When Mondo Cane (1962), the mordant Italian documentary about some of the more bizarre aspects of human behaviour, came to Britain, I went to see it. Now that I have watched it again in 2009 my memory of it is distinctly spotty. Which is strange, since the movie had profound effects, both shocking me and reducing me to tears.
There are many scenes which I “seem to remember”, but this is hardly good enough. I could be deceiving myself. What I definitely remember are (a) the force-feeding of Strasbourg geese to make pate de foie gras; (b) the turtle on Bikini atoll, its sense of direction buggered up by radiation, heading inland instead of towards the sea; and (c) the New Guinea cargo cult which ends the movie. It was (b) and (c) which brought tears to my eyes in the cinema.
Watching the film in 2009, I am more critical. I realise how much of it is contrived – whole sequences have obviously been choreographed especially for this production. There is a soft porn aspect, which made the film more commercial than it otherwise would have been, in 1962. But I find it still retains the power to shock and to upset. Probably the version I saw in the cinema had the commentary dubbed into English. Hearing it in Italian with English subtitles is definitely an improvement – the old world cynicism comes through.
