MONDO CANE - MONDO CANE II - AFRICA ADDIO, The granddadies of SHOCKumantery
DFW releases THE SHOCK BOX
The Shock Box as it is called, contains 3 of the most campy, shocking, funniest, depraved… shockumentaries ever put on pellicule.
This box contains the granddaddies of shock documentaries.
Monde Cane, Mondo Pazzo and last but not least the Africa Adio
These Italian produced movies are dated; many of the rituals seen and scenes shown have died out. Yet, still it stays entertaining, the headmaster commentary, the sleazy soundtrack, the bad dubbing it’s just camp at it highest level.
Gualtiero Jacopetti and Franco Prosperi give their ironical look of the world. They put scenes of a whimsical, kitschy Hollywood pet cemetery against Asian restaurants where dogs are gobbled up with great taste.
Jacopetti who narrates this movie was a journalist and newsreel maker, with an eye for the unusual.
You constantly ask your self: is this for real or is it set in scene. I think the both are true.
Everything, how farfetched as it might seem, has probably taken place. But to help put it on the screens it’s been ‘directed’ a bit here and there. Nonetheless, this cinematic help makes it campy and fun to watch.
Mondo Cane shows us Sharks force-fed with sea stars to punish them for eating legs of the villagers that hunt them. Gives a look at drunken Germans and Cruise ship elderly visiting Hawaii. One thing that did it for me was the nude body painting séance by Yves Klein. I’d always been an admirer of his work and to see him in action was both hilarious and exciting.
It’s not that shocking by today standards, but it’s “mostly” authentic. It gives you that awkward “look in the mirror” feeling. It’s about us humans and the odd ‘mostly authentic’ things we seem to do.
Follow up movie Mondo Pazzo the sequel, has a similar outlandish feel. Again Gualtiero Jacopetti narrates this follow up movie. The scenes compiled are more of the same: Cops in Drag, Buddhist monk burning himself in protest, and other strange customs from around the world. This movie will give you a whole new meaning to Head Banging. If you thought the ‘Idol’-craze of the last years is something new, take a look at the auditions on this tape…
But to top this box of, you get the biggest shocker of them all Africa Adio. If you are an animal lover don’t even think of watching this film. If executions and mass murder is something your stomach can’t handle, don’t even try to put this one in your DVD-player.
It starts of seemingly boring with marching, yelling en decorating soldiers. It gives us the idea that Africa was real Rock and Roll, not only for the locals but even more so for the colonials. Bare breasted young black girls chasing men and forcing them to make love with them (no it’s not rape, I would probably give an arm and leg to get chased in this manner). You see the colonials organizing a fox-hunt (the fox being a fast running black boy with an animal like packet dragging behind him).
But the movie takes a grim turn if the start showing the killing for food by the locals. You can bring some understanding to the gruesome killing techniques they need food. But when you see the white men hunting for fun your stomach turns.
An endless shot of killed beasts pass before your eyes. Tons and tons of elephant tusks confiscated from poachers by the police. This is exploitation at it’s biggest. Following these nonsensical killings, you get a look at the fight for freedom and independence. I felt numb after the senseless animal killing I had seen. If you are in doubt of becoming a vegetarian, this is the movie to watch, meat will be no option for you anymore.
The killing of humans needed time to kick in. Villages plundered, with the inhabitants savagely killed, are shown by images shot from a helicopter. Hundreds, if not thousands of swelling human bodies floating in rivers as fishes struck by sickness. When the camera tags along with native tribes, or Belgian soldiers you are confronted with extreme violence. Real executions seemingly performed just for fun. At one moment you see that even the cameraman and reporters of these images are lucky to escape the lynching mobs.
Africa Adio is more shockumentary then documentary in comparison to the first two. If I was somewhat amused by the campy, cult feeling of the first two movies. The third one kicked me in the balls. This box is a must have. Yes, it’s dated, yes, it seems some scenes have been set up for the reporters Jacopetti and Prosperri. But I’m positive the box got itself a name it lives up to SHOCKumentary. You know what grabbed me the most, is the fact that the authors are not intentionally out to shock you, but they do… they really do. It’s these three daddies of shock that started of Faces of death, Shocking Asia and all the other reality stuff you see today.
BUY IT, every Razor Reel – fan should have this Box in his possession.
Africa Adio will be shown on Afff on Thursday 09/06