''Mondo candido'' is a

1975 It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 - Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...

black comedy Black comedy, also known as dark comedy, morbid humor, or gallows humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally considered serious or painful to discu ...

film directed by acclaimed Mondo directors

Gualtiero Jacopetti Gualtiero Jacopetti (4 September 1919 – 17 August 2011) was an Italian documentary film director. With Paolo Cavara and Franco Prosperi, he is considered the originator of mondo films, also called "shockumentaries". Early life Gualtiero Jaco ...

and

Franco Prosperi Franco Prosperi (2 September 1926 – 17 October 2004) was an Italian film director and screenwriter, active between the mid-1960s and the early 1980s. Born Francesco Prosperi in Rome, Prosperi began his career as an assistant director with ...

. The film is a liberal adaptation of

Voltaire François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778) was a French Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher. Known by his ''nom de plume'' M. de Voltaire (; also ; ), he was famous for his wit, and his criticism of Christianity—es ...

's 1759 novel '' Candide''.

Plot

Candido ( Christopher Brown) is a naïve young man raised by a

Westphalia Westphalia (; german: Westfalen ; nds, Westfalen ) is a region of northwestern Germany and one of the three historic parts of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It has an area of and 7.9 million inhabitants. The territory of the regio ...

n baron ( Gianfranco D'Angelo) in the castle of Thunder-ten-Tronckh. He is a devoted disciple of his tutor Dr. Pangloss (

Jacques Herlin Jacques Herlin (17 August 1927 – 7 June 2014) was a French character actor. Born in Paris as Jacques de Jouette, he appeared in an impressive number of films from the early sixties. He was also active on stage and on television. He died i ...

), a philosopher who instructs him with a purely

optimistic Optimism is an attitude reflecting a belief or hope that the outcome of some specific endeavor, or outcomes in general, will be positive, favorable, and desirable. A common idiom used to illustrate optimism versus pessimism is a glass filled ...

moral doctrine. Candido cannot hide his feelings for the Baron's raunchy daughter Cunegonda ( Michelle Miller), and one day the Baron discovers them in intimacy. Outraged by this gesture, he punishes the girl and expels the young man from the court. Having stumbled upon a camp of

Bulgarian Bulgarian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Bulgaria * Bulgarians, a South Slavic ethnic group * Bulgarian language, a Slavic language * Bulgarian alphabet * A citizen of Bulgaria, see Demographics of Bulgaria * Bul ...

soldiers, the orphan is deceived and forced into useless and dangerous experiments on human flight. Candido manages to escape and, during the journey, meets Pangloss. The master informs him that the castle was attacked by a gang of motorcyclists who killed the Baron and the Baroness, and raped Cunegonda. Later, the two are imprisoned by the

Holy Inquisition The Inquisition was a group of institutions within the Catholic Church whose aim was to combat heresy, conducting trials of suspected heretics. Studies of the records have found that the overwhelming majority of sentences consisted of penances, ...

. The tutor is sentenced to death for his utopian ideas, while to the boy suffers corporal punishment. Among the high-ranking people who attend the executions is Cunegonda, forced to be the lover of the head of the Tribunal. After the young lovers briefly reunite, the inquisitor arrives and, to avoid being hanged, Candido has to escape again, accompanied by his new friend Cacambo, a slave who has escaped from his master. The two embark for the

New World The term ''New World'' is often used to mean the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. ...

"where all are equal". In today's

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, Candido finds Pangloss, who also escaped the gallows and now works as a television director. Always in search of Cunegonda, the protagonist and Cacambo travel first in

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

, devastated by the clashes between Catholics and Protestants, then in a military camp for Israeli female soldiers, during the

Arab–Israeli conflict The Arab–Israeli conflict is an ongoing intercommunal phenomenon involving political tension, military conflicts, and other disputes between Arab countries and Israel, which escalated during the 20th century, but had mostly faded out by the ...

. Here, Candido learns that Cunegonda has fled with a fedayeen. After further ups and downs, the young man finally manages to reunite with his loved one.

Cast

* Christopher Brown: Candido *

: Dr. Pangloss * Michelle Miller: Cunegonda *

José Quaglio José Quaglio, real name Giuseppe Quaglio, (28 February 1926 – 8 January 2007), was an Italian actor and theater director. He has performed in some 50 films in Italy and has directed four. He acted in a dozen films in France. Filmography A ...

: Inquisitor *

Steffen Zacharias Steffen Zacharias (April 11, 1927 – June 6, 1989) was a German-born Greek American character actor known for his roles in films and television in America and Italy. Biography Born in Germany to Greek parents, Zacharias grew up in the Unite ...

: Sage * Gianfranco D'Angelo: Baron *

Salvatore Baccaro Salvatore Baccaro (6 May 1932 – 13 March 1984) was an Italian character actor. He was recognizable for his known acromegaly and appeared in more than sixty films from 1970 to 1984. He died on 13 March 1984 aged 52 after thyroid surgery. Filmo ...

: Ogre * Alessandro Haber: A lover of Cunegonda *

Giancarlo Badessi Giancarlo Badessi (1928 – 2011) was an Italian actor. Life and career Born in Lecco, at the age of almost 40 Badessi gave up his daily job as an accountant to embrace the theatre, making his debut in a stage play directed by Giancarlo Cob ...

: Spanish governor * Richard Domphe: Cacambò

Reception

comments ''Mondo Candido'' as "a visionary work without a precise narrative structure - resembling a certain surrealist production by

Alejandro Jodorowski Alejandro Jodorowsky Prullansky (; born 17 February 1929) is a Chilean-French avant-garde filmmaker. Best known for his 1970s films '' El Topo'' and '' The Holy Mountain'', Jodorowsky has been "venerated by cult cinema enthusiasts" for his wor ...

- the film is difficult to categorise in a defined genre, nor does it aspire to be".

References

External links

* *
''Mondo candido''
at

Filmaffinity FilmAffinity is a movie recommendations website created in 2002 in Madrid, Spain by the film critic Pablo Kurt Verdú Schumann and the programmer Daniel Nicolás. As of 2016, the site listed 125,000 movies and series and had 556,000 reviews wr ...

Mondo candido
at Mymovies.it {{Candide 1975 films Italian comedy films 1970s Italian-language films Films directed by Gualtiero Jacopetti 1970s black comedy films Adaptations of works by Voltaire Candide Films based on French novels Films scored by Riz Ortolani 1975 comedy films 1975 drama films 1970s Italian films