Steaming

I'm a big fan of director Joseph Losey, and over the last year I've managed to watch all his movies. But I came to this one, his last, with very low expectations. He was in his eighties, after all, and ratings for Steaming are low.

But...what a delight this movie turned out to be! I found myself slowly but surely drawn into the special world of camaraderie that develops between the characters, and deeply caring about the outcome of the story. (Can the baths, the special place where they all come together, be saved from demolition?)

This is essentially a filmed stage play, yes, but Losey came from a theatrical background (he worked with Brecht way back when), and this movie never feels stage-bound or claustrophobic. Indeed, toward the end of the film, when an important action takes place "off-stage," the logic of never leaving the baths becomes manifest; this is a story that needs to take place over time but in a single location.

Vanessa Redgrave is great as always, and Sarah Miles naked is a revelation, but it's an actress named Patti Love who steals the movie in a dynamite role which she also played in the West End. (She seems to be the only hold-over from the original stage production.) You will not soon forget her.

Special kudos to the simple but exhilarating electronic music score, which has aged almost as nicely as the women in this movie.

This film is unfortunately like an extended edition of Loose Women. Loads of waffling, disagreements, precious little actual outcome. While it was nice to see some famous faces as I've never seen them before, the sheer boredom level is off the scale.

It's not that the whole movie is filled with unusual dialogue but half the time it feels as if there aren't conversations happening but monologues. I understand it's based off a play but that's what you have to do when adapting a play to a film.

Makes it hard to follow when you don't really care about half of what's being said.

I have not noticed a lot of British nudie cutie films make the hop over the pond. I was not expecting many either, given the Brit's public persona as being presented as very reserved (Benny Hill not withstanding).

What a pleasant surprise to see this film about some rather good looking older and a few good looking, but kind of plump, younger women, letting it all hang out while going around a lot in their starkers!

The director managed to make the nudity both titillating and non-exploitive at the same time--This was not too hard considering the caliber of the acting talent involved. And the fact that no men appeared anywhere in the film probably made it more of a "lets hide a camera in a women's steam club and see what they really talk about!". Surprise--it's men! No feminine hygiene, breast cancer, yeast infections, or even babies!

The one thing about the limeys is that even when they don't do something often, they do it right! Rather old bean, top drawer!

While this is not a real great piece of film making, I found it to be erotic in a very subtle sort of way. First, the whole concept of a movie about 40ish and 50ish women hanging out (in more ways than one) at spa is very exciting to me. Then add the fact that we have established actresses like Sarah Miles and Vanessa Redgrave spending a lot of time lying around in towels and less and you have a very erotic film in my opinion. I really hated to see it end. If you find this concept much more sexy that overt sexuality, then you might want to check out this film. It's hard to find, though. I found it in a small independent video store in 1987 and haven't come across it since.