Steaming - Al bagno turco

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.

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.

Though it belies its stage origins this character study of a group of women who find a camaraderie in the local ladies steam bath that isn't available to them anywhere else keeps you involved thanks to Losey's firm directorial hand and superior performances by the cast.

The showpiece performance is from Patti Love as the combative Josie but both Vanessa Redgrave and Sarah Miles score sharply in more muted roles. This was the final film for Diana Dors before her far too early death and it provides her a lovely opportunity to exit on a fine grace note. Her fabled beauty while not a memory had by this point softened into a mature softness filled with character. As the motherly Violet she shows that the stunning good looks of her youth weren't all she had to offer.

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.

I probably would have never seen this movie if it were not for the fact that I was offered the part of Josie in the stage version. My husband and I sat down to review the film to help me decide if I would venture into my first role with nude scenes. I was partially happy with the film's adaptation and loved the performances. This is a chatty film, perhaps a little too much like the stage version, and the sets (though appropriately drab) could have been spiced up a little. Surprisingly this is not a sexy film at all (not completely devoid of charm and cuteness, the women are on the downhill side of middle age and their personalities only increase their speed down the hill.) I had read some lesbian or bi-sexual overtones into the script that don't translate well in this film. The director could have had the characters more nurturing and gentle with each other in massaging or bathing (unfortunately the film was made in the eighties not the nineties). Influenced by the film, I accepted the stage role. It's the only film I ever saw that influenced me to disrobe in front of family, friends, neighbors, and strangers so that must count for something.