I’ve recently re-watched an Italian film entitled H2S and directed by Roberto Faenza.
Despite being very little known, I think this film is very inspiring for fashion, graphic and interior designers.
Shot in 1968, H2S was banned a few days after it was released since it was considered as too violent.
The film could be considered as a sort of manifesto of the late ‘60s student protests that also tackles themes such as consumerism, power, technocracy and mind-control.
In the film Tommaso (Denis Gilmore), a young man clad in a rather bizarre and anachronistic outfit in bold and bright colours, arrives at his new art college in London where he meets a dictatorial lecturer accompanied by the college founder, an elderly lady (wonderful Paolo Poli).
The first lecture is delivered to a class of obedient and tamed students, all dressed in white outfits.
A rebellion led by a brave girl follows but, soon after, catastrophe ensues and Tommaso takes refuge in the mountains with Alice (Carole André).
Together they live for a while in a sort of hippy cottage with walls covered in aluminium foil and furniture reminiscent of Claes Oldenburg’s papier-mâché sculptures.
Tommaso goes back to the college towards the end of the film with a criminal plan in mind, but finds it is now ruled by the assistant of the lecturer, a mad scientist (Lionel Stander – remember the barman in Sergio Leone's C'era una volta il West?) who uses hydrosulfuric acid (H2S) for his experiments to control humans and animals.
The film went through a long and extenuating trial and was released in 1971 when it didn’t seem to be as relevant as when it was shot.
Faenza released in 1977 Forza Italia! (Go Italy! believe it or not, the title anticipated in a way the name of Berlusconi’s party before it mutated into the People of Freedom coalition…), a docufilm that criticised the political class ruling in Italy (the Christian Democrats) and their abuses of power.
The film was seized by the authorities a few days after the leader of the Christian Democratic Party Aldo Moro was kidnapped by the Red Brigades and banned for over 15 years (before being killed, Moro actually suggested in one of his diaries to go and see the film to understand the lack of scruples of his political colleagues...).
H2S explores different themes, from student demos and anger/rebellion to surrealism, politics, sci-fi and futuristic inspirations.
White aseptic atmospheres, white outfits and metallic silvery shades prevail (see also the futuristic vehicle Tommaso uses to get to the London-based college View this photo) throughout the film hinting at a cold and mechanic future full of fear and anxieties.
Faenza’s film also boasts some interesting connections with A Clockwork Orange (1971): both films feature disturbing, violent images and look at a dystopian future.
During his trip to the college, Tommaso is given a pair of bizarre glasses and headphones that look a bit like the contraption used to torture Alex in Kubrick’s film (though Tommaso’s glasses are supposed to allow him to enter some bizarre virtual dimension, so they're not used to torture him).
Besides in the Professor’s office there is a chair shaped like a woman that calls to mind the piece of furniture in the Korova Milkbar (was Faenza inspired by Allen Jones’ human furniture?).
In H2S when Tommaso goes back to the college after his hippy escapade with Alice, he is submitted to a sort of punishing treatment like Alex, though in this case the experimental therapy is not the “Ludovico technique”, but consists in strapping him to a strange vibrating device (shaped like the stylised body of a woman) and in forcing him to watch a video showing a pair of sensual red lips moving and repeating words such as “order”, “legality”, “well-being”, “happiness”.
Faenza’s film was shot before A Clockwork Orange, but it wasn’t released outside Italy, so it’s unlikely that Kubrick actually saw H2S, even though it’s impossible to deny there are some connections between the two films (Faenza may have read Anthony Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange yet a book is always different from its adaptation for the big screen...).
Music fans seem to know this film pretty well since the score was composed by Ennio Morricone and also includes “Luna Canadese” sung by Edda Dell’Orso (bizarrely enough Morricone never regretted doing the score for this obscure film and still plays its main theme during his concerts, while scores for cult films à la Diabolik were totally abandoned by the maestro).
The film has also got some very interesting graphics: the closing titles feature chaotic representations of letters and numbers while an abstract red and blue painting (reminding the students that the Greek word "Techné" means Art, therefore, according to Tommaso's lecturer, technocracy is the way forward) hangs in the lecture hall of the college.
Colours strike the imagination hitting the retina and the senses turning some of the stronger scenes into the projections of the main character’s visionary and confused imagination.
Architecturally speaking the spaces used in the film are also amazing: there are no ordinary benches in the lecture hall, but cubicles (that disturbingly anticipate the cubicles in our call centres...); rooms often have aluminium walls and there is even a strange rotating platform on which a priest celebrates a final doomed wedding.
Bizarre and grotesque set decorations have in this film the same purpose of the strange props in Elio Petri’s La decima vittima, since they are used by the director as a sort of satire against society.
There are also some interesting fashion connections: Franco Carretti (the costume designer for many films by Elio Petri and Sergio Leone and current owner of the ABC costume shop in Miami) designed the costumes for this film that were made by the Tirelli tailoring house.
One of the most striking outfit remains the bride dress seen at the very end of the film.
While this bizarre rocket-shaped metallic wedding dress looks futuristic and perfectly matches with the aluminium room where the wedding takes place, it still retains some connection with classicism and in particular with Greek mythology (see also the laurel wreath around the head, like Apollo for example, God of healing and the arts - and a connection to the "techné = art" concept often repeated in the film).
This outfit actually came to my mind after seeing some designs by Craig Green.
Though the main inspirations for this young British designer’s collection came from the Bauhaus, '60s robots and Russian folk tales, with hints at Walter van Beirendonck (Green worked at his studio as an intern) and Bernard Wilhelm, one outfit from his collection seems to reference this amazing costume from Faenza's H2S.
I wonder if this film will ever be re-released: as bizarre as it may look in 2011, I think its eerie magic could still inspire many artists, designers and directors.
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I was caught up when I saw this post, I really liked the content
and the photos you've got are so cool.
Posted by: Mens Suits | May 27, 2011 at 05:59 AM
Amazing pictures great images. Love the talents of this people. Cool costumes. Good job students!
Posted by: Admin Services | May 03, 2012 at 05:01 AM