H2S (1969)

directed by Roberto Faenza
Italy
85 minutes
3.5 stars out of 5
----

This movie opens with a soft, calming voice narrating the horrible things that eventually happen to overcrowded rat colonies. I'm not really sure how their specific plight played into everything else, though- the problem of H2S isn't necessarily that people are overcrowded, it's that they're being told what to do and forced into a routine. They're crowded at first, but a small student revolution early on takes care of that problem very nicely.

H2S is apparently not that well known outside of Italy, and inside of Italy it was banned after its premiere (which is unsurprising: this seems like the poster child for "movies that would get banned in Italy in the late 60s"). It has some undeniable similarities to A Clockwork Orange, not only because its protagonist bears more than a passing resemblance to a young Malcolm McDowell, but because of its themes of conformity, re-education, and repression by a state regime. It lacks about 90% of the depravity of A Clockwork Orange, though it does certainly have some upsetting scenes. But nothing that's really as upsetting as those poor rats in the beginning.

I can't think of anything in particular that I disliked strongly about this, excepting the weird and exotifying treatment of its sole black castmember, but when I think about it as a whole I just can't get that excited about it. It's got a keen sense of visuals, and I would imagine that a lot of it actually cost a pretty penny, as there's a lot of constructed machinery that had to be built and work reasonably well in motion, since this was before you could seamlessly CGI everything into action. 

It feels a little watered-down since 90 minutes isn't enough to explore all the intricacies of totalitarianship and subsequent revolution, but H2S is also probably not intended to have been a sweeping, bracing picture of democratic triumph. It's a little goofy. Some of the characters abscond to the alps and wear lederhosen. There's a comically evil Cruella DeVille-type witch lady who's supposed to be 101 years old. It's got its meanings that ring true, but the absurdity of it is as much in play as what it has to say about revolution. And its Ennio Morricone score has become unfortunately disembodied, considering the obscurity of this against the fame of his other scored films, but Morricone apparently still plays it in concert.