces of Death films and released his own entries in both series, consisting largely of footage lifted from other mondo films. Faces of Death 5 draws heavily on Death Scenes; Faces of Death 6 consists almost entirely of Days of Fury and Mondo Cane IV lifts from other films. In 1993, Hurricane Pictures edited a mix of scenes featured in Addio ultimo uomo and Shocking Africa, labeling it the "fifth chapter" of the saga.
| Title | Year | Country | Notes |
| Mondo Cane IV | 1992 | Germany | - |
| Mondo Cane teil V | 1993 | Germany | aka Mondo Cane 5; producers Uwe Schier and Gian Carlo Rossi |
| Faces of Death 5 | 1995 | Germany | - |
| Faces of Death 6 | 1996 | Germany | - |
Several imitators followed the Faces of Death series; many used footage from other mondo films.