MONDO PAZZO aka MONDO CANE 2

By Jimmy Squarejaw
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I feel that the appeal to death films, extreme films, insane cinematic violence, and the Mondo genre is not only the “front seat” intrigue they have, but also the often dark but hilarious undertones many of these movies have.  MONDO CANE for me was the top of the heap when it came to black comedy and you can read my inane ramblings on that film here, http://www.sundaysnuff.blogspot.com/2012/10/mondo-cane.html.  Not too many shockumentaries even try to match the wit put into this, I can only think of DYING: LAST SECONDS OF LIFE, so I was exuberant when I popped MONDO CANE PAZZO, aka MONDO CANE 2 into the ol’ cinematic picture decoder because MONDO PAZZO was not only a better movie for content, production, and visuals, it was fucking brilliantly written and narrated.

If the formula aint broken don’t fix it is the age old adage, and the original directors Gualtiero Jocopetti and Franco Prosperi return to the shockumentary genre they created with MONDO PAZZO in 1963, only one year after MONDO CANE.  MONDO PAZZO is filled with the same type of anthropological study on societies mores, taboos, and rituals; but this time around watching it was trying to keep up with Groucho Marx narrating.

MONDO PAZZO begins with a disclaimer stating that the filmmakers love dogs and after complaints about the treatment on dogs in the first movie, they vow to not show any animal cruelty, except for showing surgery of a dog getting it’s vocal cords  snipped out.  But that was englishmen starting that, and they have no control over the Italians because the next scene is a god awful fashion show where the models wear clothing that is representative of their dyed dogs.  If Elena wants to wear a spotted dress, little Fifi will be dyed with spots, or if Maria wants to wear a neon green ensemble that looks like fashion designer Rei Kawakubo birthed an aborted fetus conceived by Motley Crue guitarist Mick Mars, well goddammit dye your dog aborted fetus green and parade him around to show how truly expendable you are to society!

As with MONDO CANE, MONDO PAZZO does an amazing job weaving clip into the next clip by matching a theme or idea, and by the end of the movie the filmmakers have literally done this 75 to 100 times.  Think the telephone game, but this version starts with dog shows and wig makers and ends with chicks puking paint onto a canvas and Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody being accompanied by a group of men being slapped in the face as accompaniment.

I don’t want to steer anyone wrong, there is some disturbing tidbits in MONDO PAZZO as well.  A scene of a buddhist setting himself on fire sets the bar high for shock value, although I’m not too sure if it was real and Rage Against the Machine’s eponymous album was way fucking cooler looking.  But ol’ burning Buddha B is topped by an animal death onslaught beginning with hundreds of dead and suffering white flamingoes across a raped landscape in Africa that has been poisoned by all of the waste from a recently built soda factory.  Next it’s bird fighting in China, one lil’ guy has been fed graciously in a cage next to another bird who has been starved for two weeks.  And when they both get into the same cage you get Floyd Mayweather versus his girlfriend, but the bird’s outcome isn’t 90 days in jail and Justin Bieber hanging in your posse, it’s death.  After that is Beta fish fighting, some might not be too irked by this, but I had a Beta once that I enjoyed in it’s 10 square inch fishbowl full of murky water so this scene made me a little squeamish.  

MONDO PAZZO is a heady watch, and I could watch it repeatedly for the continual onslaught of taught humor, goofy 1960’s imagery, and a stellar soundtrack reminiscent of the lush orchestrations of Les Baxter.    

Blake and Jimmy’s Extreme-O-Gauge!

Violence/Gore: 2 out of 5, not crazy by todays standards but I bet this got some 60’s cocks up in knots!
Rape: 0 out of 0 
Animal Death: 3 out of 5, I’m always sensitive on this shit, but it wasn’t the worst by far.
Necrophilia: 0 out of 0, not even necrophagia either!
Torture: 0 ouf of 0
Overall Movie: 5 out of 5, not putting up scores on the Extreme-O-Gauge but MONDO PAZZO fucking rules!