Hamam [Il bagno turco] [Steam: The Turkish Bath] **** (1997, Alessandro Gassman, Francesca d’Aloja, Mehmet Günsür) – Classic Movie Review 12,711

Ferzan Özpetek’s 1997 Italian debut film Hamam takes a mesmerising look at how special places and people can transform other people. The romantic drama film is a haunting joy. It is sweet and sexy, delicately daring, a Turkish delight. 

Writer/ director Ferzan Özpetek’s warm, beautiful, memorable 1997 Italian debut film Hamam takes a mesmerising look at the idea of how special places and special people can transform other people, and pursues the theme that love never dies. The romantic drama film is a haunting joy. It is sweet and sexy, delicately daring, a Turkish delight.

Alessandro Gassman and Francesca d’Aloja star as Francesco and Marta, an attractive but uptight Italian couple running a small design firm in Rome. Their marriage has lost its way, just becoming no more than a polite business arrangement, prompting Marta to start an affair with their business partner.

But then Francesco’s beloved old aunt Anita dies in Istanbul, and he goes there coldly to try to sell the property he has inherited from her and get back home as quickly as possible.

The family who were managing the property for Anita welcomes him with great cordiality and hospitality, but they are concerned about their future if he sells the property and developers would move in and destroy the building and whole traditional area, and along with it their lives. Happily though, their son Mehmet (Mehmet Günsür) is eager to show their handsome guest around.

When Francesco discovers the property includes his aunt’s derelict Turkish bath, or hamam, he decides to stay on in Istanbul and painstakingly restore it in order to reopen it. Francesco’s cold demeanour turns to warmth, intoxicated by the idea of the Turkish bath and the exciting Turkish locals. Of course Mehmet is the most exciting Turkish local. During the restoration, the two men become very friendly, prompting Francesco to start an unexpected sexual relationship with Mehmet.

But then Marta, fed up with Francesco’s long stay in Turkey, arrives in Istanbul to obtain Francesco’s agreement for a speedy divorce. She finds Francesco much changed and falls in love with him again. But then…

The cast are Alessandro Gassman as Francesco Francesca d’Aloja as Marta Carlo Cecchi as Oscar Halil Ergün as Osman Serif Sezer as Perran Mehmet Günsür as Mehmet Basak Köklükaya as Fusun Alberto Molinari as Paolo Zozo Toledo as Zozo Ludovica Modugno as voice of Aunt Anita, Zerrin Arbas, Necdet Mahfi Ayral, Murat Ilker and Alper Kul.

Ferzan Özpetek’s 2023 film Nuovo Olimpo.

Ferzan Özpetek’s 2023 film Nuovo Olimpo also pursues the theme that love never dies, but its main provocative setting is a cinema not a bath.

There is a touch of the 1971 Death in Venice about the film, and even of Don’t Look Now, and in turn the 2022 film The Blue Caftan seems to owe a debt to Hamam.

Ferzan Özpetek was born in Istanbul in 1959. In 1976, he decided to move to Italy to study Cinema History at Sapienza University of Rome. His directorial debut was Hamam [Il bagno turco] [Steam: The Turkish Bath], released in May 1997.

Alessandro Gassman was born on 24 February 1965 in Rome, the son of Italian actor Vittorio Gassman and French actress Juliette Mayniel.

© Derek Winnert 2023 – Classic Movie Review 12,711

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