'An ancient muse' is the album that has most aroused my interest for the Eastern music and spirituality. Some days ago I was looking for more music like this in I-tunes and I found the origninal soundtrack of a movie called 'Steam: The Turkish Bath' ('Hamam - Il bagno turco' is the orginial italian name) which I didn't know about. I just wanted to recomend you its soundtrack, it is very interesting, and also the movie, which I watched yesterday for the first time. From what I have read it was filmed mostly in Istanbul and somewhere in Italy and Spain, and it is a great movie, made with lots of sensibility, and you can often hear the characters talking in Turkish! As I see in the movie, Istanbul is really a wonderful city, now I understand more why Loreena dedicated one of her most beautiful songs to this incredible place.
Synopsis and listening also in Amazon.com and here (only information): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamam_%28film%29
All the best,

MANEL

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Manel,

Thank you,Gina, for your nice reply,and Jolanta, for that interesting information, I have found some info and photos about Hagia Sophia in internet and I can only say that I would love to visit it some day when I go to Istanbul.
Vale,do you know any website I can listen to 'La finestra di fronte' soundtrack? Honestly, I have been searching for a website but I haven't found any that is operative. I have read some very, very positives reviews about this movie and its soundtrack!

Dear Gina
I think, it is unfotunate mistake. Hagia Sophia isn`t a goddess but the theological idea ( in christian theology ) that in God alone is a perfect Wisdom to be found. Beautiful church Hagia Sophia (in English it means: Holy Wisdom) in Constantinople ( today Istambul ) was dedicated for Holy Wisdom, for God , for Jesus ( The Wisdom of God in The New Testament) ). This monumental building was the church of The Patriarch of Constantinople. It was the largest cathedral in the world for nearly 1000 years. After the conquered Constantinople by the Turks ( in 1453 ) all equipment were removed, marvelous mosaics were plastered over and the church was converted into mosque. There has been a museum since 1934.
I hope, our Greek friends will confirm my words because their ancestors was built this miracle in VI age.
Cheers & love
Jolanta

Greetings Manuel!!!

I will have to watch the entire movie. I was reading bits and pieces of the article and found Hagia Sophia!
I have been singing "Hagia Sophia" by Jennifer Rief for many years now, just as long as I have been singing (trying to sing) to Loreena and had no idea that they took a Goddess and built a church with her name!
She is a goddess of compassion, healing, wisdom, and direction. And I am also glad that you sent me to find out she is from; Turkey, otherwise I had no idea where she was from.
My husband rents a lot of movies and I am very VERY bored with many of US made movies and I will get this one and watch it.
I will keep my eyes open for the directors recommended here.
Thanks Manuel and Vale!!!
Love,
Gina

By the way, I start to learn wonderful Italian this month at the university, can't wait for that!!!

Hello Vale, how nice is to hear from you! I'm glad to know you like that movie, I'll check 'La finestra di fronte' soundtrack and I'll tell you about it, sure it is a great soundtrack. Thank you also for the link, that website is more complete.
Yes, of course Italy has incredible directors, but we live under pression of the empire and this makes more difficult acceptation of 'our' movies, but the audience is also responsible of what is happening, I think this fact that you correctly mention about the italian audience is an expression of the decandence of the modern world which also happens in Spain and other places, you only need to turn on the tv to see what's happening. Now I am reading a very,very,very interesting book about the decadence of the modern world called 'East and West' by a metaphysical philosopher called Réne Guénon (incredible man, he died in the middle of the XXth century) and I can only say he has given expression to a lot of my intuitions about our society nowadays,it's very dense but I feel now I can understand a lot better many things that are happening.
Thank you for your nice reply and have a good weekend!

MANEL

Great recommendation, Manel!!

Italian cinema needs international support nowadays - what Quentin Tarantino said is not completely true (and I'm glad Spike Lee intervened to defend our valuable movies), but he definitely has a point: there are good directors in Italy nowadays, but sadly they don't get much attention.
Ozpetek, Costanzo, Giordana, Bellocchio, Benigni, Comencini (just to name some) are as great as Rossellini, Leone, De Sica and Visconti. Unfortunately, their movies don't have all the success they deserve (well, apart from Benigni...).

The average Italian woman/man goes to theatres only to see movies that are NOT thought-provoking at all, and this is sad.
I'm sure this is what Tarantino was trying to say, but he expressed his feelings using too bitter words.


However, Ferzan Ozpetek is my favourite Italian director: "La Finestra Di Fronte" ("Facing Windows") is one of my favourite movies EVER (and I love "Le Fate Ignoranti" and "Bagno Turco", too).
Alessandro Gassmann is a wonderful actor (but all the cast on "Bagno Turco" is pretty good, actually).
If you want to know more about it, *click here*. The page is in Italian, but you can easily translate into English with Google Translator.

And you're perfectly right, Manel: its soundtrack is absolutely worth listening. I think it would appeal to those Loreena fans who like her more "middle-eastern" songs.
I personally love it, but I think the "La Finestra Di Fronte" O.S.T. is even better!