DVD Review: MONDO CANDIDO (Camera Obscura)

Full disclosure: I am a huge fan of the filmmaking team of Gualtiero Jacopetti and Franco Prosperi. This pair, who invented the Mondo documentary film style in 1962 with Mondo Cane, did more to expand the concept of documentary filmmaking than any of their contemporaries, and even today their work continues to ruffle feathers. Over the next fifteen years, the pair made a series of films that pushed not only the boundaries of documentary films, but also the boundaries of European artsploitation in that same era.

Following the incredible controversy and financial debacle of their statement on African colonialism, Africa Addio, they had some decisions to make. They moved away from documentaries slowly, but not without a fight. Their next film, Addio Zio Tom (Goodbye, Uncle Tom) is one of the most unsettling cinematic experiences I've ever had. A faux documentary that places modern anthropologists in the antebellum south is their attack on the brutality of slavery, but even that wasn't without controversy. They touted their fidelity to historical texts and first person accounts of these atrocities, but the methods they exploited to make the film significantly weakened their argument, while at the same time leaving the world with one of the most harrowing films ever made, even 40 years later.

When Goodbye, Uncle Tom was done with, Jacopetti and Prosperi went their own ways for a few years before Gualtiero Jacopetti came up with the idea of adapting Voltaire's magnum opus, Candide. The result is Mondo Candido, a title forced on them to cash in on their most recognizable works, a sprawling, ambitious, psychedelic, and surrealistic look at a piece of classical literature that transports the 18th century satire into the modern age with relative ease. The film leaps around wildly in time and space, and though it spreads it's story across centuries, it never loses focus of it's goals, even when the story gets unnecessarily complicated. It's certainly not their best work, but it is one that needs to be seen by fans of the pair, as it bears many of their signatures throughout its run time.

Right from the very start, the incredible cinematography lets you know that Mondo Candido is a Jacopetti/Prosperi film, even though they had to work with a new DP on the film. In fact, almost the entire production team was new to the pair, leading to tension on the set that eventually fractured their working relationship beyond repair. The concept and script were Jacopetti's babies, the film was something that he deeply believed in, but he wasn't good with actors, so Prosperi came on board because he believed deeply in Jacopetti. The result is a fractured piece of narrative cinema that utilizes many of the techniques the pair had perfected in their documentaries.

Mondo Candido takes a little while to get going, but once you hit the half-hour mark, it really takes off. There is probably a bit too much exposition in the opening, but once we are allowed to simply ride the wave of the plot through to the end, it's smooth sailing and it feels much less than its 100 minutes. We are led through time and space by Candide and his partner Cacambo on a search for Candide's forbidden love, Cunegonda. All of this is relatively faithful to the book, though there are obvious departures for dramatic expedience. We go from an Edenic medieval kingdom to modern New York City, to Palestine, and on and on. Jacopetti's ambition was only reined in by his budget, and they even made that work for them.

That's not to say that the film doesn't have it's issues. One of the film's greatest strengths is also one of its greatest weaknesses. Legendary Italian film scorer Riz Ortolani was back on the job with this film after having scored most of Jacopetti/Prosperi's previous films. The great thing about Ortolani is that his scores are instant earwigs, once you hear it, you can't stop hearing it. The bad thing is that he drills them into you brain so intensely that you often wait to rip your brain out just to make is stop. That is the biggest problem, in my opinion, with Mondo Candido. Ortolani's main theme is repeated so often that it becomes nauseating. However, it is a small price to pay for the rest of this wild ride.

Mondo Candido was Jacopetti/Prosperi's final collaboration. After this, they each only made one more film, and of the two, only Prosperi's Wild Beasts was even really remembered. There comes a point in every innovator's career where they realize that the thing they invented is no longer their own, and if it is popular at all, it has often devolved to the point of losing its worth, such was the case with the Mondo film. It's a real shame that they couldn't continue doing these films, because what we got as replacements were the shockumentaries (Traces of Death, Faces of Death, Shocking Asia, etc), which are nowhere near as effective as films as the Mondo films were. Blue Underground has released all of their other films, but this one didn't make the cut for whatever reason, and I'm glad to now have such an excellent edition available and I highly recommend it to Mondo fans everywhere.

The Disc:

This is my virgin journey with German niche label Camera Obscura, and I am fucking impressed. The film comes in a beautifully designed digipack with slipcase, and includes two discs and a small booklet. The first disc contains the film, which looks gorgeous in anamorphic 2.35:1, and sounds great in its original Italian language, as well as an additional German language dub. Both tracks are available with English or German subtitles. The condition of the image on this disc is remarkable, considering how this particular piece of history was largely forgotten. The colors are bright, and the image is clean, and I noticed surprisingly few flaws, apart from some jittering in the frame now and again. I'd give this one a definite recommendation in those terms.
 
Camera Obscura's presentation continued to wow me with the bonus materials. This set includes over three hours of bonus material, not including a feature commentary. That's pretty incredible. The commentary is in German with optional English subtitles, something you don't see very often, and it is wide ranging and very entertaining. The commentators know their stuff and jump all over the place, but in a pleasing and jovial way. On disc two we are treated to a host of bonus material, started off with a massive two hour interview with the filmmakers which goes through their entire filmography, their backgrounds, their struggles with censorship and the courts, all you could want to know about Jacopetti/Prosperi is here. There are three additional featurettes adding up to a little over an hour which talk about their move away from documentaries, as well as an interview with the lead make up artist, and a scholarly discussion of their adaptation of Candide from page to screen, pointing out many similarities and liberties. Finally, we get a trailer, a photo gallery, and a booklet with a brief essay about the significance of these two filmmakers in both English and German.  A more comprehensive package you will not find.

These are great times to be a fan of exploitation films. There are a number of home video labels putting in some serious legwork to bring great films to us in great editions, and Camera Obscura certainly finds themselves near the top of that heap. I can't recommend this disc enough, awesome job!