Mondo cane (1962) on Netflix
R19621h 48mDocumentaryHorror
Around the world in a string of scenes: a cargo cult in New Guinea, a pet cemetery in Pasadena, snakes carried through an Italian village. The footage aims to startle Western audiences.
- Netflix2.8/5
- IMDb6.2/105,022 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes50%
Trailer
Plot summary
Mondo Cane strings together travelogue sequences from many countries, offering glimpses of customs meant to surprise Western viewers. In New Guinea, a Chimbu woman breastfeeds a piglet. At a celebration held every five years, villagers beat dozens of pigs with wooden poles and eat them. Pet owners mourn at a cemetery in Pasadena. In Strasbourg, geese are force-fed; near Tokyo, Wagyu cattle are massaged and given beer. A Hong Kong market sells exotic animals for food. At Cocullo, in Italy, worshipers carry wild snakes alongside a saint's statue; on Good Friday in Nocera Terinese, men beat their legs with glass. The artist Yves Klein conducts his Monotone Symphony while women covered in blue paint press themselves onto canvas. Near Port Moresby, a cargo cult has built bamboo models of an airplane, a runway and a control tower.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Mondo cane (1962)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The score by Riz Ortolani and Nino Oliviero became a hit outside the film: its main theme, "More", won a Grammy Award, earned an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song, and was covered by Frank Sinatra, Andy Williams, Roy Orbison, Bobby Darin and Vince Guaraldi.
- Mondo Cane was an international box-office success and spawned a wave of similar exploitation documentaries that copied the word "Mondo" in their titles; the films became known as a genre, the mondo film.
- Even though Mondo Cane claimed to be genuine documentation, some of its scenes were staged or creatively manipulated to make the shocking effect stronger.
