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i think that's a little unfair. the mondo films were nothing more than disgusting exploitation, were presented as such, and certainly didn't try to be anything more.
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'Mondos' seem to be a very maligned genre around here.
I think half the point (and the charm) of a lot of Mondos (and I don't mean TRACES OF DEATH) is the fact that tryed to convince you that they WERE more than cheap exploitation. They touted themselves as 'education' - Faces of Death was a journey into the mystery of mortality. Yeah of course it was nothing more than a string of staged events/stock footage but the narration tryed to tell it to us as if it was much much more. Same with Africa Addio - of course its all the exploitative footage that Jacopetti and Prosperi could get but its delivered as a sermon of the duality of Africa and how savage and beautiful it can be at the same time.
This for me is why I love the Mondo genre - its exploitation at its finest. Its selling point is also what its trying to condemn....Its not about which has the gorest footage but how its presented. Thats why I find Traces of Death boring but I still like the pseudo intellectual crap of Faces of death enertaining - the face they;re trying to pass off the executions as real adds to the charm.
I cannot see how some some one describe "Der Todesking" as a Mondo film.