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| Images courtesy of MVD Entertainment Group |
In 1962, the documentary film world changed forever for
better or worse with the emergence of Gualtiero Jacopetti and Franco E. Prosperi’s
Mondo Cane. Derived from the Italian
slur translated to “dog world”, the film was an abstract series of shocking
images of animals being killed or bizarre forms of sexuality loosely connected
by a thread of documenting authentic events set to a stirring Oscar nominated
score by Riz Ortolani and Nino Oliviero.
A precursor to such fare as Faces of Death, television shows like
Cops or fringe internet website such as liveleak, they’re designed for
shock value gawking not dissimilar from slowing the car down to gaze at a road
accident or catch a glimpse of a crime scene in between those flashing cars.
The gangrenous infected bastard thing that won’t leave, the
Mondo films became their own subgenre poised around shock and awe, paving the way
for Night Flight variety television show producer Stuart S. Shapiro’s
1988 tribute to the unholy altar of Jacopetti/Prosperi with Mondo New York,
restored in 2K from the original camera negative and presented in widescreen
for the first time on home video. In a
deluxe package prepared by MVD Rewind Collection replete with a reversible
cover, limited slipcover, booklet and double-sided poster, small time director
Harvey Keith’s debut film despite two scenes of animal cruelty towards rats and
chickens is kind of a weird smorgasbord snapshot of multiracial bisexual New York
featuring an unusual array of distinctly New York based performance
artists. If you can get past the animal
parts, this is maybe one of the funniest snapshots of late 1980s New York that
isn’t from Troma and isn’t fiction.
Following a young nameless woman through the subways and
alleyways of New York City during the night, through the day and back to night
again, we meet a wide variety of Naked City stars with more than a dash of
Berlin styled cabaret shows that tread a tightrope walk between avant-garde and
geek show. Featuring performances from
Joey Arias, Joe Coleman, Karen Finley, Phoebe Legere, Ann Magnuson, Lydia
Lunch, Dean Johnson in drag with his band The Weenies and Rick Aviles, the film
takes us through S&M clubs, open standup comedy bits, naked performance
art, a man who blows off fireworks tied to his chest, real junkies and
prostitutes and an unsimulated cockfight.
All of this should be very illegal but according to Mondo New York that’s
just the way things were.
Somewhere between Mondo Cane, Jackass and Liquid
Sky with all manner of vulgar crassness and uncensored dialogue that’s too
pornographic in form to recite here, Mondo New York doesn’t look like
its predecessors. Instead going for a
hyperreal neon-lit tapestry akin to Liquid Sky shot surprisingly
handsomely by Lenny Wong replete with the numerous wild characters inhabiting
it and aided by an electronic soundtrack by Johnny Pacheco and Luis Perico
Ortiz that sounds like John Du Prez if he scored a Cannon Film. The characters who come into play give invigorating
performances though as aforementioned I could do without seeing a chicken head
being bitten off. The highlights include
Charlie Barnett’s standup followed by Rick Aviles and points to a time when
people were more comfortable with racial humor.
More of a time capsule of a bygone New York life than
anything with a few gross bits that, yes, qualify it as mondo, Mondo New
York is difficult to recommend let alone try writing about. But for what its worth it did offer some
insights into the timeline’s bevy of performance artists dominating the underground
hidden night and day lives of New Yorkers.
No I can’t recommend this to most people but having seen the
unexpurgated Jacopetti/Prosperi shockmeisters, Mondo New York outside of
the animal bits is substantially tamer than the films that inspired its
creation. Though like the mondo films
before it scenes are clearly staged and blocked with dolly tracks that follow
the nameless heroine’s shoes walking the sidewalks, there’s more truth and
reality to this mondo snapshot of New York than most other actual mondo pieces.
--Andrew Kotwicki
