The Turkish Baths (1998)

deep, beautiful, poetic, haunting

deep, beautiful, poetic and haunting film with a soundtrack that underscores the story and which you can play without the movie, it will be a favorite to be played often. this film should not be called a "gay" film, it's not. it's a deeply human story about real men living in real life, and women and family. calling it a gay film is to trivialize the film artistically, its message and its power. December 24, 2008

Not One I Would Watch Again

Francesco visits Istanbul where he plans to sell a haman (Turkish steam bath) he has inherited from his Aunt Anita. He decides to restore the bath after meeting Mehmet and his family. Francesco's wife Marta from Rome makes a sudden appearance in Istanbul where she finds his husband "changed" as she relates to her lover Paolo when she telephones him. Then the plot takes a strange twist indeed.

What this film has going for it: Interesting shots of Istanbul and appealing soundtrack. The letters Francesco discovers of his Aunt Anita are moving.

What is wrong with this film: The plot meanders, much of the scenes are shot in practically total darkness; the movie cries out for a good editor. Finally, if you are expecting orgies in the steam bath in the tradition of Roman baths, look somewhere else. The photograph on the DVD is just a teaser. May 11, 2007

You won't want to go home again

This film evokes the excitement of going to a foreign
culture, only to find out you feel mysteriously more
at home.

Francesco is a stylish but jaded Italian who plans to
travel to Istanbul, carry out a sales transaction and
quickly return to Rome.

What he dismisses at first as a poor, decaying culture
turns out to be a place rich with tradition, kindness,
and passion unlike anything he experienced back home.

Lest one forget, the movie captures some beautiful views
of the city of Istanbul. April 28, 2007

Meh.

You know, sometimes I give a movie points for rambling around a bit unpredictably. In this case there was just a baffling incoherence to the plot, like they made it up as they went along. Like the tacked the end on just to have an end. The characters...I couldn't identify with them. The one thing that saves the movie is the setting and the atmosphere. April 10, 2007

Can we now agree to disagree about meanings in......

To those of you who are here, reading reviews of this film, you'll find my particular review "method" involves listing some of the common reactions this film might produce in its viewers and, THEN, responding to them with my own comments (which follow the words: I WOULD HAVE TO SAY:). Perhaps you should also note that I am doing this after years of the film's residing in my DVD library and following time-to-time viewings. I'm not a 'newbie' to this film. So, here goes nothing.

In searching for the major theme(s) of this work, should you have found the film to be as much about wife Marta's awakening as it is about her husband, Francesco's (with his being healed and transformed by both Mehmet's love and his adoption of his Aunt's 'vision of life'); and should you see that Marta is, in fact, almost the central character since she basically becomes transformed into the reincarnation of Francesco's dead Aunt (whose letters set the whole plot in motion, transforming both her nephew's life and the lives of all around him), AND should you further feel that this is a film about the 'search for happiness'---that it's not about sex (while that physical act figures into his 'life-change', what Francesco was truly looking for was a loving and meaningful relationship), I WOULD HAVE TO SAY: I agree with all these themes concerning this visual art work, and there's only one other I could add----though this movie does concern an adulterous married couple, it is first and foremost about Finding Love, about Finding Peace, and about Healing. Also, folks, here's a Big Plus: If you will only carefully(!) watch this film, you'll find something almost magically atmospheric, something of an almost mystical aura which surrounds and arises from it.

From here on, the following provides comment on this film's lesser themes/plots:

Should you think it's clear the director meant the gay plot twist to be as much a 'surprise' to the audience as it was to the film's leading lady (because there was little hint of this change in the leading man's interests until a particular scene near film end involving persons in a steam room), I WOULD HAVE TO SAY: "Surprise" has nothing to do with it; all you have to do is watch the looks that Francesco, in time, comes to give Mehmet to know that something of a romantic/sexual nature is going to raise its head, as it certainly does. Likewise, should you pose the related question: if Francesco respects and loves this family so much, why is he having an affair with their son behind their backs, under their own roof, I WOULD HAVE TO SAY: It seems obvious to me that this Turkish family is well aware of their son, Mehmet's, 'sexual leaning' and they are comfortable with it. I also believe they've become 'wise' to the relationship between these two men---Francesco & Mehmet's close dinner seating arrangement and happiness with one another being only a couple of tip-offs.

Should you wonder how, since the story opens with Marta verbally trashing Francesco with malignant contempt and his responding with a blend of belligerence and frustration, we could arrive at film's end with a moment of caring between the two, I WOULD HAVE TO SAY: Marta (and we) have arrived at this point because Turkey has been "casting its spell" on her, as it did earlier on Francesco......and as it did years before that on F's Aunt. Marta's time in Turkey has brought her to the realization that: a Place, an Atmosphere, a Family and, more specifically a Son, have changed Francesco, making of him a happy and different man. This is something that she, as his wife, had never been able to do. And now, we begin to see Marta, herself, falling under many of these same influences.

Lastly, should the ending arrive and you feel that it's message was only one about the hopelessness and futility of gay life, that it's a style of behavior leading to gory death, I WOULD HAVE TO SAY: Isn't it possible you may have misinterpreted the basis for the death which occurs (other reviewers have already disclosed that death), one which may have had nothing to do with being gay? Rather might it not have had to do with 'murderous commerce'? Yes, perhaps many viewers fail to see the possibility that it was cold, uncaring commercialism and accumulation of wealth which were being shown to us as becoming too all-important in modern day life. For in an ancient civilization, such as Turkey's, these were new trends working in opposite ways from such older and gentler traditions as the Hamams. Can't you now possibly see that, for good reason, the director earlier gave us a scene between Francesco and a 'let-nothing-stand-in-her-way' Turkish business woman wanting to buy his Hamam (a woman who Francesco's realty agent warned him against, time and again, as being dangerous)? So, viewers, do you any longer wonder why the startling ending occurred and, perhaps, "whodunit"?

PS--All in all, while not amongst that top level of films containing a gay love theme, this work is nevertheless a worthy effort.

**** December 26, 2006

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