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+--- Thread: Africa Addio: Directors' Cut (1966) (/showthread.php?tid=1690)
Africa Addio: Directors' Cut (1966) - cranefly - 08-15-2009
Africa Addio: Directors' Cut by Gualtiero Jacopetti and Franco Prosperi (1966)
This was the most depressing movie I've ever seen.
Africa gets raped in every imaginable way. This mondo film from filmmakers Gualtiero Jacopetti and Franco Prosperi is considered their masterpiece. It shows Africa during its transition from colonial control. The British are shown as pompous, clueless, irresponsible cads. Other involved countries are shown in a similar light. After destroying Africa's culture, these colonial powers abandon the continent. The power vacuum leaves the continent without a soul or rudder, leading in widespread destruction of habitat and slaughter of animals and peoples.
Most (but not all) of the movie can be watched by the squeamish, as it focuses on showing the British being British and the Africans being de-Africaned and all kinds of cultural screwage (let's pretend that's a word). But there are segments of animal or human slaughter that are absolutely ghastly and stunning. The camerawork is so consistently brilliant throughout that at times I wondered if some of it was staged. But the gut-wrenching slaughters had to be authentic. In my opinion a brilliant film that should be required watching by school children. I had to watch it in three sittings, needing long breaks between to recover. My opinion of humanity wasn't high to start with, but it plummeted after watching this.
I really really need to rent a song-and-dance movie. Something to break this dark mood...