ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the film Budapest: City of Baths directed by Istvan Somkuti. In 1934 Budapest, whose spa heritage dates back to the Romans, became an official spa city, like Bath, Wiesbaden, or Carlsbad. Journalist, photographer, cameraman, and director Istvan Somkuti celebrated this event in his 1935 film Budapest: City of Baths. Made for the Budapest Spa and Resort Committee, the film was most probably a promotional work though it was considered a kulturfilm, a cultural or documentary film. Focusing on several of the more than 120 hot springs in the city, Somkuti uses experimental montage techniques and film tricks such as rotating images and kaleidoscopic effects. Somkuti started his career in the film industry at the Pathe laboratory in Budapest, like Adalberto Kemeny and Rudolpho Rex Lustig, who made Sao Paulo: A Symphonia da Metropole in 1929.
