Mondo Mundane

I've found that walking is just about pain free for me, with regard to my still healing mattress-spring injury.  Consequently, I've been spending a fair amount of my week off engaged in long country walks.  Which is nice.  I've not neglected my other objectives for this week off - I bought some paint today and I might manage to get around to putting the first top coat on the bit of the spare room wall which was damaged by damp last Autumn.  The affected area is all reachable without resort to a ladder or stretching, which is good news for my slash wound, which is still tender if I move the wrong way.  Anyway, if I get that painting done, then the spare room will be more or less recovered from the various damp-related mishaps which have afflicted it over the past eighteen months, or so.  Which leaves the kitchen, which still needs repainting (only the ceiling is done so far), and the garden, which will have to wait a while longer before I attempt to bring it filly under control again.

But enough talk of dull domestic chores.  I've also been using my time off and injury-induced inactivity to catch up with a whole stack of Mondo movies.  I've already spoken, briefly, about the original 'shockumentary', Mondo Cane, but I've now followed it up with Savage Man, Savage Beast, Violent World and the spoof Mr Mike's Mondo Video.  All fascinating in their own ways.  I've just started looking at Shocking Asia and have Africa Addio (an English sub-titled version of the Italian original, rather than the mangled English re-release Africa Blood and Guts) and Goodbye, Uncle Tom cued up.  There are also several other intriguing-sounding Mondos from the 'classic' period of the genre (early sixties to mid seventies) which I'm trying to track down.  One in particular, Naked England, is proving very elusive, with only an English-language trailer and a few fragments so far turning up online.  If anyone out there knows where I can get a copy, even an Italian-language original, I'd be grateful.  Interestingly, whilst originating in Italy, I've also come across US and German Mondos, but none from the UK.  It seems to be a genre we've remained immune to, in terms of production, at least.  It might have something to do with the amount of animal cruelty associated with the genre - most of the cuts imposed on UK prints of Mondo movies were at the behest of the RSPCA, rather than resulting from objections to the human suffering often shown.  Anyway, once I've finished watching this lot, I'll probably write at greater length about them.