Mondo Candido (1975)

Title	Mondo candido
Origin	Italy, 1975
Genre	Adventure: Comedy
Director	Gualtiero Jacopetti, Franco Prosperi
Starring	Christopher Brown, Michelle Miller, Jacques Herlin
Music	Riz Ortolani
Blurb	-

Most notorious for their shockumentary pieces such as Mondo Cane and Africa Addio, Italians Gualtiero Jacopetti and Franco Prosperi took on a literary adaptation for their final collaboration. Voltaire's classic of the enlightenment Candide seems an unlikely basis for exploitation cinema. But this scurrilous satire, once suppressed as obscene, is such a vast blank canvas for images of sex, violence, and just plain blowing things up it's a wonder no-one thought of it before.

Voltaire's aim was to poke fun at the optimistic world view of German philosopher Leibniz. To test it to the limits of absurdity, the philosophy of Dr. Pangloss is summed up by the motto of "all is for the best, in the best of all possible worlds". His pupil, the innocent young Candide, is naïve enough to follow this creed throughout the wars and disasters of the mid-eighteenth century. That philosophical spat may be forgotten, but paste in a backdrop of the conflicts and crises of today and the work must still have relevance. And it's obvious how it would appeal to a pair of cynical Mondo merchants.

Things start off quite faithful to the original. The fabulous fairy-tale castle of Château de Pierrefonds stands in for the seat of the Baron Thunder-ten-tronckh (Gianfranco D'Angelo) in Westphalia. Alongside his sweetheart the Baron's pure and chaste daughter Cunegonda (Michelle Miller), Candido (Christopher Brown) lives a charmed life under the philosophy of his tutor Dr. Pangloss (Jacques Herlin). He's free to prance about the gardens making an absolute fanny of himself without raising so much as a snigger from passers-by. An ideal world indeed. During these frolics he may happen to encounter artistic tableaux such as a recreation of Manet's Dejeuner sur l'herbe. Already we have established that anachronisms will be tolerated and are even welcome, and that a subject has a greater chance of being included if it offers opportunities for nudity.

Harvesting fruit Pangloss & Paquette (Sonia Viviani) bonking up a ladder.

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Things are about to go all pear-shaped for Candido. Pangloss wanders through the orchard meditating, with his usual back-to-front logic, on the principle of circumference and all things round. He spies peasant girl Sonia Viviani up a ladder picking apples. In particular he spies her magnificently round bare behind and cannot resist the temptation. Cunegonda, aboard a swing, looks on and is intrigued.

Wouldn't it be nice to try something like that with Candide? Contriving an accident, she launches herself off the swing (in slow motion, and set to music) and lands with her legs wrapped around the neck of the innocent young soul. He may be shocked, but seems in no hurry to wrest himself free. By the time a furious procession of grotesques arrives from the castle he has his head firmly jammed up his sweetheart's skirts and is refusing to come out.

Exiled! Now Pangloss's philosophy will be put firmly to the test as Candido is forced to make his own way in the world. Press-ganged by the Prussian army, Voltaire's horror of militarism is illustrated by the troops' suicidal toughening-up exercises in readiness for a futile battle. Against the vast opposing army they are mere cannon fodder, and lots of things get smashed up, set on fire, and blown sky-high (some by anachronistic tanks).

Castle Invasion Hells Angels play fast and loose with the kitchen-maids.

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How are things going with Cunegonda in the meantime? Left alone in her castle chambers she plays the part of a typical Seventies bimbo, dancing in carefree style to pop music surrounded by the latest electrical gadgets.

This idyll cannot last forever. The castle is invaded! Demonic knights are pictured as Hell's Angels rampaging through the kitchens on motorbikes, terrorising the maids and (very important) ripping off their clothes.

This may seem a severe test for the world view of Pangloss. How can the castle being razed to the ground be "for the best"? But the crazy doctor not only has no trouble incorporating the disaster into his philosophy, he welcomes it gleefully. Of course it's for the best, even himself catching syphilis is "for the best"!

Inquisition Meatgrinders, nude nuns, wimples and figleaves.

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After harrowing adventures Candido returns to the castle, only to find that it's fallen into the hands of the Inquisition, and they are staging an auto-da-fé

Obviously this is an irresistible opportunity for any film-makers inclined towards exploitation to indulge themselves, and this is one of the principal set-pieces. Nuns stripped down to their wimples are handed out figleaves before being flattened in screw-presses, put through meat-grinders, and tied up in sacks full of cats and dogs. Amongst other things...

But Cunegonda is here! She dances to a rock band led by her idol Attila. Alas, Candido is to discover that his sweetheart is not as pure and chaste as he believed. Mortified, he is told that not only has she been repeatedly raped, she enjoyed it too!

This is to be the parting of the ways for the lovers, and the beginning of the second phase of the story. Cunegonda heads off to America, while Candido sets off in a distant pursuit accompanied by his faithful African slave.

Outdoor Shower Candido pursues Cunegonda amongst the girls of the IDF.

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This second half is also a parting of the ways between the original and the adaptation. The wars of the eighteenth century are replaced with contemporary conflicts in Northern Ireland and Israel.

In perhaps the visual (and musical) highlight of the film female soldiers of the IDF clash with Arab freedom fighters. Caught unawares after a shower the girls give battle still only partly clothed, in one case even blasting away with a machine gun completely naked. In symbolic futility the two armies mutually slaughter each other, their bodies left littering a field of poppies to the fading strains of one of the masterworks of Riz Ortolani.

Such an unusual mix of literature and exploitation is difficult to sum up. It's a work that is obviously aimed at a wide audience rather than a narrow arthouse crowd. As such the directors need to be judged not by the faithfulness of the adaptation, or the relevance of the ideas explored, creditable enough though these are.

The primary appeal of Mondo Candido is the richness of the imagery that it contains. There is an almost ceaseless parade of startling and original tableaux to compel the attention, and composer Ortolani excels himself in accompanying the images with some magnificently florid themes to round out the sensory experience. No fan of European cinema, arthouse or trash, will want to miss it.

Ratings

Quality: 9/10   Fun: 8/10

Review copy

Publisher	Unlicensed
Format	DVD Region 0, NTSC 4:3 (slight letterboxing)
Certificate	VM 18 (Italy)
Image	Acceptable but washed-out VHS transfer.