Great baths on film
From Ancient Rome to Fellini's Italy via Ottoman Istanbul, time travel with our favourite bathhouse films.
From Roman time travel to the hamams of Istanbul, we recommend three films for bathing-inspired holiday viewing.
8 1/2 (Otto e mezzo), 1963
Fellini’s autobiographical masterpiece 8 1/2 (Otto e mezzo) follows the trials of a film director called Guido (devilishly handsome Marcello Mastroianni) suffering from director’s block. In search of creative renewal, he retires to ‘take the waters’ in a setting inspired by the languid charm of the Tuscan spa town Chianciamo where Fellini was a regular. The film is a mesmerizing glimpse into the lost world of spas in the era of La Dolce Vita. Pretty much plotless, water is the portal to reverie. When Guido drinks the spring waters or soaks in a mineral bath he wafts into delirious dream sequences populated by cardinals, ex lovers and a harem scene where all the women in his life are gathered together in judgement. Just float with it.
Thermae Romae, 2012
The plot of Thermae Romae has to be one of the most peculiar ever. But the idea of bringing together two bathing-obsessed cultures - Ancient Rome and modern Japan - is genius. Lucius Modestus, architect of the Empire’s most magnificent baths, has run out of ideas. But inspiration comes from an unexpected source – time travel. One day as the chisel-chinned Lucius wallows despondently in the baths, he is sucked through a drain and spat out in a bathhouse in modern-day Japan. Lucius is dumbstruck by innovations like plastic buckets, fans and fruit drinks and imitates them on his return (reverse swoosh) to Rome. The nerdish fascination with the minutiae of bathing could only be Japanese. Originally a manga series, this spawned two movies (Thermae Romae and Thermae Roma II) and an animation on Netflix, Thermae Romae Novae.
The Turkish Bath (Hamam), 1997
If a building can be the star of a movie then this is it. The Turkish Bath in question – an ancient hamam in a seedy neighborhood of Istanbul - seduces first Aunt Anita and then her nephew into swapping uptight Roman society for the life of a hamam keeper. Panned by some as gay orientalist tosh (they have a point), Ferzan Özpetek’s first feature captures the tender sensuality of the relationship between the Italian and Turkish men in bathing scenes that are – in the tradition of Ingres’ steamy bain turc - a license for eroticism. If the story is a bit woolly, the grime and glamour of the hamam is palpable.
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Oh, I loved Thermae Romae! I loved how in the live-action version he was played by Abe Hiroshi, ha ha (I really liked him in previous roles in some of the NHK taiga dramas)