Dated, ridiculous and absurd. "Mondo Cane" to modern men's eyes, looks like this. And its subject wouldn’t have place even in the worst sensationalist show of the worst regional TV. But if we try to imagine the 1962 society and the dissemination of information of the time we realize how "Mondo Cane" was surprising and innovative, and why it has so much influence on the world of cinema.

Dated, ridiculous and absurd. "Mondo Cane" to modern men's eyes, looks like this. And its subject wouldn’t have place even in the worst sensationalist show of the worst regional TV. But if we try to imagine the 1962 society and the dissemination of information of the time we realize how "Mondo Cane" was surprising and innovative, and why it has so much influence on the world of cinema.
The shocking images, voyeurism, the morbidity and the birth of the legend of "Snuff Movie" that is the "Mondo Movie" genre that rages after 1962 on the big screens around the world, take many or everything to this movie. The work of Paolo Cavara, Gualtiero Jacopetti and Franco Prosperi was however not the first of its genre, but it was the encoder episode which followed a few years "Europe di Notte" by Alessandro Blasetti (and written by Jacopetti).
"Mondo Cane" is a smart work that legitimize the manipulation of information, the viewer's manipulation, sure of witnessing something real. The more astute modern man knows that the "Mondo Movie" often created scenes and news and Jacopetti experienced journalist knew how to move and with the help of Prosperi and Cavara creates this documentary. An "all around the world “proof that shows the uses traditions of the peoples pleasing the viewer more morbid and macabre. From the traditions of the Western world we pass to the aborigines, the mistreatment of animals in Asia, to European pate de fois grais, citing icons like Rudolfo Valentino and Rossano Brazzi. All is accompanied by a didactic and "sociological" voiceover, much to the newsreel, which tells every event passing from irony to the gloom. Sometimes you get the impression that it wants to emphasize the superiority of the western world, but it is also true that sometimes Western traditions are spoofed.
Slow and annoying it is interesting for its sociological role and for breaking the rules of cinema. Shown at Cannes, "Mondo Cane" achieved great commercial success, reaching even to the "Oscar" for the song "More", written by the great Riz Ortolani.
A boon for the sick viewer always in search of sensationalism, a boon for many directors and producers, which often offer a tasty dish to the audience..